Former hostages of the attempted coup of 1990, Wendell Eversley and Rawle Raphael, held separate protests outside the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday, two days before the 25th anniversary of the event.
Eversley spent 12 hours outside the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday in protest over the government's failure to implement several recommendations from the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) into the coup attempt. He said the Government would have wasted time and money on the enquiry if it failed to implement those recommendations.
"This Government set up a CoE and the report was laid in Parliament but did we spend money on getting a report just for the sake of spending money and not putting the recommendations into action?
"We have recommendations on this issue of national interest and nothing is being done up to today. (Former president and prime minister) ANR Robinson must be turning in his grave. He is the grandfather of international justice and look what is being done," Eversley said.
The recommendations included removing the Defence Force headquarters from Camp Ogden, compensating victims and enhancing national security operations.
Eversely holds an annual protest in commemoration of the coup, which culminates with a prayer near the flame set up to remember the victims at the Red House on July 27.
"Today we are seeing that the Government of the day is showing total disregard to families, former hostages and civilians. July 27 comes around and nobody seems to care."
He said every year the US embassy invited government officials to host an event to remember the lives lost on September 11, 2001.
"Let me tell you, July comes before September and in T&T on July 27, no one remembers anything. Politicians in Parliament are cowards. The very place they fighting to go into at election time was attacked 25 years ago and what have they done?
"I will not stop asking for this. I fought for the CoE for 20 years and I will never stop fighting for these recommendations to be implemented."
Eversley is not the only ex-victim of the coup attempt to get emotional about the lack of implementation.
Former government minister Raphael says his trauma from the event has never ended.
Raphael, who held a separate protest outside the Office of the PM, said up to this day he could not sleep at night.
Raphael's protest yesterday included a demand for $5 million in compensation, an increase from the $3 million he had asked for during the enquiry.
Asked why he was seeking more money, Raphael said he felt he deserved interest because of the delay by the Government in dealing with the matter.
Raphael began his protest at noon. Another former hostage and government minister Winston Dookeran said his general feeling was that 25 years after the coup attempt, there was still no sense of comfort or confidence in the country.