By Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

Se­nior Re­porter

eliz­a­beth.gon­za­les@guardian.co.tt

Min­is­ter of De­fence Wayne Sturge has con­firmed that the fine de­tails of the radar in­stal­la­tion at ANR Robin­son In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port can­not be dis­closed, cit­ing na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty con­cerns.

Speak­ing at a me­dia con­fer­ence at the Ho­choy Charles Ad­min­is­tra­tive Com­plex yes­ter­day evening, Sturge told To­bag­o­ni­ans he could not an­swer sev­er­al key ques­tions about the op­er­a­tion.

“I can­not give you an­swers to all of your ques­tions, be­cause they in­volve se­ri­ous na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty con­sid­er­a­tions,” he said.

The radar was in­stalled two days ago and was ob­served ac­tive­ly ro­tat­ing at a se­cured site yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Sturge added, “There’s a lim­it to what could be dis­closed to the pub­lic… it is not some­thing that should be dis­closed to the wider pub­lic.”

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine, who re­ceived his first for­mal brief­ing on the mat­ter ear­li­er that day, dis­tanced him­self from the tech­ni­cal de­tails. He di­rect­ed the me­dia to Sturge for all op­er­a­tional ques­tions.

“I would urge the me­dia to di­rect all fu­ture ques­tions on the specifics of what is hap­pen­ing in our space to Min­is­ter Sturge,” Au­gus­tine said. “He is the one to an­swer on be­half of the gov­ern­ment on this mat­ter.”

Au­gus­tine ex­plained that he had been briefed by Sturge, the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, the Chief of De­fence Staff, and the Air­ports Au­thor­i­ty. He not­ed that mat­ters of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty are usu­al­ly not shared with his of­fice.

“This is the first time as Chief Sec­re­tary I am be­ing briefed on a mat­ter as sen­si­tive as this,” he said. “It means that the Prime Min­is­ter has tak­en the de­ci­sion to ask some min­is­ters to brief the Chief Sec­re­tary on a mat­ter of na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty for which or­di­nar­i­ly a Chief Sec­re­tary is not briefed.”

The Chief Sec­re­tary fo­cused on calm­ing pub­lic con­cern af­ter a week of air­craft ac­tiv­i­ty and con­struc­tion at the air­port, which had sparked fears that US–Venezuela ten­sions could spill in­to To­ba­go. He dis­missed the no­tion that the is­land could be used as a tool in any con­flict.

“I have said pub­licly that as your Chief Sec­re­tary to To­ba­go, I will not sup­port any in­stal­la­tion that is meant to at­tack any­body any­where else,” he said. “To­ba­go soil is not be­ing used to at­tack any­body any­where else. We are not at war with any­one.”

Au­gus­tine ac­knowl­edged the anx­i­ety caused by the lack of in­for­ma­tion but re­it­er­at­ed that the equip­ment be­ing in­stalled is not linked to mil­i­tary ag­gres­sion. “The gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go con­tin­ues to as­sure that that which is be­ing in­stalled here is not meant to at­tack any­body any­where else, but to pro­vide much-need­ed in­for­ma­tion for our de­fence sys­tems and our se­cu­ri­ty ser­vices,” he said.

Sturge con­firmed that the radar sys­tem will sup­port counter-traf­fick­ing op­er­a­tions, in­clud­ing mon­i­tor­ing il­le­gal flights and drones trans­port­ing guns and drugs in­to To­ba­go, but re­fused to pro­vide fur­ther de­tails.

“Dis­clo­sure to the pub­lic means dis­clo­sure to the world, in­clu­sive of the crim­i­nal el­e­ment,” he said.

Au­gus­tine said he will con­tin­ue to re­quest up­dates and will pass on what­ev­er in­for­ma­tion he is per­mit­ted to share, as­sur­ing res­i­dents that To­ba­go is not in dan­ger.

“I am in a po­si­tion now that I can al­lay the fears of the is­land of To­ba­go that we are not at war with any­one else,” he said.