Emanuel Hosein funeral August 16

FORMER health minister and Tunapuna MP the late Dr Emanuel Hosein will be bid farewell on August 16, at 10 am at St Charles RC Church, Tunapuna.

Hosein, 75, died on August 5 after an illness.

Former speaker Nizam Mohammed hailed him for saving the life of then prime minister Arthur NR Robinson, when all three were among hostages during the 1990 attempted coup.

Speaking to Newsday on August 7, Mohammed said: "One of the most abhorrent experiences I have had in my life is to have witnessed the humiliation and the torment a challenged man (Robinson), who could have harmed no one, was put through in the attempted coup in 1990."

He recalled Hosein's heroic behaviour while under the gun of Jamaat al Muslimeen insurgents, despite having a disability due to childhood polio.

"In spite of all that he was going through, as he was seeing his last breath before him, he was coming to the assistance of those who may have died, had it not been for his intervention."

Mohammed related how Robinson had nearly died.

"They almost suffocated the prime minister to death by putting a cloth in his mouth. Emanuel Hosein was the one who saved the prime minister. I am saying that Hosein is the one who saved the life of Robinson in the Red House.

"One of the insurgents had opened Robinson's mouth and stuffed his mouth with a piece of cloth.

"And when Robinson was suffocating, he (Hosein) begged them to remove the cloth, because he (Robinson) was on the verge of passing out."

Mohammed said Hosein then begged the insurgents to undo a strap binding the hands of another MP, whose identity he did not recall.

"And he was giving medical advice to all those who were lying around him, who were just so delirious.

"He was giving counsel and medical advice to all of them."

Mohammed said the advice had helped saved people's lives.

"In that horrendous situation, a man whom many may have seen as incapacitated, had the courage and the fortitude to stand up for his fellow men, in the face of blazing guns and imminent death."

Newsday asked if Hosein's life had been in danger.

"They had strapped his hands as well.

"One of the insurgents even gave him one of the guns to look after while he went to the washroom and Hosein refused. He said, 'Please, I don't want that near to me. I just cannot bear the sight of it, much more for it to be placed so close to me. I am not going to keep it for you.'

"He was also on record for begging for the humane treatment – or protesting against the inhumane treatment – that was being meted out to the womenfolk who were also under the barrel of the gun in the Red House.

"The situation was such an inhumane and degrading one that Emanuel Hosein was one of the chief negotiators for leniency and decency.

"Where he got that strength and courage from is still a wonder."

Newsday asked if Hosein had tried to lower energies, implore the insurgents or appeal to any sense of nobility within them.

Mohammed said, "It was Hosein's nature to appeal to the better side if the humanity of those insurgents, if they did possess any. He was in no position for confrontation of making demands.

"He was merely trying his best to persuade them to save lives and to avoid bloodshed."

The coup attempt was blamed on discontent over a land dispute, the high cost of living, and the rampant drug trade.

It led to many deaths inside the Red House, years of deep psychological trauma in former hostages, the pillaging of shops in downtown Port of Spain, causing destruction lasting years, and a deep questioning of the nation’s sense of self-identity.

Among those who died were Leo Des Vignes, MP for Diego Martin Central; Lorraine Caballero, clerical officer; Roger George, assistant superintendent of police; Solomon McLeod, special reserve police officer (killed at police headquarters); Arthur Guiseppi, customs and excise officer; former police officer; Malcolm Basanta, estate police officer; George Francis, chauffeur; and Mervyn Teague, Government Broadcasting Unit employee.