Ex-minister on 1990 coup attempt: 'I ran from Red House to San Juan'

IMAGINE gunfire rattling outside and inside the Red House. Then, nervy-looking men rushing in, guns pointing in all directions.

But imagine also that minutes before, you were inside the House discussing security for MPs with your fellow parliamentarians. Then picture the spectacle of a government minister in jacket and tie running from Port of Spain to San Juan in a bid to escape the insurrectionists.

Arthur Sanderson was Minister of Labour in the 1990 National Alliance for Reconstruction government. The former Fyzabad MP has mustered the courage to speak publicly for the first time about just how he made the daring escape 29 years ago.

He had crawled on his belly in the Chamber to escape the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen gunmen.

“I made up my mind that evening. I going and die escaping, (rather) than be killed like a pig on the ground.

"But in the tea room that afternoon, minutes before the gunfire, I remember how we chatted about security for parliamentarians,” Sanderson said, his voice cracking with emotion. He managed a smile at the irony.

Sanderson said weeks before , he had returned from a Commonwealth parliamentary conference in Australia. Former speaker Nizam Mohammed, he added, was also there.

“That afternoon the House had a break for 15 minutes and me, MPs Jennifer Johnson, Gloria Henry and (Winston) Dookeran were in the tea room. I had done a report for (Prime Minister ANR) Robinson on how Parliament in Australia is organised in terms of security. We were chatting.

"I had submitted a report to Dr Carson Charles (then minister of works). He told me that we hadn’t the money to implement the recommendations.”

The Commonwealth conference had made Sanderson realise how freely members of the public could enter and leave the Parliament chamber. The afternoon of July 27, 1990, was no exception. “A policeman or two here and there, downstairs, by the door...one going in. one coming out,” Sanderson said.

Before joining active politics, Sanderson was a policeman. “So I also had some training.”

After the break, the sitting resumed, Sanderson recalled. MP Rawle Raphael was seated next to him, he remembered, and Leo Des Vignes was in front.

Then suddenly, an explosion and gunfire rang out. Sanderson said he had to convince Raphael, who was insisting they were firecrackers.

“That is real gunfire, I almost shouted!”

Five minutes later, the doors of the chamber crashed open to the sound of guns cracking and men pointing them in all directions.

“Everyone in the House dropped to the floor.”

By sunset the chamber was quieter, but Des Vignes and Robinson had been shot and wounded (Des Vignes later died). They could hear the ringing of army bullets bouncing off the outside walls. Glass panes shattered intermittently.

The Muslimeen kept their guns trained on parliamentarians lying on the floor of the Chamber. The shouts of the insurrectionists of death and murder stifled the painful groans and sobs of his fellow MPs.

Sanderson’s police instinct didn’t let him down.

“In the twilight, I told Rawle, ‘I not seeing anyone coming out here alive.’ Suddenly, bullets began flying across the chamber because of the army shooting from the direction of the Hall of Justice.

“I began to crawl on my belly towards the Speaker’s door. Guess what? It open. I don’t know how,”

Now in full flight heading towards the first-floor gallery on the eastern side of the chamber, Sanderson flung off his jacket.

When he left the police , he had done a tour of duty with theSpecial Services Unit.

Standing on the banister, Sanderson was about to jump into the parliament grounds. A policeman looked up at him, he said, and shouted, “You safer inside! Go back!”

But, ripping off his tie, Sanderson said he told the policeman, “When I was police, you was tief.” He jumped and headed for Woodford Square.

Amid the “madness” on the streets, Sanderson began to run and didn’t stop until he reached Sea Lots. There was a police post there and he remembered telling a corporal, “They killing people in Parliament!

"You know the corporal stick a finger towards his temple as if to demonstrate to me that I going mad.”

Sanderson rushed out of the makeshift police post and began to run again, without stopping and without looking back. He passed the Beetham landfill and kept running. He passed Barataria.

“I didn’t stop until I reach San Juan,” he said.