TEENAGED kidnapped victim Geewan Geelal lent his kidnappers $20 after they ran out of money to buy food, the victim said in an interview yesterday, hours after he was released in the Arima area by his captors. Geelal, 13, of El Socorro, San Juan, told Sunday Newsday that he told his kidnappers that whenever they got back the money, they could repay him.

The youngster, student of Trinity East College, was snatched at gunpoint Wednesday morning while being driven to school on the Aranjuez Main Road. One day after he was snatched, the kidnappers called his relatives and demanded a $3 million ransom for his safe return.  Just over $200,000 was paid and young Geelal, son of businessman, Premnath Geelal, was reunited with his family around 4.10 am yesterday after he was dropped off at Jacob Hill and found by taxi driver Ruthven Romero. Recounting the three-day ordeal, Geewan said when he was first kidnapped, he wondered if it was a real kidnapping or an act of terrorism. “I went into shock,” he said.

He said they taped his hands and mouth with duct tape and drove around for awhile, after which the kidnappers brought their vehicle to a halt and switched cars. “They took off the tape from my hands and tied my hands to the back. They then taped my eyes,” he added. After, Geewan continued, the kidnappers drove around with him on roads, some he described as rough, others smooth. When they finally got to their destination, Geewan said he realised he was being kept in a forested area. “They gave me a pack of biscuits and water and KFC,” he said. 

It was then, he said, the kidnappers ran out of money.  “I offered them $20, and I told them when they get it back, they could pay me back,” Geewan explained. During his time in captivity, Geewan said he was moved around in the forest, and on Thursday night got pies and soft drink.  He said he did not get anything to eat all of Friday, but in the night, he received bar-b-que chicken and macaroni. That same morning, Geewan said, he was allowed his first bath in a nearby river. The teenager said his kidnappers did not physically abuse him, but his life was threatened. “They told me if I do anything to get them locked up, a bullet will be in my head,” he said.

Saying he was in shock, Geewan said when he realised his predicament, he began to cry on Friday and was eventually allowed to speak with his father that night. Three hours later, Geewan, who was blindfolded during his time in captivity, said he was taken out of the forest, and then placed at the side of the road. “They told me don’t move and don’t take off the blindfold until  the car drives off,” Geewan recalled, adding that the kidnappers gave him $9 to get to his home.   Once the kidnappers drove off, Geewan said he got up, removed the blindfold and started flagging down passing vehicles, none of which stopped, that is until Romero came to his rescue. “He (Romero) took me to the Arima Police Station and then I saw a doctor and came home,” he said. Geewan thanked Romero for coming to his aid. 

KIDNAPPERS who snatched and held 13-year-old Cindy Mahase for a $15,000 ransom demand managed to elude police and made off with $10,000 early yesterday morning.

After the money was collected, police said young Mahase was released at Damarie Hill, Turure, Sangre Grande, just before 5 am yesterday. Mahase, a Form Two student of the Five Rivers Junior Secondary School, was one of two students who were snatched for ransom last week, the other being 13-year-old Geewan Geelal. They were two of four children to have been grabbed within the last three weeks and the fifth overall for the year, the others being Micha Bernard, 9, Adriana Ramsingh, 8, and Merita Hector, 17.

Mahase was snatched Thursday night outside her San Pedro Road, Valencia home by three armed men who also took her mother, Sherrifa Mohammed and pushed her brother, Fareed into her mother’s car. During that time, Mohammed had a $10,000 cheque in hand and police said this money represented the proceeds of the sale of the woman’s roti shop in Arima earlier last week. Police said Mohammed also told the kidnappers that she only had $5,000 in a bank.  As a consequence, police said the kidnappers made a ransom demand of $15,000. The ransom  money was supposed to have been dropped off at the same roti shop, where a sting operation had been set up by members of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) and officers of the Eastern Division.

However, sources said when the kidnappers heard the media reports, they changed the drop-off location and around 2 am yesterday,  Mohammed handed over $10,000 at Dump Road, Wallerfield. Her daughter was released close to three hours after.  A male passerby found her and took her to the Sangre Grande Police Station, after which she was medically examined and handed over to the AKS. Senior officers said they were working on several theories, among them a family link. Lawmen said they could not say who bought the roti shop, but that they were going to solve the crime soon. Meantime, police sources said the whereabouts of alleged kidnap victim Stanley Dehere were unknown up to late yesterday evening. 

TRINIDAD and Tobago’s law is not ready to deal with the experienced kidnappers in the country, says Premnath Geelal, father of kidnapped victim, Geewan Geelal.

From his El Socorro home yesterday, the 40-year-old dry goods businessman said his three sons will all be leaving the country this Thursday for either the United States or Canada, where they will stay with relatives. The elder Geelal said the kidnappers who snatched his 13-year-old son knew exactly what they were doing. He said they knew how to wear the family down and put pressure on them. “They know every step to make and how to break us,” the businessman said.

With the knowledge the kidnappers possess, Geelal said the laws of this country are not equipped to deal with the kidnappers at all. On his sons leaving the country, Geelal said it was a tough decision to make, but he simply has no choice.  He said if they were to stay in this country, his children will be forced to be under “lock and key” and he did not want that. “I don’t want to send them, but their safety is most important,” Geelal said. He, too, is contemplating leaving, but said he has a lot of commitments here that may force him from giving in. 

Commenting on the negotiating aspect of the kidnapping, Geelal said it was like something that was being sold, and you had no choice but to buy it. “That’s just how it was,” he said, later advising would-be relatives of kidnap victims to listen to the police, whom he heaped praises on, as well as officials of the United States Embassy. The businesman also called on the Opposition United National Congress (UNC) to have more concern with regards to the Kidnapping Bill because, he said, kidnapping is not decreasing, but increasing.

Her Excellency, Dr Jean Richards, our new First Lady is settling down to the very great change that has entered her life. She still continues her practice at the Mount Hope Maternity Hospital, but is trying her best to adjust to the security that now accompanies her everywhere and to the staff of aides, cook, butler, driver that now surround her.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I ever believe I would be in this position,” she said during an interview last week at the family home in Maracas Valley where President Max Richards and herself are still living while adjustments are made to the official President’s House. Dr Jean, as she is fondly known, was born on August 18, 1935, at Cipero Street, San Fernando. The fifth child of the late Amjad and Lena Ramjohn’s nine children, she refers to herself as being in the middle of four sisters and four brothers. “There were two girls and two boys, then me and then two more of each.”

She has been told that former President Noor Hassanali, her first cousin, was also born in their grandparents’ Cipero Street house. Her father and Noor Hassanali’s mother were brother and sister. Her early education started at Grant Memorial and continued at the San Fernando Govern-ment where she won one of the few exhibitions offered at that time. She went to Naparima Girls’ High School, where she obtained a Grade One Senior Cambridge School Certificate. That was her passport to Naparima College (the boys’ school) to complete the Cambridge Higher School Certificate exam or A levels as it is called today: “The girls’ school did not offer that exam, and I had to do Modern Studies as there was no science.”

Amjad Ramjohn had often told his young daughter that he would like her to be a doctor, but realising that this would mean she would have to be away from home for a long time, he changed his mind and suggested that she do Arts. However, Jean’s mind was made up that she would be a doctor. She taught at Naparima Girls’ for over two years and then left for the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland, to study medicine. Having qualified, she worked there for a short while, and on her return to Trinidad worked as a House Officer at San Fernando General Hospital, where she did a bit of everything — surgery, gynae/obstetrics, casualty. At the end of 1967, while spending a holiday in Mayaro, the young doctor met Max Richards who was then a senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus. They were married on March 22, 1968.  “Actually,” says Her Excellency, “we celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary five days after the inauguration and it was a nice present.”

When their first child, Mark, was born, Dr Richards made up her mind that she would never be a general practitioner. “I am in labour locked in my office, and patients are waiting to give me their problems and complaining because I was not available.” One year later on November 20, 1969, daughter Maxine was born. And in 1970 Dr Richards moved into anaesthetics. The family had to make some compromises with their careers. “My husband came to live in San Fernando where I was practising and travelled up and down until the children were ready for the University (primary) School.” The roles were then reversed and Dr Richards was travelling from St Augustine to San Fernando. “It was time consuming but Max was very good with getting the children to school and could even dress them whenever I needed to overnight in San Fernando.” As she travelled up and down to San Fernando she would often wondered where her medical practice would take her. “What would I do eventually? Miraculously, in 1980, the Maternity Complex was going up at Mount Hope, long before the Eric Williams Complex was built, I applied and was the first and only anaesthesist appointed to the Maternity Theatre.”

Dr Richards retired in August 1995. By September she returned, on contract, to the Regional Health Authority, and remains Registrar in Anaesthetics in the Maternity Block. “I like what I do and that is why I do not want to give it up. I am still full time and was on call on the holiday last Monday.” As First Lady, she plans trying to balance things with the hope that it will work, but will be prepared to compromise. Motherhood is obviously the number one priority in the doctor’s life. She speaks with a quiet pride of son, Mark, now specialising in her field of anaesthetics at Warrington, Manchester, with just one exam to go. And smiled as she reminisced that on his return from studying at Mona Campus “he opted to practise at the Sangre Grande Hospital.” Daughter, Maxine, has a degree in geography “with a bit of geology” from Mona Campus as well, and an MBA, and runs her own business, Trends Limited, a market research company. Their Excellencies have not yet moved to St Ann’s. And when they do, will first live in the ‘Big’ House for about three to four months while the Cottage is being upgraded. And then in the Cottage for the two year period needed to repair and refurbish The President’s House. Did she ever visualise herself as First Lady, in residence at The President’s House? “Not in my wildest dreams, the closest I ever came to being in that house was our relationship with President and Mrs Hassanali who lived there.”

In her Maracas Valley home now are all the staff that come with being President of this country: cook, butler, aides, and security. This is the one thing that Her Excellency is taking sometime to adjust to: “All the security and attention, and my own aide. I wish it could be lessened but don’t think it is possible. From the appointment on February 14 to inauguration on March 17, I was allowed to do whatever I wanted, now they drive me to work and security stays at Mt Hope. I cannot leave my house now without security. Today all I wanted to do was to get a gift for a friend at the Grand Bazaar, I had to have an entire security detail. It is getting into my private life but I suppose it comes with the territory.” Another thing which comes with the territory is entertaining. But with this Her Excellency has no problem as that has been a part of her life with a husband who was Principal and Pro Vice Chancellor of the St Augustine Campus. And she added quickly: “I have already warned Maxine that I will need her to help me, and she has promised to move in with us. She copes quite easily with anything.”

One of the loves of her life was cooking for her husband: “In fact he never wanted anybody else to cook but me. And I love cooking, trying different recipes. The only food which has eluded me is Chinese because there are so many good restaurants around and we have a good friend who cooks chinese food very well. But all the others I can do.” Her other loves are reading, the garden — especially tending the orchids inherited from her mother who died in 1982 — the two dogs, 12-year-old Chico and two-year-old Xena, are treated with tender, loving care. Tennis was her sport but had to be stopped after knee replacement in 1986, the result of an accident while playing mas that year, but she still walks for half an hour on mornings with her husband.

NEAR BAGHDAD: US armoured forces rolled into Baghdad yesterday, smashing through Iraq’s Republican Guard to reach the ultimate destination — at least briefly — of their two-week surge across southern Iraq, US officials said.

Witnesses in Baghdad said they saw no evidence of an incursion and as night fell, the streets were teeming with armed men who have taken positions on major intersections and on main roads leading to the southern, southeastern and western exits of the city. Army tanks were deployed inside the city, together with artillery. On the road to the airport, Iraqi army troops danced on top of what they said were US armoured personnel carriers destroyed in battle on Friday and yesterday. They flashed the “V-for-victory” sign. The US sweep left burning tanks and bodies of Iraqi fighters behind. US officials said the incursion was not an attempt to capture large sections of Baghdad.

Air Force Major General Gene Renuart said, “It was a clear statement of the ability of coalition forces to move into Baghdad at the time and place of their choosing.” Though another Central Command officer had said earlier that US forces were in the city to stay, Renuart described only a brief sweep by one unit in and out of the capital. He declined to say if any troops remained inside. Thousands of US troops had reached the outskirts of Baghdad Friday — the 3rd Infantry Division arriving from the southwest and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force from the southeast.

The Iraqi military, in a statement read on satellite television, said US forces were repulsed when they tried to advance on Baghdad from the south. “We were able to chop off their rotten heads,” the statement said. Saddam, in a statement read on Iraqi TV by Iraq’s Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, urged his men yesterday to charge at the coalition forces “and destroy them”.