• by Peter Richards (port of spain)
• Monday, July 26, 2010
• Inter Press Service

For the past 19 years, Wendell Eversley has been staging a one-man protest calling for a public inquiry into the failed coup by a group of radical Muslims against the then Trinidad and Tobago government headed by Prime Minister Arthur N.R. Robinson.

When Yasin Abu Bakr and his Jamaat al Muslimeen group of more than 100 stormed the Parliament and the lone television station on Jul. 27, 1990, Eversley was among those taken hostage in the legislative chamber.

'It was my first day at the Parliament Chamber. I was sitting in the public gallery listening to the debate. About 5.30 p.m., I started hearing sounds like firecrackers. The sounds came closer and closer to the Parliament Chamber, then I saw a group of men all dressed in black enter the Parliament Chamber,' he recalled.

'I said, God, if I get out alive, I will not stop protesting until a commission of inquiry is called because a government was almost overthrown, a PM shot, an MP killed, and other innocent people murdered,' said Eversley, now an activist with the National Alliance for Reconstruction.

At least 24 people, including one legislator, Leo Des Vignes, were killed during the six-day insurrection that ended on Aug. 1. Bakr and his men were tried for treason, but the Court of Appeal upheld the amnesty offered to secure their surrender, and they were released.

The London-based Privy Council, the country's highest court, later invalidated the amnesty, but the Muslimeen members were not re-arrested.

Now, 20 years later, Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar, who came to power following the May 24 general election this year, has announced that a Commission of Inquiry would probe the circumstances leading up to what many Trinidadians refer to as 'the darkest day in our history'.

She acknowledged that for several years, calls have been made 'by a generous percentage of our population for such an investigation' and that there is a general feeling that 'this investigation is necessary for several reasons' including the need 'to bring finality to this matter'.

'We also know and we feel that it is important for us to have this inquiry to find out what went wrong and why it happened so that we can take steps to avoid such a thing ever happening in this country again,' she said.

Successive governments in the past, including one in which the prime minister served briefly as the attorney general, had shied away from establishing a commission of inquiry into 1990 for several reasons.

But Bakr, 64, welcomed the decision of the new government.

'If I am alive, God's willing, I will be the first person to testify. It's 20 years too late, but never too late,' he told reporters.

Robinson, who is also a former president of this twin-island republic, also welcomed the probe, adding that everything should be done to ensure that 'fundamental and destructive elements' are not allowed to attack citizens in the future.

'It is absolutely necessary to show the facts on how such a daring and foolish group could burst into the Parliament while in session,' he said, adding that the inquiry should also seek to determine how arms and ammunition were brought into the country without the knowledge of the security forces.

But not everyone is convinced that a Commission of Inquiry would bring closure, and instead are advocating for a South Africa-type Truth and Reconciliation Commission that would allow all of the actors to speak freely on the matter.

'People may not want to come and give evidence unless they are subpoenaed and then again they may come and say they have forgotten what occurred,' veteran trade unionist and social activist Clive Nunez, 71, told IPS.

'With a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we may start to bring about the healing that is necessary,' he said.

Raffique Shah, one of the three senior army officials who led a mutiny here in 1970, agreed that it would be a challenge to gather accurate recollections of what transpired.

'I should add that with the passage of time, people's memories fade. I know. As I write my account of the mutiny, I have encountered some glaring untruths, some published as facts and gross inconsistencies. The inquiry into 1990 could face similar challenges,' he wrote in a newspaper column.

'I suspect the hype that always surrounds the anniversary date of the Muslimeen assault...may have prompted the PM and her colleagues to attempt to 'put this matter to rest once and for all',' he added.

Journalist Dennis Mc Comie, who was given a national award for the role he played in disseminating information to the public during the 1990 events and who has just released a book detailing his personal account of the insurrection, said he believes that Trinidad's upsurge in crime started on Jul. 27, 1990.

'There is a connection,' he told IPS. 'Today the country is witnessing the use of guns in all types of criminal activities.'

In addition to the probe, the government has also said it would move to sell all properties owned by the Jamaat al Muslimeen on Tuesday, the 20th anniversary of the failed bloody insurrection.

'On Jul. 27, 2010, the first advertisement in all three daily newspapers to put up for sale every single property owned by the Jamaat al Muslimeen... to compensate the State for the loss and damage suffered to the property of the State, during the 1990 attempted coup,' said Attorney General Anand Ramlogan.

Bakr has criticised the move that follows the ruling made by the High Court last September in favour of the state.

'The auction is unlawful and illegal, this matter has been settled by the Privy Council already. It is madness. It is a clearly an unlawful act,' Bakr said.

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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