Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar tore up a bill on Friday in the House of Representatives to protest its inadequacies, and actually escaped any censure from Speaker of the House Barry Sinanan or members of the Government benches.

The bill falling prey to the former attorney-general was the Summary Courts (Amendment) Act 2003 which will permit convicts’ appeals filed with the prison authorities within seven days, whether or not those appeals reach the Court of Appeal within that statutory time as mandated at present. Persad-Bissessar lamented that 27 convicts had seen their appeals dismissed because under the existing parent Act, the Prison authorities had forwarded their appeals to the court too late.”

Also noting that recently six prisoners were freed because they had been imprisoned on consecutive sentences totaling a longer time than the three year limit lawfully allowed, she said: “We will see many, many  more imprisoned.” She warned that these cases could see the State paying exemplary damages for claims for compensation, predicting: “Damages are going to be far more than this $5,000 that you are concerned with for the 27 people.” She urged the Government to rectify this by simply deleting part of the bill.

Noting that one convict had been jailed for seven years longer than allowed by law, she slammed the Government, saying: “You are talking about inefficiency (in the bill). This isn’t ‘inefficiency” but ‘deprivation of liberty’. This is a man’s life, a man who is cut off from his family, placed in a jail because of what you call, the ‘inefficiencies’…”. She slammed Attorney General Glenda Morean’s previous contribution to the bill, saying: “What  nonsense, Mr Speaker, total nonsense. She has a total misunderstanding of what the drafting of a bill is all about.” Persad-Bissessar, a former law teacher then gave Morean, herself a former head of Hugh Wooding Law School, a lesson in legal drafting.

Later Chief Whip Ken Valley interrupted her to question her relevance, arguing: “The second reading of the bill is to discuss the merits of the bill, not for work to be done at committee stage.” Persad-Bissessar hits back: “The substance of this bill is totally flawed, in every respect. It’s not just the drafting. I’m not talking about a comma here and a full-stop there.”  At that Persad-Bissessar tore up the bill, slamming: “There’s no merit to this bill!” She incurred no rebuke from the Chair, who instead actually intervened to protect her from further interruption. 

POLICE sources yesterday said that plans are underway to deport a Venezuelan national back to his country to face criminal charges of fleeing from prosecution and also to face sentencing for murder.

While not wanting to divulge too much information, police sources confirmed that the 52-year-old man who was arrested in a Malabar house on Thursday night, was given a sentence on a charge of murder in his homeland of Tucupita, Venezuela two years ago. However, the Venezuelan judicial authorities granted the man leave to bid his family a final farewell. He however left the country in a boat and arrived in Trinidad where he was been living illegally for the past two years.

Police sources said that while local laws prohibit a prisoner to be imprisoned for more than 48 hours without a charge being laid, since the Venezuelan is in this country illegally, he could be incarcerated until legal procedures are concluded to have him de-ported. Northern Division Task Force officers arrested the man around 10 pm on Thursday after receiving certain information. The officers stormed a house at Casablanca Crescent, Phase One, Malabar where they held him. Up to late yesterday he remained in police custody at the Malabar police station. Local police are continuing to liaise with their Venezuelan counterparts via Interpol and also with the Venezuelan Embassy.

GOVERNMENT’S emergency injection of funds into cash-strapped Caroni (1975) Limited comes as little but a drop in the ocean to cane farmers who have already suffered tremendous financial hardships throughout the ongoing sugar harvest.

This was the revelation yesterday from Trinidad Islandwide Cane Farmers Association  (TICFA) public relations officer, Lallan Rajaram. On Friday, Junior Finance Minister Ken Valley announced in Parliament that Cabinet met in emergency session and agreed to inject $489.3 million into Caroni to keep it operating until September.  Valley also told the Lower House that the company had already exhausted its current budgetary allocation for recurrent expenditure, amounting to $90 million by the first week in March.

Rajaram told Sunday Newsday that while TICFA supported Government’s decision to fund Caroni to the tune of $579.3 million, cane farmers would only receive approximately $109 million to deal with their financial woes. According to Rajaram, Caroni’s 6,000 cane farmers and their workers have been annually subsidising Caroni to the tune of $24 million but always seem to get the short end of the financial stick. He questioned why this perennial problem continues since farmers produce greater tonnage of both cane and sugar than the company. Rajaram explained that given the farmers’ cost of production (COP) of $212 per tonne compared to Caroni’s of $509 per tonne, the company would save approximately $297 million annually for a production target of 100,000 tonnes of sugar if the farmers’ COP was used as the guideline.

The TICFA PRO lamented that unlike sugar workers, farmers’ fortunes are based on the amount of canes sold and this has been hampered by the late start of the 2003 crop and numerous work stoppages initiated primarily by the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union (ATSGWTU). Rajaram added that TICFA’s executive will be seeking an urgent meeting with Government to discuss the matter.

WASHINGTON: The Army’s premier medical centre is becoming the new home for rescued POW Jessica Lynch, who faces a lengthy rehabilitation from injuries she received in Iraq.

The 19-year-old private first class, in good spirits but injured from head to toe, returned yesterday to the United States along with family members and some four dozen soldiers injured in the war. Lynch, who is from Palestine, West Virginia, is to receive treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre, a huge campus several miles from downtown Washington. Her family said in a written statement issued in Germany that Lynch “is in pain, but she is in good spirits. Although she faces a lengthy rehabilitation, she is tough. We believe she will regain her strength soon.”

Lynch was treated at Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre in Germany for a head wound, a spinal injury, fractures to her right arm, both legs, and her right foot and ankle. Gunshots may have caused open fractures on her upper right arm and lower left leg, according to the hospital. The supply clerk was captured March 23 after her 507th Maintenance Company convoy was ambushed in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. She was rescued from an Iraqi hospital in the city April 1 by US commandos, reportedly after a tip from an Iraqi lawyer.

When US commandos staged their daring rescue in Nasiriyah, they found a frightened woman who hid under a sheet when they stormed into her hospital room. “Jessica Lynch,” called out an American soldier, approaching her bed. “We are United States soldiers and we’re here to protect you and take you home,” a Central Command spokesman told reporters after the raid.

Peering from behind the sheet as he removed his helmet, she looked up and said, “I’m an American soldier, too.” Residents in a Charleston, West Virginia, suburb have said they are trying to locate the Iraqi lawyer, known as Mohammed. Although his role has not been confirmed by the US military, a “Friends of Mohammed” organization has been formed in the state. Nine other members of the 507th Maintenance Company were killed in the ambush and were posthumously awarded Purple Hearts.

Trinidad-born Monica Dunlop-Johnson, who fled from Baghdad in 1990, is in Trinidad after 12 years of stress suffered due to atrocities she witnessed in Kuwait.

For fear of what may happen in the current war in Iraq, she decided to quietly come to Trinidad to calm down because there were just too many bad and vivid memories of violence and “animal behaviour” lingering in her mind. As a result of the trauma of the Gulf War, Dunlop-Johnson suffered a number of health and mental disorders which resulted in her being subjected to a lengthy period of medical treatment and therapy. She left these shores at 16 for London to study. Later, when her then husband Colin Bertram had taken up a position in the Kuwaiti oil industry in 1980, she moved to Kuwait City, and soon opened her own school teaching English and Chemistry to the wives and children of the Royal families. Dunlop-Johnson told Sunday Newsday: “I had a wonderful life there until the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq in 1990.”

On the first morning of the war, the Japanese diplomat’s wife called her and told her to be careful, not to go outside, since her husband was called to the embassy since 4 am. “While talking, I heard big explosions and couldn’t believe what she was saying so I stayed awake. I heard more shelling and bombing. Nevertheless I went to a shopping complex around 9 am by which time Kuwait was already taken over by Iraq. When I stopped, the Iraqis were so polite that I thought they were Kuwaitis. They lifted the roadblocks for me to pass but on my way to the supermarket, I witnessed an explosion of a news agency as it was bombed”.

She said though the early days of the Gulf War were frightening, the locals were still able to go to the supermarket to get food but after six days, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein decided to hold British and United States citizens and that directly affected her. She was unable to easily get food and became even more scared.  For days she ate grapes while she hid in a loft. Then came the raping of Indians and Filipinos. At that time, her then husband and 13-year-old daughter were back in England on holidays. Dunlop-Johnson remained in hiding while the struggle for food continued. “I thought I was in sheer hell with no electricity while there was a lot of resistance from the Kuwaitis,” she said, adding that most of the horrific crimes were perpetrated during the curfew hours. It was a living nightmare for her but as casualties mounted, Dunlop-Johnson was moved to set up a make-shift hospital in a basement in Kuwait City.

During the ordeal, Dunlop-Johnson also claimed she hid with the Kuwaiti Royal family for three weeks until their home became a target. She was then moved in the middle of the night, back to her home. A few days late,  a Palestinian and two Iraqis came in, demanding everything from her house. “I started crying because the Palestinian was my family’s friend and when I objected to them taking my things, I was threatened with rape,” said Dunlop-Johnson who had no other choice but to allow the soldiers to go away with everything. She was then taken to a Baghdad hotel where other hostages from foreign countries were kept. Dunlop-Johnson, insisting on driving her prized sports car to Iraq, was allowed to do so but on her way she was stopped and her passport taken away for three hours. She had to remain seated in her car in the hot sun. That’s when one of the soldiers tried putting his hand on her leg. She said she hit him. And he responded by hitting her with a gun butt, before allowing her to leave.

When she got to Iraq, Dunlop-Johnson was met by the British Ambassador, Sir Harold Walker whom she said was very helpful. She was able to park her car in the compound and then made to go to the Iraqi hotel with the other hostages from the UK, US, France and Germany. For the three months spent there, Dunlop-Johnson was fed dried bread and tea, had limited movement  while being surrounded by the Republican Guards of Saddam Hussein. Saddam’s son, Oudai, eventually signed her release papers.

After the ordeal Dunlop-Johnson said: “ I am a very lucky woman. God was with me given all that I witnessed in 1990, but I would quicker go back to Baghdad than Kuwait as the Iraqi people are very warm and wonderful people”. Asked how she felt about the role of British and Americans in the current war in Iraq, Dunlop-Johnson said: “What both governments did, they probably had reason to do it but for me personally, I hate wars. I wish there was a better way. I am really sad about it. I wish we could have gotten Saddam out of Baghdad”.

BAGHDAD, Iraq: Saddam Hussein’s science adviser surrendered to US military authorities Saturday, insisting that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and the US-led invasion was unjustified.

Lt Gen Amer al-Saadi arranged his surrender with the help of Germany’s ZDF television network, which filmed him leaving his Baghdad villa with his German wife, Helga, and presenting himself to an American warrant officer, who escorted him away. Al-Saadi told ZDF that he had no information on what happened to Saddam and repeated his assertion, made often in news conferences before the US-led invasion, that Iraq was free of weapons of mass destruction.

In Doha, Qatar, the US Central Command said it had no information on al-Saadi’s surrender. The elegant, British-educated al-Saadi is believed to be the first of 55 regime figures sought by the coalition to be taken into custody. He had been wanted because he was a special weapons adviser to Saddam and oversaw Iraq’s chemical program in the past. He is believed to have in-depth knowledge of other weapons program as well. He was among the key figures who worked with UN weapons inspectors and often spoke for the Iraqi government in news conferences between the resumption of inspections in November and their end last month.

After Secretary of State Colin Powell’s presentation to the UN Security Council in February, al-Saadi suggested that monitored Iraqi conversations Powell played were fabricated, that defector informants were unreliable, and that satellite photographs “proved nothing.” Al-Saadi had also defended the regime’s longtime practice of insisting that Iraqi officials be present during meetings between UN weapons inspectors and Iraqi scientists, saying that otherwise the scientists’ remarks might be distorted.

“Doh worry, yuh go get back yuh car,” bandits assured Vijai Maharaj early Saturday morning as they drove off with his Nissan Medallist car shortly after they robbed him and his friends of several thousand dollars worth of cash and jewelry. Within half an hour the bandits left Maharaj’s car along a main road not far away.

According to Maharaj, proprietor of Japs Restaurant and Bar of Ragoonanan Road, Enterprise, Chaguanas, he and several friends were liming and cooking under a shed at the back of his home, after the bar closed around 11pm Friday. He reported that at about 12.30am a shot rang out and they heard the gate rattle. His son called out, “bandits” and ran into the house, locking the boor behind him.

Maharaj told Sunday Newsday the shot hit his Rotweiller dog in the neck and instantly killed the animal. Within seconds, he said, three masked men, each armed with a shot gun and wearing army clothes and gloves, entered the shed area and ordered everyone to lie on the ground. He said one of the bandits, who also had a handgun, stood over him and pointed the shotgun directly at his head. The bandits reportedly emptied the pockets of all the men on the floor, relieving them of cash and whatever jewelry they may have had. Some of his friends, Maharaj said, sustained minor injuries such as bruises and burst lips.

Maharaj said he himself was relieved of $5,000 which he had in his pocket and over $6000 worth of jewelry, including his wedding ring. The men, he said, then went into the bar through an open back door and took $1,500 from the cash register. Maharaj said they filled their pockets with cigarettes and filled two bags which they brought with them, with cigarettes, beers, rum and whiskey. He estimated that the stock taken was valued approximately $5,000.

Luckily, the proprietor added, the bandits were not able to go into the house where his wife and daughter-in-law were asleep. His daughter-in-law is in her final month of pregnancy. According to Maharaj’s son, the entire incident lasted under 15  minutes, during which time he called the police from inside the house. He said police arrived on the scene about three or four minutes after the bandits left in his father’s  car. The vehicle was recovered about 30 minutes later at David Toby Road, Chin Chin. The proprietor said the bandits seemed to have known him since they kept calling him by his name. He said he had previously applied for a firearm licence but was refused.

WHILE the Emergency-999 department has been accused of lacklustre performance, the department has had to deal with 356,579 nuisance calls for the first three months of this year, statistics from the E-999 Command Centre revealed.

This figure is almost 17 times the number of calls the department has had to act on. The number of bonafide calls is 20,293 for a similar period. A breakdown of the nuisance calls shows sthat in January there were 126,564, 108,947 in February, while there were 121,068 last month. By contrast, there were 6,278 real calls in January, 6706 in February and 7309 in March, bringing to a total of 20,293 bonafide calls for the first three months.

The startling revelation has left E-999 officers as well as Glenn Shah, Director of Communications Network in the Ministry of National Security, pleading with the Government to introduce some kind of legislation to strongly deal with nuisance callers. “We need to look at this (legislation) very seriously,” Shah told Sunday Newsday in an interview. Shah said since he assumed his position in September of 2002, he has noticed a marked increase of nuisance calls, which seemed to have occurred during the Christmas period.

Most of the calls, he said, appear to be coming from school children, some of whom he said call the toll free emergency number and ask for fast foods. Adults, too, are said to play a major role in the nuisance calls, Shah said, explaining that some of the male callers request sex from the female call takers, and even use several expletives to them. The calls, Shah said, come from all over the country, while E-999 sources said children from the West are responsible for a large portion of the nuisance calls.

Shah said there are times when the call takers have called back the nuisance callers, only for them (call takers) to be told that they are not responsible. Some even terminate the calls on the E-999 staffers. “We want to give the people the opportunity to correct their thinking,” Shah said.  He added that it is not that the E-999 staffers are lacklustre. Rather, Shah said, because of the volume of calls coming in, the call takers are unable to decipher which calls are real and which are not. “It is very frustrating and one will never know when there is a real emergency,” he said.

Shah also said in order to enlighten the public about the happenings at the department, they will be holding a national public safety takeover week from April 13-19. “It will be a village type scenario, and we particularly want the children to come and see how the system works. They also need to recognise the people behind the scenes,” Shah said. Second to nuisance calls is disturbance calls which totalled 4181 for the first three months of the year, according to information from the E-999 Command Centre.

Domestic violence and people seeking information also had a high rating of 2137 and 2307 respectively, with bush fires and threats accumulating 1478 and 1336 individually.   Road traffic accidents stood at 1070 between January and March and there was also a high number of fights which numbered 1016, while strange men on premises stood at 957. Kidnappings, the country’s most popular crime, had a total of 42 for the initial three months. The E-999 responded to 16 in January, 14 in February and 12 in March. 

Commissioner of Police Hilton Guy revealed on Wednesday that there have been 65 reported kidnappings for the year.  This figure represents people who have been taken away from their vehicles against their will. Sources at the Anti Kidnapping Squad (AKS), however, said of the 65 reported kidnappings, only 12 of them have been committed for ransom demands, which has gone past the $20 million figure for the first three months. Just over $1.2 million has been paid out.

DEPUTY SPEAKER of the House of Representatives, Hedwidge Bereaux yesterday brushed aside threats levelled against him and Speaker Barry Sinanan by Couva South MP Kelvin Ramnath in Parliament on Friday.

According to Bereaux, Ramnath’s actions are indicative of a man who is afraid of becoming politically irrelevant within the ranks of his own party. On Friday, Sinanan sent the United National Congress (UNC) MP before the Privileges Committee of the House for describing him and Bereaux as “fools”. At a recent meeting held in Couva by unions representing Caroni (1975) Limited workers, Ramnath charged that the Opposition would never be able to settle the issue of restructuring Caroni because Sinanan and Bereaux were fools. The UNC MP added that the matter would have to be settled “in the streets”. Minutes after Sinanan’s ruling on Friday, Ramnath declared: “I will deal with him (Sinanan) and Bereaux outside. He and Bereaux.”

However Bereaux told Sunday Newsday that he was not bothered by Ramnath’s ramblings. “I understand Mr Ramnath’s frustration. He is seeing himself as likely to be passed over again,” he said. Bereaux, who is also MP for La Brea, said several of the younger MPs such as Dr Roodal Moonilal and newcomers like Winston Dookeran have been pushing Ramnath out of the political limelight in the UNC.  The Deputy Speaker added that in “trying to make his place in the sun”, Ramnath has adopted a strategy of “picking on people”. Bereaux lamented that in pursuing this policy, Ramnath has only embarrassed the House and described his attacks against the Chair as highly inappropriate.

The Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco airport project has entered its second phase. That is the phase where persons who were implicated by the evidence of witnesses are summoned to appear to challenge the evidence by cross examination, direct evidence or by calling supporting witnesses.

Last Friday marked the 120th day of the Inquiry.

MONDAY

Birk Hillman called the shots

A FORMER NIPDEC manager yesterday revealed that Birk Hillman Consultants (BHC) “called the shots”on every decision taken regarding the Piarco International Airport Project. As the Commission of Inquiry into the Project continued at the Caribbean Court of Justice yesterday, it was also revealed that BHC and Northern York Consortium (NYC) were protected on several controversial project decisions by the former United National Congress (UNC) government.

Under questioning by NIPDEC attorney Christopher Hamel-Smith, former NIPDEC senior project manager Ian Telfer testified that he was part of the company’s team to deal with the Project.  Telfer said a March 31, 1998 contract between Government and NIPDEC, showed that the latter (NIPDEC) was supposed to be the designated overseer for the Project. “That was our understanding,” he told the Commission. However Hamel-Smith pointed out that regardless of Telfer’s understanding of NIPDEC’s role in the project, the contract recited that “BHC is the project manager”.

TUESDAY

Finance Ministry never supervised Airport Project monies

PERMANENT SECRETARY in the Ministry of Finance, Kamal Mankee, revealed yesterday that the Ministry’s Project Management Unit (PMU) never monitored the Piarco International Airport Project because the former United National Congress (UNC) government denied it the tools to do so.

Testifying before the Commission of Inquiry into the Project at the Caribbean Court of Justice, Mankee said he was PS from May 1997 to December 1999 and was reappointed to the position last March. He told the Commission that at the time of the Project, he was the director of the Ministry’s PMU which had responsibility for overseeing the financial aspects of any government project ( including the development works at the Piarco and Crown Point Airports).

Asked by Commission lead attorney Theodore Guerra SC if he knew the budgeted cost for combined works at Piarco and Crown Point was $660 million, Mankee replied affirmatively.
Asked if he knew that cost of works at Piarco had skyrocketed to $3.6 billion, the PS said he was shocked to hear of this figure but had no reason to doubt its accuracy given the source of the information.

THURSDAY

Security Manager did not know details of firearms contract

LEO REYES, Deputy Manager of Security at the Piarco Airport and the holder of the Firearms Licence for the Airport for the past nine years, admitted yesterday that he knew few details about the contract given to Firearms Training Institute (FTI) to service guns used by Airports Authority security personnel. He also said neither himself nor the Manager of Security, Dennis John, could verify the work done.

Giving testimony at the Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco Airport Project, Reyes said as holder of the Licence he sought to see the contract but was unsuccessful. The only information he obtained was what he was told by John. Reyes said he did not attempt further inquiries at management level. The contract, was “mainly for auditing”, which involved checking and verifying the firearms on a monthly basis and servicing.  Reyes said John told him to facilitate the process.

FRIDAY

Former NIPDEC Corporate
Secretary admits —
Evidence given in camera against
former Chairman was wrong

Former Corporate Secretary of National Insurance Property Development Company (NIPDEC) Glen Lezama, admitted yesterday that certain evidence which he had given in camera on September 11 last year before the commission was wrong. Lezama claimed while giving evidence in camera that Edward Bayley, the former Chairman of NIPDEC had manipulated the tendering process while he was Chairman of NIPDEC.

During cross examination by Attorney Sonny Maharaj SC, who is appearing on behalf of the former Chairman at yesterday’s hearing of the Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco Airport Development Project, Lezama was asked about certain statements he made about Bayley, which Maharaj said purported to destroy his client’s reputation. In his evidence of September 11, Lezama claimed that the decision by Bayley to make amendments at a board meeting was not protocol.