Bo­bie-lee Dixon

If you can, take your mind back to that dread­ful Fri­day evening on Ju­ly 27, 1990, when this coun­try al­most lost its democ­ra­cy.

Some of us do not want to re­mem­ber that di­a­bol­i­cal event; some of us re­mem­ber it all too well and some of us live in con­stant fear that it can hap­pen again. A man who will nev­er for­get is Wen­dell Ever­s­ley.

We know him as the man who has protest­ed for the past 19 years for a Com­mis­sion of En­quiry in­to the 1990 at­tempt­ed coup.

But do we re­al­ly know Ever­s­ley, the man who was held hostage in the Par­lia­ment Cham­ber that day; who thought he would not live to see his daugh­ter grow up; who pledged that he would not stop un­til the per­pe­tra­tors of the bru­tal at­tack are brought to jus­tice? To­day, Wen­dell Ever­s­ley takes you back to the year 1990.

The Par­lia­ment is stormed

"It was my first day at the Par­lia­ment Cham­ber. I was sit­ting in the pub­lic gallery lis­ten­ing to the de­bate be­tween NAR and the Op­po­si­tion par­ties," Ever­s­ley re­called. "About 5.30pm, I start­ed hear­ing sounds like fire crack­ers. The sounds came clos­er and clos­er to the Par­lia­ment Cham­ber, then I saw a group of men all dressed in black (Mus­lim wear), en­ter the Par­lia­ment Cham­ber," he added.

Ever­s­ley said just be­fore the in­sur­rec­tion­ists stormed the Par­lia­ment Cham­ber, he dis­tinct­ly re­mem­bers hear­ing Joseph Tony, MP for To­co/Man­zanil­la, who was ad­dress­ing the Par­lia­ment Cham­ber at the time, ask­ing the ques­tion to both arms of the then op­po­si­tion–"Who is your leader?" Pan­day and Man­ning were both ab­sent. "They stormed the Par­lia­ment Cham­ber from both en­trances, shout­ing at the top of their voic­es, 'Where Robin­son?' The whole Par­lia­ment went in­to chaos. Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans as well as peo­ple from the pub­lic gallery be­gan scream­ing and scat­ter­ing try­ing to find a way out but they had blocked both en­trances." Ever­s­ley said Bi­laal Ab­dul­lah, one of Bakr's lieu­tenants, then gave a com­mand to re­lease the peo­ple in the pub­lic gallery. "I get up and start­ed to walk with the oth­er peo­ple be­cause I was part of the pub­lic gallery too, but when I al­most reach the door, one of the men point­ing his gun at me said, 'you, go back dey. Lie on yuh bel­ly and put yuh hand on yuh head.'

Shock and dis­be­lief

"I was shocked, so I asked him in dis­be­lief if he was talk­ing to me and he said 'yes!...ah say go back dey and lie down'." Fol­low­ing in­struc­tions, Ever­s­ley said he was then told to go to an­oth­er room. "I had to creep as they told me 'creep, doh look up or raise up!'" In the oth­er room, Ever­s­ley said he no­ticed a win­dow open and men (in­sur­gents) jump­ing through the win­dows and then clos­ing them shut once they got in­side. He was then tak­en to an­oth­er room, where he saw an­oth­er win­dow which was closed.

"I heard knock­ing on the win­dow and the in­sur­gents on the out­side were shout­ing 'Open the so and so win­dow!' I was told by the men hold­ing me hostage to open the win­dow. They then told me to lie un­der a ta­ble." he re­called. Ever­s­ley was tak­en to a third room, where there were four oth­er hostages–most­ly women. They were all told to lie un­der a ta­ble. He re­mem­bers one of the women hold­ing his hand and squeez­ing it while be­gin­ning to cry.

"We stayed un­der the ta­ble for a lit­tle while," he said, "then we were es­cort­ed back to the pub­lic gallery. When we reach in, Bi­laal was in the Par­lia­ment Cham­ber, giv­ing or­ders. He told the men to set the women free."

Ever­s­ley said he looked over to the Par­lia­ment Cham­ber and saw that they had be­gun ty­ing up the par­lia­men­tar­i­ans. "While they was do­ing that, this man keep pok­ing me with his gun; telling me, 'stay down!" he re­vealed. He re­calls see­ing a woman ly­ing on the ground gasp­ing for breath, with blood ooz­ing out of her side, and be­liev­ing that they were all go­ing to be even­tu­al­ly killed.

Held hostage overnight

Dr Emanuel Ho­sein, Min­is­ter of Health and MP for Tu­na­puna at the time, was among those who were tied up. Ac­cord­ing to Ever­s­ley, he was even­tu­al­ly un­tied to at­tend to those wound­ed. One of the wound­ed that Fri­day night was Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment Leo De Vi­gnes, who was shot dur­ing the at­tack. "I could re­mem­ber Ho­sein telling Bi­laal if he didn't re­lease De Vi­gnes he would die in Par­lia­ment." De Vi­gnes was re­leased on Sat­ur­day but lat­er died at hos­pi­tal.

The Ho­n­ourable 'Rob­bie'

"A com­mand was giv­en to Prime Min­is­ter ANR Robin­son be­tween 10.30 and 11pm to an­nounce, over a walkie-talkie to the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty armed forces, his res­ig­na­tion as PM, and at the same time, his con­fir­ma­tion that the Gov­ern­ment of T&T was over­thrown," Ever­s­ley said. "But Robin­son shout­ed at the top of his voice, 'They are tor­tur­ers and mur­der­ers; at­tack with full force'!" Af­ter this ex­cla­ma­tion, the PM was shot. Ever­sly added that the PM's com­mand an­gered the Mus­lim in­sur­gents and Bi­laal or­dered them to kill every­one in Par­lia­ment if the armed forces en­tered the build­ing.

"When I hear this, I just give up hope–I be­gan to think where to take the bul­let–I start­ed mak­ing peace with my cre­ator," re­vealed Ever­s­ley.

A sleep­less night

Ever­s­ley did not sleep that night. When Sat­ur­day morn­ing came, he said he was told to get up and sit down. "I was sit­ting on the floor, there was a lot of talk­ing go­ing on in the Par­lia­ment Cham­ber among Bi­laal, a wound­ed Robin­son and Dook­er­an, who was the MP for Ch­agua­nas at the time. "I start­ed cry­ing be­cause I tell my­self I didn't do any­thing; I just come to Par­lia­ment and now I not go­ing back home for life. One of the men turn and asked me, 'a big man like you cry­ing?'" At this point, Ever­s­ley re­called what the PM said –"at­tack with full force!" "I said to my­self, here is the PM giv­ing his life up for coun­try. "I said God, if I get out alive, I will not stop protest­ing un­til a Com­mis­sion of En­quiry is called be­cause a gov­ern­ment was al­most over­thrown, a PM shot, an MP killed, and oth­er in­no­cent peo­ple mur­dered.

Free­dom morn­ing

As the clock con­tin­ued to tick, lit­tle did Ever­s­ley know that by 12.30 pm on Sat­ur­day, he was go­ing to be re­leased. "About 12.30 pm, one of the armed men say: 'Aye, you, go!'" "I asked him if is me he talk­ing to and he said, 'yes, go!'" Ever­s­ley, mak­ing his way out of the Par­lia­ment Cham­ber, looked back at those left be­hind with sad­ness in his heart but was told not to look back and to keep walk­ing. A teary-eyed Ever­s­ley took a minute to sob silent­ly, block­ing his face with his hands be­fore com­plet­ing his sto­ry.

"When I was com­ing out the build­ing there was a dead man curled up on the steps . I hear a voice say­ing, 'Keep right'!' 'Keep your hand up'! I kept walk­ing to the end of City Hall then the voice–com­ing from the armed forces–told me to put down my hand. I was free to go." Ever­s­ley be­gan run­ning down Fred­er­ick street. He ran un­til he found him­self in Barataria, where he took a maxi and head­ed to Arou­ca to spend the night at a friend's house. "I didn't want to go home yet; I thought some­one might have fol­lowed me to kill me. I went home on the Sun­day."

Lin­ger­ing fear

Ever­s­ley re­calls hav­ing count­less sleep­less nights since the hor­ri­ble ex­pe­ri­ence. "Every an­niver­sary I get scared–I go in­to prayer and fast­ing," he ex­plained. He be­lieves what hap­pened in 1990 can hap­pen again. Ever­s­ley is adamant the Ja­maat were just used as a scape­goat and hid­den fac­tors are in­volved. Every year, Ever­s­ley calls for a Com­mis­sion of En­quiry in­to the 1990 at­tempt­ed coup. He be­lieves: "We must nev­er let the democ­ra­cy of our coun­try be threat­ened again. "Our gov­ern­ment must be elect­ed by the bal­lot and the peo­ple and not by the bar­rel of a gun."