Richard Lord

Blood­shed be­tween Colom­bians and T&T na­tion­als on the streets of Port-of-Spain was avert­ed fol­low­ing the im­po­si­tion of a state of emer­gency in T&T last month.Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley said un­named Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ters told him that fol­low­ing last Sun­day's ap­proval of a Gov­ern­ment mo­tion in Par­lia­ment to ex­tend the state of emer­gency by three months.Row­ley said the Gov­ern­ment had been un­der pres­sure from the Op­po­si­tion, which had been ask­ing re­peat­ed­ly for the re­al rea­son for the de­c­la­ra­tion of a state of emer­gency.Row­ley said the gen­er­al crime sit­u­a­tion in T&T was not the re­al rea­son for the state of emer­gency which ef­fec­tive­ly sus­pend­ed cit­i­zens' hu­man rights.He said he was told T&T was like­ly to face a na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty threat fol­low­ing the "in­ter­cep­tion" of more than $20 mil­lion worth of co­caine in two suit­cas­es at the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port last month.

Row­ley said the Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter said pri­vate­ly that "a Colom­bian drug gang was up­set that a Trinidad and To­ba­go gang had al­lowed the po­lice to in­ter­cept the drugs, which was to be sub­se­quent­ly shipped from T&T to an­oth­er des­ti­na­tion."He said the Op­po­si­tion did not be­lieve "that cock-and-bull sto­ry, which was in­tend­ed to mute the Op­po­si­tion in its de­mands for re­al rea­sons for the state of emer­gency."Row­ley said he was told that "the Colom­bian gang was sup­posed to come to Port-of-Spain to deal with the T&T gang and that there would have been blood­shed on the na­tion's streets." Row­ley said if that claim was true then the Gov­ern­ment would have sus­pend­ed the rights of all cit­i­zens of T&T in the in­ter­est of pro­tect­ing a few mem­bers of an al­leged drug gang in T&T.He said he was cer­tain that was not the re­al rea­son for the im­po­si­tion and three-month ex­ten­sion of a state of emer­gency in T&T.Row­ley in­sist­ed: "The Gov­ern­ment must tell us the re­al rea­sons for the de­c­la­ra­tion of a state of emer­gency in T&T. The pop­u­la­tion de­mands the an­swer to that ques­tion."