Tuesday February 9th, 2010
- Last update:9 hours 46 min ago
Bold move to seize Chaguaramas
Published: 9 Aug 2009
Chaguaramas Legal Land Owners (CLLO) organisation is planning to throw down the gauntlet to the State. CLLO members intend to stage a mass invasion and occupation of Chaguaramas, from 7 am on Saturday, August 22, targeting specific areas like the heliport, Convention Centre, the rear of the Hotel School, Point Gourde, Scotland Bay and Mount Pleasant in Macqueripe. According to CLLO leader, 72-year-old Augustin Noel, they are intent on staging a mass demonstration to recover lands they have been contending were seized illegally from their ancestors back in 1941, when Great Britain leased thousands of acres of the peninsula to the USA, in exchange for warships to continue the war against Adolf Hitler’s Germany.
“Chaguaramas natives will be reclaiming their ancestral lands,” declares a bold poster being distributed by Noel and his colleagues. Some 221 families were displaced during the 1940s, when the peninsula was leased to the USA. However, the State is promising to throw the full weight of the law against the promised march, leaving the prospect of a battle royal in Chaguaramas on the morning of August 22 Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) chairman Noel Garcia warned on Friday that the law must be observed.
Told of the posters being circulated, Garcia said: “This is a matter that has been hashed and rehashed a number of times. “The fact of the matter is it has reached the Privy Council and the Privy Council ruled in the Government’s favour. “As far as I am aware, this country is still governed by the rule of law. “The CDA will apply the law in this case, and Mr Noel and company will be well advised to act within the law to avoid unnecessary conflict.” The march back on to the land denied them by the Privy Council in a January 22, 2002 judgment, starts from the Chaguaramas borderline at the Alcoa installation, the poster indicates.
A two-pronged attack is being launched, Noel revealed this week, the other challenge being legal and led by Congress of the People deputy political leader, attorney Prakash Ramadhar. Noel said in the wake of Ramadhar addressing a CLLO meeting at City Hall in Port-of-Spain on July 5, he had accepted a brief to file an appeal against the Privy Council judgment, and had assembled a team of two more attorneys to research the pile of legal documents that had accumulated since the CLLO began its so far futile attempt to reclaim Chaguaramas from the State and its vested representative, the CDA.
Former Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma, it was learnt, is also assisting the legal team to come up with an argument that could convince the Privy Council the 2002 judgment delivered by Lord Millett was flawed, because it was formed with insufficient information at the time before the Law Lords. It is understood that a statement delivered in Parliament in 1958, by the-then Chief Minister Dr Eric Williams, claiming that the lease was illegal because it was not registered, was not presented in evidence before the Law Lords, and is believed to be crucial to the CLLO’s case.
Regarding the proposed march, Noel said CLLO members appreciated that CDA security personnel would regard them as trespassers, but felt they had the legal right to enter lands their ancestors owned, lands that should have been handed down to them. “They will have to do whatever they want to do at that point in time, but we believe we are on a legal footing. “This time the French Creoles and land owners of African descent have banded together. “The Cabrals own 103 acres where the heliport is now situated, and we intend to install a container there. That day we are going to mount up our ring stoves and have a massive cookout in Chaguaramas.”
Sorry, you have to wait
Sorry, you have to wait until Manning done deal with the people and fix the country!
Then we will talk.
wow 70 years ago....hang in
wow 70 years ago....hang in there,it will take another 70 year till you losers get real.Just one question,how many people screwed their family and tief they land because their family was illitarate.more comemess when we can't even buy food to feed the innocent babies.if this is true,the cop deputy leader prakash ramadhar just loss a few thousant voters.YOU PEOPLE MAKE ME SICK.
My grandparents had some 100
My grandparents had some 100 acres in south can i get it back to...including the main roads with it.....
The final Court of Appeal
The final Court of Appeal for T&T is the Privy Council in London and they have already ruled on this matter . The late Eric Williams should have handed back the land at Chaguaramas to the original owners/descendents while he was PM of T&T . I empathise with the CLLO but this matter can only be resolved by the courts and that is now an exercise in futility . In 1941 , the colony of Trinidad was owned by Great Britain and as such they were legally correct to lease the lands to the USA . CLLO , stand down - because you will not win this "battle" and none of the law lords in London is going to reverse the decision of lord Millett . It is time that T & T make the Caribbean Court of Justice they final court of appeal . What is ironic about this matter , is that the CCJ is located in Port of Spain .
ATW - Barbados .
Former Chief Justice
Former Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma, it was learnt, is also assisting the legal team to come up with an argument that could convince the Privy Council the 2002 judgment delivered by Lord Millett was flawed....QUOTE.
ANYTHING FOR THE INDIAN TO MAKE T&T'S GOV'T TO LOOK BAD, I SEE PETER BALROOP IS THE WRITER OF THIS "ARTICLE" A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO HE "INTERVIEWED" A CRAZY WOMAN THAT STILL CLAIMS SHE HAS A CHILD FOR A POLITICAL LEADER WHO IS NOW PM, BUT SHE STILL AIN'T INTERESTED IN TAKING THE CHILD'S FATHER TO COURT FOR CHILD SUPPORT! A QUESTION HE DID NOT ASK HER.
"JUSTICE" SAT SHARMA IS FAMOUS FOR CLAIMING A SUSPECTED INDIAN DR COULD NOT HAVE MURDERED HIS WIFE BECUASE HE WAS A GOOD DR AND GOES TO THE SAME MANDIR AS HIM! HE IS ALSO FAMOUS FOR TELLING INDIAN VOTERS TO "HOLD DEY NOSE AND VOTE FOR PANDAY".
NEVER AGAIN THE UNC!
Mike my friend, do you think
Mike my friend, do you think that you can honour us by addressing issues and presenting your comments omitting race, ethnicity and personal character assassination at the same time. Freedom of speech is a right we should not trample upon. Any arguements you wish to provide as an avid reader of the Guardian will be read with the intelligence with which you prsented them. We cherish tbe opportunity to read all viewpoints, and we may even learn something new from some of them - so don't deny us of this. Peace and Love
Mike I eh see yuh say
Mike I eh see yuh say nothing about yuh cousin that was arrested for the murder in Tobago but yuh always jumping down dem Indian throat....man yuh shameless.
This one you got to blame on
This one you got to blame on Churchill and Roosevelt. Take them names off the highway to while you at it.
The issue here is not about
The issue here is not about making the goverment (or even the opposition) look bad, but one of righting what the affected persons and their families believe to be an injustice. My family was been similarly affected many decades ago (not in Chaguaramas) by their land being appropriated "in the national interest".
The seemingly illegal loss of one's hard-earned property without appropriate compensation is remembered through many generations.
Well, I see Mikey Samuel is
Well, I see Mikey Samuel is back. Welcome back Mikey, we missed you. The last time I saw you, you were loading a bunch of bananas on a small boat on the wharf. Did you visit Tobago for a few weeks? Apparently they arrested one of your kind for the mutilation of the British couple. The police are saying it looked like a hate crime, probably committed by an angry blck man, not an Indian, you imbecile. You are now blaming Sat Sharma for a ruling by the Privy Council. How dotish can you be?. People like youou, Manning and Jeremy tried your best to get rid of Sharma and get one of your kind to be Chief Justice. People like you will spoil anything, you will even spoil "hog food". You spoiled Trinidad and now you are spoiling Tobago.
Please MIKE and ZIDE take
Please MIKE and ZIDE take your dotish racist comments and choke on them. Not because a fool make a stupid seemingly racist comment means that you will jump on the band wagon.I get so angry reading these foolish racist comments.
There are people who live in countries that know true ethnic adversity and yet still they strive to live together as one because they know the outcome if they dont.
Yet you two fools insist on going down that road.
SHOW ME WHERE I WROTE A
SHOW ME WHERE I WROTE A "RACIST STATEMENT" PLZ SO I CAN "CORRECT" MYSELF.
Descendents fighting for
Descendents fighting for Their Lands
If the descendents of previous owners have proof that the lands in Chaguaramus legally belongs to them, then they have all rights to challenge anyone who attempts to tell them otherwise. Don't use the arguements that the Privy Council ruled against them and close the books. If there are supporting evidence to prove that an error was made, then they should take a firm stance and go after reclaiming what may indeed be legally theirs. Remember that it was the Colonial Masters - Britain, who took the lands belonging to the indigenous people in Canada and Australia and claimed ownership. Today we are still seeing challenges by these rightful owners to reclaim some of their ancestral lands. Some settlements have been made, but others are still ongoing. So this group in T&T have a legal right to challenge ownership of their forefathers' lands in this our land of democracy. We are not a dictatorship, or are we? We should not attempt to shut them up, or throw insults in their direction. Fighting for what they believe is right is not limited to those sitting in high places, but available to all of us.