Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les and Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment deputy leader San­jiv Bood­hu will meet for­mer Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion (NAR) hostage Wen­dell Ever­s­ley to­day as he be­gins his an­nu­al walk from Ari­ma to the Red House, Port-of-Spain, in re­mem­brance of the 1990 at­tempt­ed coup.

On Ju­ly 27, 1990, the Ja­maat al Mus­limeen, led by Yasin Abu Bakr, made an un­suc­cess­ful at­tempt to over­throw the then NAR Gov­ern­ment, hold­ing hostages for five days at Par­lia­ment and TTT.

Then prime min­is­ter ANR Robin­son, who was tak­en hostage in the Red House along with oth­er MPs, was bat­tered and shot by the in­sur­gents but shout­ed for the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force to “at­tack with full force!” The siege end­ed with the sur­ren­der of the Mus­limeen.

More than 30 peo­ple were re­port­ed­ly killed dur­ing that pe­ri­od, in­clud­ing then NAR MP Leo Des Vi­gnes.

To­day, Ever­s­ley, dressed in a white gown and car­ry­ing the T&T flag, will set off from the Ari­ma Di­al at 5.30 am for the walk.

Beck­les and Bood­hu will meet Ever­s­ley at 5.15 am to wel­come him to Ari­ma and give him a send-off.

Bood­hu said the PNM sup­ports all “right-think­ing and civic-mind­ed acts of pa­tri­o­tism with­in the con­fines of the law.”

“I cer­tain­ly sup­port the ap­pro­pri­ate com­mem­o­ra­tion mark­ing the tri­umph of democ­ra­cy in 1990. Civic-mind­ed­ness is part of the iden­ti­ty I wish to see in­cul­cat­ed in T&T’s youth.”

Ever­s­ley, who re­ceived po­lice per­mis­sion for the walk, said he in­formed au­thor­i­ties that peo­ple may join.

“This is a peace­ful march for the pro­tec­tion of T&T’s democ­ra­cy and is open to any­one. A State of Emer­gency shouldn’t be a state of si­lence. This march is al­so in ho­n­our of Mr Robin­son’s lega­cy to­wards the birth of the In­ter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court and the hope that it is pre­served and Gov­ern­ment doesn’t join moves to dis­man­tle the ICC,” he said.

Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) chair­man Lons­dale Williams yes­ter­day con­firmed he will al­so par­tic­i­pate in Ever­s­ley’s march.

Ever­s­ley is ex­pect­ed to ar­rive at the Red House Ceno­taph memo­r­i­al by 10.30 am, where he has in­vit­ed col­leagues to join him in lay­ing wreaths.

Those in­vit­ed in­clude for­mer hostages Win­ston Dook­er­an, An­tho­ny Smart, Joseph Toney, Sel­by Wil­son, John Humphrey, Trevor Su­dama, Rawle Raphael and Ray­mond Pal­lack­d­har­rysingh.

Ever­s­ley has al­so in­vit­ed for­mer House Speak­er Nizam Mo­hammed.

Par­lia­ment will al­so hold a solemn re­mem­brance cer­e­mo­ny at the Ceno­taph, where wreaths will be laid in mem­o­ry of those who died at Par­lia­ment.

Those to be re­mem­bered are MP Des Vi­gnes, Par­lia­ment cler­i­cal of­fi­cer Lo­raine Ca­ballero, TTPS As­sis­tant Su­per­in­ten­dent of Po­lice Roger George, Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice Of­fi­cer Solomon McLeod, Cus­toms and Ex­cise Of­fi­cer and for­mer Po­lice Of­fi­cer Arthur Guisep­pi, Es­tate Po­lice Of­fi­cer Mal­colm Bas­an­ta, George Fran­cis, a chauf­feur, He­le­na Lavia, a house­wife, and Gov­ern­ment Broad­cast­ing Unit em­ploy­ee Mervyn Teague.

Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo, House Speak­er Jagdeo Singh, Sen­ate Vice Pres­i­dent Kenya Charles and oth­ers will al­so be in at­ten­dance.