Yvonne Ba­boolal

For­mer Ja­maat al Mus­limeen in­sur­gent Ja­maal Shabazz has warned the trade union move­ment not to light a match if they do not want fire.He sent out the warn­ing yes­ter­day while giv­ing ev­i­dence at the Com­mis­sion of En­quiry at the Caribbean Court of Jus­tice in­to the Ju­ly 1990 at­tempt­ed over­throw of the gov­ern­ment. Shabazz, one of the coup d'etat lead­ers, led the at­tack on Ra­dio Trinidad dur­ing the six-day up­ris­ing by the Ja­maat al Mus­limeen.He told the com­mis­sion he heard trade union lead­ers say­ing re­cent­ly the Gov­ern­ment had to go.

"I am ad­vis­ing them, do not light a match if you don't want fire," he said.Shabazz said the present so­cial cli­mate in the coun­try was "very, very sim­i­lar" to that which pre­ced­ed the Ju­ly 1990 at­tempt­ed coup.He re­called that the Sum­mit of the Peo­ple Or­gan­i­sa­tion (SOPO), an amal­ga­ma­tion of trade unions and ad hoc groups, sup­port­ed by the Ja­maat, Op­po­si­tion politi­cians and high-pro­file in­di­vid­u­als, like Canon Knol­ly Clarke and the late Arch­bish­op An­tho­ny Pan­tin, vowed in 1990 to go to the end to re­move the then Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion Gov­ern­ment.

He said they were protest­ing and demon­strat­ing all over the coun­try on a reg­u­lar ba­sis.The Joint Trade Union Move­ment is ex­pect­ed to stage a mas­sive protest to­day.It has been dis­trib­ut­ing fliers dur­ing the past week, invit­ing peo­ple to as­sem­ble at the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade this morn­ing.Ex­press­ing his de­sire for rec­on­cil­i­a­tion with so­ci­ety, Shabazz told how his in­volve­ment in the 1990 up­ris­ing af­fect­ed his ca­reer in foot­ball, how he was vic­timised for years af­ter and even how it af­fect­ed his chil­dren's lives.

He said he was banned from trav­el­ling to the Unit­ed States and was ar­rest­ed dur­ing an at­tempt to get there.He told how in 1990 the Mus­limeen felt SOPO would en­sure peo­ple took to the streets af­ter they staged the up­ris­ing.He said they were even con­fi­dent the army would sup­port it.Shabazz said at no time did he ever be­lieve the Mus­limeen would have had to con­front the De­fence Force, which suc­cess­ful­ly quelled the in­sur­rec­tion.

Asked by com­mis­sion chair­man, Sir David Sim­mons, if he was naive to be­lieve peo­ple would ral­ly their cause, Shabazz replied:"I at­tend­ed two meet­ings with SOPO and there was a clear con­sen­sus that the Gov­ern­ment need­ed to be re­moved."For­mer ra­dio broad­cast­er, Den­nis Mc­Comie, giv­ing ev­i­dence ear­li­er this week, re­called that in an in­ter­view with Bakr dur­ing the cri­sis, the Imam told him peo­ple were out on the streets in num­bers sup­port­ing the up­ris­ing and call­ing for him to be leader.Mc­Comie said Bakr was an­gry when he told him peo­ple were on­ly loot­ing.

Shabazz said just be­fore the coup d'etat se­nior Ja­maat mem­ber, Hasan Anyab­wile, con­veyed the im­pres­sion that the De­fence Force "will stand with us."He said af­ter they staged the up­ris­ing he be­came fear­ful when he heard Brigadier Ralph Brown on ra­dio say­ing that the army was not with the Mus­limeen.Asked how Bakr could con­clude that the army would sup­port him, Shabazz replied: "As mad as he seems, some­times, he's not to­tal­ly in­sane.

"There must have been some lev­el of dis­cus­sion be­tween him and mem­bers of the De­fence Force."At times, the Mus­limeen would take a brave stance but we are not sui­ci­dal."There must have been some­thing there. Hasan had giv­en me the as­sur­ance that the army would stand with us," Shabazz added.