Yvonne Ba­boolal

Peo­ple against whom al­le­ga­tions have been made at the com­mis­sion of en­quiry in­to the events sur­round­ing the Ju­ly 1990 at­tempt­ed coup will be giv­en am­ple op­por­tu­ni­ty to an­swer, com­mis­sion chair­man, Sir David Sim­mons, said yes­ter­day.

In a state­ment at the end of the first ses­sion of the pub­lic hear­ings at the Caribbean Court of Jus­tice in Port-of-Spain, which last­ed two weeks, Sim­mons, a Bar­ba­di­an, said: "We have just be­gun to hold pub­lic hear­ings and I wish to as­sure the pub­lic that per­sons against whom al­le­ga­tions have been made, or who have been the sub­ject of ad­verse com­ment or im­pu­ta­tion, will be af­ford­ed am­ple op­por­tu­ni­ty to an­swer those al­le­ga­tions or im­pu­ta­tions.

"The prin­ci­ples of nat­ur­al jus­tice and or­di­nary no­tions of fair­ness re­quire that such op­por­tu­ni­ty be pro­vid­ed," he added.As­sur­ing that there would be many more ses­sions, Sim­mons re­it­er­at­ed that the com­mis­sion had a "fair­ly long list" of peo­ple who it is be­lieved can con­tribute in a mean­ing­ful way to the en­quiry in­to the 1990 up­ris­ing."And I ap­pealed (in his open­ing state­ment) to all who have ev­i­dence rel­e­vant to our Terms of Ref­er­ence to come for­ward and be in­ter­viewed by the com­mis­sion's coun­sel with a view to giv­ing such ev­i­dence."

Sim­mons said the in­ter­view­ing of po­ten­tial wit­ness­es would be an on­go­ing process."Since this in­quiry start­ed, a num­ber of per­sons have, in fact, got in touch with the Sec­re­tari­at and ex­pressed a de­sire to give ev­i­dence," Sim­mons said.The chair­man al­so re-em­pha­sised that it was no part of the com­mis­sion's func­tion to en­gage in un­sup­port­ed spec­u­la­tion.Sim­mons re­called that he ear­li­er said the in­quiry would be con­duct­ed thor­ough­ly.

Us­ing a Bar­ba­di­an say­ing, he not­ed: "Tak­ing one's time is not lazi­ness."He added a more pop­u­lar ex­pres­sion: "Pa­tience is a virtue."Sim­mons said at the con­clu­sion of the in­quiry, it would be the task of the com­mis­sion­ers to find ap­pro­pri­ate facts."To that task, we will bring to bear our col­lec­tive com­mon sense and, where ap­plic­a­ble, our foren­sic and ju­di­cial ex­pe­ri­ence and ex­per­tise."

Up­com­ing ses­sions

March 21-25

April 26 to May 6

web site

The pub­lic can read wit­ness state­ments ad­mit­ted dur­ing the first ses­sion and tran­scripts of oral ev­i­dence on the com­mis­sion's Web site, www.1990coe.org