Yvonne Ba­boolal

For­mer Ju­ly 1990 Red House hostage Rawle Raphael, who was warned three times be­fore the at­tempt­ed coup that the Mus­limeen were plan­ning an up­ris­ing, but told no one, called on Gov­ern­ment yes­ter­day to give him $3 mil­lion or more in com­pen­sa­tion. "I hope it hap­pens be­fore I pass away," he said.

Raphael is al­so in­sist­ing that Ju­ly 27 be made a day of re­mem­brance, and crit­i­cised the Gov­ern­ment for not show­ing any in­ter­est in mak­ing it one. He made these state­ments at a press con­fer­ence at his of­fice on Tra­garete Road, Port-of-Spain. The for­mer Arou­ca South MP un­der the Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion (NAR) gov­ern­ment dur­ing the in­sur­rec­tion, Raphael said he al­most lost his life dur­ing the or­deal.

"I was tied up and stayed for six days with no wa­ter and noth­ing to eat. "It was agreed by med­ical peo­ple that I am suf­fer­ing from 1990 trau­ma. Any­time I hear a noise I jump." Raphael had three can­dles and a box of match­es on a desk in his of­fice, which he said he planned to light at 6 pm in front of the Red House yes­ter­day evening to com­mem­o­rate those who died dur­ing the at­tempt­ed coup.

He had al­so made his call for $3 mil­lion when he gave ev­i­dence ear­li­er this year at the on­go­ing Com­mis­sion of En­quiry in­to the in­sur­rec­tion. "Three mil­lion is a rea­son­able fig­ure. They could in­crease it if they de­sire," he had said. The for­mer MP had al­so told the en­quiry he was warned three times be­fore the coup that the Mus­limeen were plan­ning an armed in­sur­rec­tion and would tar­get Par­lia­ment.

It was a mem­ber of the Mus­limeen, who was a part of the NAR's A-Team, who sound­ed the warn­ing, Raphael said. The Mus­limeen man ad­vised him not to go to Par­lia­ment that day be­cause there was go­ing to be trou­ble down there, he told the com­mis­sion. Raphael said he told the man to re­port it to Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Sel­wyn Richard­son.

Asked if, as chair­man, he did not think he should re­port it him­self, he replied, " I be­lieved it was a big ru­mour, a big joke. I nev­er imag­ined some­thing like that could hap­pen. None of us took it se­ri­ous­ly." Raphael yes­ter­day said "the jus­tice sys­tem has to take some blame" for de­clar­ing valid the amnesty giv­en to the Mus­limeen rebels. He said it was signed un­der duress.

Fur­ther, some­one went to Speak­er Wade Mark ask­ing that Par­lia­ment make Ju­ly 27 a day of re­mem­brance, he said. He claimed Mark replied that the Red House was un­der re­pairs. "What does that have to do with it?" he asked. "Gov­ern­ment has done noth­ing in re­mem­brance of Ju­ly 27." Raphael yes­ter­day sent out his own warn­ing. "The way the coun­try is go­ing, I won't be sur­prised if some­thing sim­i­lar hap­pens. There is great un­em­ploy­ment and dis­sat­is­fac­tion."

He claimed Bi­lal Ab­dul­lah, the Ja­maat's for­mer sec­ond in com­mand, who was in charge of the Red House at­tack, was the brains be­hind the at­tempt­ed coup and should be called to give ev­i­dence. "I am not hear­ing any­body say­ing get him. Some­body say he in Chi­na, but what­ev­er part of the world he in, he should come back and face the mu­sic," Raphael said.