Activist: 1990 attempted coup victims should be compensated

Activist and former coup hostage Wendell Eversley cried shame on politicians for their lax recognition of the events that surrounded the 1990 coup.

Eversley made his walk from Arima to Port of Spain to lay a wreath at the foot of the eternal flame for the 33rd year in a row.

He knocked the government for holding a memorial service at the Red House without informing the people directly affected by the coup – victims, survivors and relatives of those who died in the insurrection.

“July 27, 1990 was an attack on the democracy of TT. Something like this, if the government is keeping something, it should not be secret. All the survivors that are still alive should be invited to it. All the families that lost their loved ones should be invited. Why only a selected few were invited? Is it that they are hiding? Is it that they are ashamed?”

He said if it were a commemoration of 9/11 and the US embassy invited key members of the TT government they would all be present.

“Our Parliament was attacked, 41 members of parliament were held hostage. I heard someone comparing Kamla Persad-Bissessar to Nelson Mandela but where are they today? If this had happened in Mandela's country he would be here.”

Later on Thursday, President Christine Kangaloo visited the Red House to lay her own wreath at the monument. She was accompanied by vice president of the Senate Dr Muhammad Yunus Ibrahim, deputy speaker of the House Esmond Forde and former speaker Nizam Mohammed. Kangaloo made no statement at the event.

Earlier, Eversley, lamenting that it took 20 years for a commission of inquiry, called for government to make good on the recommendations made in the commission report.

He called for government to pay compensation to the families of people who died in the coup. He said the government should seek out the surviving relatives of the people who were killed during the coup and allocate a monthly allowance to them, effective January 2023.

“In addition you may consider a retroactive payment for all the hostages in TTT, Radio Trinidad, In Parliament and the families of those who died,” he said.

Afeisha Caballero the daughter of Lorraine Caballero who was killed during the coup, said the day was a bitter-sweet one for her, knowing that her mother was taken away from her on this day. She said she now lives in a church, as she does not have enough money to provide a home for herself and her two children.

“I have lost a lot to the system, she said. After 33 years, I still come here every year.”

In 1990, Yasin Abu Bakr, formerly Lennox Phillip, the then leader of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen tried to overthrow the NAR government along with 114 of his followers. They stormed the Red House during a Parliament sitting, fire-bombed the nearby police headquarters in Port of Spain, and took over state-owned TV station, TTT.

When the smoke cleared, Port of Spain incurred more than $300 million in damage, and claimed 24 lives, including that of some insurgents. It would later cost an estimated $2 billion to rebuild the city.

Abu Bakr, now deceased, was charged with conspiracy to murder, treason, sedition and possession of guns and ammunition. He eventually walked free because of an amnesty the then government had granted him and his followers.

Some 20 years later a commission of enquiry concluded that the people who suffered at the hands of the insurgents during the coup deserved some form of compensation.

Chapter 11 of the commission report said: “The Commission is of the firm opinion that the most tangible method of assuring victims that their suffering and loss have been acknowledged, and the most practical method of fostering healing and closure is by making awards on an ex-gratia basis.

"Accordingly, we recommend that the Government give favourable consideration to the payment of compensation to those victims (or their survivors) of the attempted coup who suffered injuries or death and non-monetary awards to others who may not have suffered injuries but are nevertheless deserving of recognition.”