Richard Lord

Every­thing should be done to en­sure that "fun­da­men­tal and de­struc­tive el­e­ments" are not al­lowed to at­tack the peo­ple of this coun­try in the fu­ture.

This ad­vice comes from for­mer prime min­is­ter and pres­i­dent Arthur NR Robin­son, days be­fore the 20th an­niver­sary of the bloody Ju­ly 1990 at­tempt­ed coup. In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Robin­son said such peo­ple must be "con­trolled and if pos­si­ble got rid off." Robin­son said it was very im­por­tant that the mis­takes which led to the coup be learnt by those in au­thor­i­ty.

He said every ef­fort should be made to en­sure there was no re­peat of such an at­tack on the democ­ra­cy of T&T. Robin­son, who was shot while be­ing held hostage in the Par­lia­ment dur­ing the at­tempt­ed coup, said the com­mis­sion of en­quiry was long over­due. He said the de­ci­sion to set up the pub­lic in­quiry was a per­son­al tri­umph for NAR mem­ber Wen­dell Ever­s­ley, who had been call­ing for it for sev­er­al years.

Robin­son said Ever­s­ley did it in the na­tion­al in­ter­est and should be giv­en a na­tion­al award. "He is a na­tion­al hero, in my view," he added. Robin­son said the 1990 coup at­tempt was of "ma­jor his­tor­i­cal im­por­tance" to the peo­ple of T&T, as it was the most trau­mat­ic event in the coun­try's his­to­ry. Robin­son said it was nec­es­sary for sev­er­al ques­tions to be an­swered and the in­quiry should pro­vide the an­swers.

"It is ab­solute­ly nec­es­sary to show the facts on how such a dar­ing and fool­ish group could burst in­to the Par­lia­ment while in ses­sion." He said the en­quiry would al­so ex­plain how arms could have been brought in­to the coun­try and hid­den and used for the at­tack with the se­cu­ri­ty forces know­ing about them. Some 24 na­tion­als, in­clud­ing two po­lice of­fi­cers and MP for Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral Leo Des Vi­gnes, were killed dur­ing the in­ci­dent.