Richard Lord

Leader of the Ja­maat al Mus­limeen Yasin Abu Bakr is in sup­port of the pro­posed com­mis­sion of en­quiry in­to the 1990 coup at­tempt.

Abu Bakr said the probe was "long over­due." He claims he want­ed this in­quiry be­fore he died. "Every­thing is go­ing to be told in the com­mis­sion of en­quiry...All the par­tic­i­pants, those who were ab­sent from the Cab­i­net (Par­lia­ment) on the day and every­thing and why," Bakr added. For­mer youth min­is­ter Jen­nifer John­son al­so ex­pressed sup­port for the move, de­scrib­ing it as "coura­geous."

John­son said the com­mis­sion should have been set up years ago but it is bet­ter late than nev­er. She said there were many "lin­ger­ing ques­tions" about how the in­ci­dent could have oc­curred. She de­scribed the probe as a nec­es­sary one. And for­mer Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion (NAR) MP Rawle Raphael yes­ter­day wel­comed news of the Gov­ern­ment's in­ten­tion to set up the in­quiry. "I wel­come the de­ci­sion...It's a bless­ing," he said, in a brief in­ter­view with the T&T Guardian. Raphael was among the hostages in Par­lia­ment when the Ja­maat al Mus­limeen stormed the Red House on Ju­ly 27, 1990.

Oth­ers held hostage were Fi­nance Min­is­ter Win­ston Dook­er­an, ra­dio an­nounc­er Den­nis Mc­Comie and NAR mem­ber Wen­dell Ever­s­ley.