RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Bring the ev­i­dence of a pae­dophile ring!

This was the call from Hous­ing Min­is­ter Camille Robin­son-Reg­is as she called on Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to bring ev­i­dence if she knew about the ex­is­tence of a pae­dophile ring op­er­at­ing in T&T.

Hold­ing up doc­u­ments, Robin­son -Reg­is re­vealed the names of key UNC of­fi­cials who were part of the Cab­i­net when the Robert Sab­ga re­port was laid in Cab­i­net in 1997. She said these Min­is­ters which in­clud­ed Per­sad-Bisses­sar did noth­ing to pro­tect the chil­dren who were named in the Sab­ga re­port.

Say­ing Cab­i­net notes were se­cret, Robin­son-Reg­is said she ob­tained the ev­i­dence from the Cab­i­net sec­re­tari­at.

"These are the facts. The Cab­i­net led by Bas­deo Pan­day, ap­point­ed a com­mit­tee led by Sab­ga to in­ves­ti­gate abuse and ne­glect in T&T. 

With per­mis­sion of the Prime Min­is­ter, I have some of the Cab­i­net notes here. Cab­i­net in­for­ma­tion is se­cret but I do have in­for­ma­tion that I will share. 

The com­po­si­tion of the Cab­i­net is in­struc­tive. From 1997 to 2000, Kam­la Suchilla Per­sad Bisses­sar- Le­gal Af­fairs; Wade Mark, Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion; Ralph Maraj, Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj as the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and Brigadier Joseph Theodore as Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty."

Robin­son-Reg­is said Per­sad-Bisses­sar should be held ac­count­able for not re­veal­ing the ev­i­dence of the pae­dophile ring.

"Kam­la Suchilla Per­sad, you mean to tell us that you have all this sor­did in­for­ma­tion about the PNM and you not us­ing it against us. You have in­for­ma­tion that we are pae­dophiles. Kam­la stop talk­ing horse ma­nure," she sneered.

As the crowds ap­plaud­ed, she added, "Kam­la, Manohar Ram­saran and Robert Sab­ga you sat down on this re­port of abuse and said noth­ing. They use the depths of chil­dren to score cheap po­lit­i­cal points, us­ing the names of the dead to ma­lign and tar­nish. We de­ny any knowl­edge of any such heinous be­hav­iour. In­stead of talk­ing ut­ter rub­bish, bring the ev­i­dence to the po­lice."

She said the ac­cu­sa­tions from Sab­ga that a high rank­ing PNM of­fi­cial was in­volved in pae­dophil­ia should be in­ves­ti­gat­ed.

"Every time Robert Sab­ga opens his mouth he suc­ceeds in bury­ing him­self fur­ther. The Sab­ga fam­i­ly is hang­ing its head in shame," she said.

Robin­son-Reg­is ac­cused for­mer So­cial De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Manohar Ram­saran of mis­lead­ing the peo­ple.

"Bar­ry Padarath and Kam­la Suchilla Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so mis­led the pub­lic when they say the re­port was laid in Par­lia­ment," she said, not­ing that Hansard shows it was nev­er laid in Par­lia­ment.

She al­so said the five pieces of leg­is­la­tion which Per­sad-Bisses­sar spoke about as be­ing laid in Par­lia­ment in re­sponse to the Sab­ga re­port, were not "im­ple­mentable," and had to be re­done when the PNM took of­fice in 2001.

"That five pieces of leg­is­la­tion were not work­able. There was noth­ing about reg­u­la­tions, train­ing for staff and noth­ing to make the leg­is­la­tion im­ple­mentable. It was on­ly when the PNM came in­to of­fice we made the leg­is­la­tion im­ple­mentable." 

The Sab­ga Task Force made rec­om­men­da­tions for the li­cens­ing and in­spec­tion of homes, in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to sub­ven­tions, de­vel­op­ment of child­care plan, ex­am­i­na­tion of Statu­to­ry Au­thor­i­ty Ser­vice Com­mis­sion, le­gal is­sues, man­age­ment and staff rec­om­men­da­tions as well as rec­om­men­da­tions for a fu­ture Task Force. It al­so said it was the rec­om­men­da­tion of the Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment to ter­mi­nate mem­bers of staff.

"Noth­ing was done. To­day I ask the Cab­i­net Sec­re­tari­at to check if there was any sub­se­quent in­for­ma­tion about these rec­om­men­da­tions. They could find noth­ing. They did ab­solute­ly noth­ing. The tears of every child that have been spilt since that re­port is on the hands of that Cab­i­net who did noth­ing to pro­tect them," she added.

She not­ed that it was Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley who be­came aware of the re­port and asked the po­lice to deal with it.

Mean­while, Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj, who de­nied knowl­edge of the re­port last week said the TT Po­lice should im­me­di­ate­ly take steps to get pos­ses­sion of the re­port and ini­ti­ate an in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

He al­so said the po­lice should in­ves­ti­gate why the re­port was buried and not made pub­lic. Mir­ror jour­nal­ist David Milette made the re­port pub­lic in De­cem­ber 1997, writ­ing six sto­ries about the hor­rif­ic abuse the chil­dren suf­fered. For­mer Min­is­ter Ram­saran said the ju­di­cial sys­tem was in­com­pe­tent at that time and rather than pur­sue pros­e­cu­tion, he fo­cused on pass­ing leg­is­la­tion to su­per­vise homes as the jus­tice sys­tem would have been a waste. 

The same year the re­port was made pub­lic, a 16-year-old boy of the Jay­alak­sh­mi Chil­dren's home was charged with sex­u­al­ly abus­ing five chil­dren but af­ter be­ing charged, he was re­turned to the same home to live on the com­pound with his vic­tims.