THE EDITOR: Permit me through this means to add a postscript that would have made my DO YOU KNOW column today too long. Here it goes: “To Whom It May Concern – Joke is joke, as the saying goes, and I enjoyed it immensely while it lasted, but THIS is the end, the very end, of THAT story. Please do not tempt me again. Like Oscar Wilde, ‘I can resist everything except temptation.’ ”
UNDINE GIUSEPPI
THE EDITOR: Early reports from the battlefields in Iraq have exposed the false promises of US president Bush, who claimed that his aim was to liberate Iraqi people from Saddam, the wicked despot. We now learn that the Turks will enter northern Iraq, the land of the Kurds. The Turks’ desire to enter this area is to subdue the Iraqi Kurds who are expected to seize the opportunity to establish an independent state, and therefore raise hopes of independence among the Kurds who now live in Turkey. The net result of the US invasion for the Kurds will be the exchange of one oppressor for another. Where is the democracy in this?
I predict that very soon the real reason for this war will become very clear. It is the vast oil reserves of Iraq. I fully expect the US to use several pretexts to appropriate Iraqi oil. They might first claim that Iraq’s oil must be used to pay the costs of this so-called war of ‘liberation’. The US will then assert that the Iraqi oil will be used to pay mainly US contractors for the rebuilding of Iraq. These and other ploys must be seen by thinking people everywhere as shallow pretexts for the theft of a nation’s wealth, and a sad return to colonisation of sovereign nations. Those who fail to see this are already colonised.
DAVID SUBRAN
Chaguanas
THE EDITOR: There is something stupid, or repressive, or both about the decision by certain local Roman Catholic authorities to hide the weeping Virgin from the thousands of devoted followers whose only ‘sin’ is a desire to pray before this compelling visual aid. Some members of the religious communities have complained that if the statue was exposed, crowds of the curious and the crass would convert the sacred into the profane. There would be eating, picnicking, and unruly behaviour — “real bacchanal” — to disturb the peace and tranquillity as embraced by the Bemini peristyles at St Peters.
These robed bigots are the very sort that would have frowned on the crowds of the turbulent and the greedy, the critics and thrill-seekers, the ardent believers and the proselytes who thronged around Jesus when he preached, at times turning a sermon into a picnic in which He supplied the eats. Jesus tolerated the mobs. Not these latter-day Pharisees who would lock away the statue of the weeping Virgin because of sneering sophistry, and social intolerance of peoples and practices deemed unbecoming, even inferior.
It started when a statue of the Mother of God on February 11, 1996 was seen to have human blood running down the face from the eyes. The figure gained widespread attention and popularity, but for some inexplicable reason, it was removed from public display at the Corpus Christi Carmelite Convent in Diego Martin, and hidden from supposedly curious eyes and sensationalism. It was subsequently taken from the convent, and imprisoned at Mt St Benedict, to be viewed by the chosen few, by appointment only. Is it right to deprive the public of so poignant a manifestation by that statue of Our Lady of Lourdes? Particularly in these troubled times when turbulence at home and abroad are pleading for prayers?
Isn’t La Divina Pastora on display for all to see? Aren’t other statues? – the weeping images of the Virgin at La Salette; in an Orthodox Church in Chicago; in Tumero, Venezuela and in New Sarov Texas? Has Medjugorje been closed down even though it lacks Rome’s imprimatur? Did it stop Archbishop Pantin from going there and celebrating Mass in front of hundreds, Trinis included. Why this iron curtain between an anxious public and a motivational statue? The answer has to be the sort of stupidity and repression that darkened the Middle Ages, and condemned Galileo. What a shame and disaster that devotion to Mary is being choked off by stiff-necked bigots still locked in an earlier century. It should be added that appeals to certain members of the hierarchy have fallen on the unresponsive and the deaf. The suppression continues.
LLOYD CARTAR
Westmoorings
THE EDITOR: The very poor leadership of sugar workers continues to be displayed as the restructuring process set in motion by the PNM Government gathers momentum. One expected some kind of aggressive and militant response from the All Trinidad Union and other unions in the sugar belt against the Government VSEP proposal and its plans for the future of Caroni (1975) Ltd, and the sugar industry.
This has taken place and continues but the feeble leadership is exposed when one is only witnessing one strategy. The leadership of the All Trinidad Union has miserably failed to put before the public alternatives to what the Caroni (1975) Ltd, and its shareholder, the Government, is offering to the workers. Instead, the leadership loses workers and public support and sympathy with its talk of bloodshed and threats to the security of Governm-ent ministers and by its disruptive behaviour.
Mr Rudranath Indar-singh, president of the All Trinidad Sugar Workers Union, was recently quoted as stating that “blood would be spilled over the VSEP issue and I cannot guarantee the safety of them (ministers) in Central Trinidad,” the same language used by Kelvin Ramnath and other UNC politicians. He had accused the Minister of Agriculture of “fooling” the workers at the meeting at the Capildeo Learning Resource Centre. Other than total opposition and rejection, the Union leadership continues to fail to put forward counter proposals to workers, superior proposals to what is being offered by Caroni (1975) Ltd. Already over 1500 workers have accepted the VSEP offer and my information is that workers are just waiting to sign closer to the April 3 deadline.
As difficult as it is, the majority of workers are in effect, rejecting the leadership of the All Trinidad Union and the position of the UNC politicians. It is they who have “fooled” the workers. It amounts to a betrayal of sugar workers. In Government the Panday government failed to restructure Caroni (1975) Ltd and the All Trinidad Union was especially docile during this period. The Union leaders live well off the union dues paid by hard working sugar workers. They work in air-conditioned offices, receive handsome salaries, drive cars provided by the union, or purchased with union loans. There is really no democracy in the union, and the small group jealously protects their “living”.
It was Mr Panday himself who had put these things in place when he was the leader. Mr Panday and the UNC even failed to acquire a party headquarters and still occupy the Reinzi Complex, one wants to suggest, shamelessly so. Is it not a case where Mr Panday believes he has proprietary rights over the Union. Even at this eleventh hour the union leadership has failed to produce even a pamphlet assessing the VSEP and putting forward its counter proposals and alternatives. Instead, its strategy is reactionary. Disrupting Minister Rahael’s meeting may make the news but does not assist workers’ cause. They did the same with Team Unity meeting in Balmain, Couva, last year instead of attempting to win support for its cause. This time around the workers are making up their minds on their own. They have bene fooled and betrayed for too long.
K P SINGH
Carapichaima
THE EDITOR: They denude a people in order to clothe them. They create conditions of starvation in a country so that they can feed its people.
They deliberately and maliciously wound a people so that they can tend to their wounds. They destroy a nation with weapons of mass destruction, causing the death of multitudes in that nation only so that they can bury them. They create and cause havoc to the infrastructure of a nation so that their friends and associates can rebuild what they themselves have destroyed. They do this all in the name of humanitarianism, democracy and concern for the welfare of the very persons they have wounded, killed and made destitute and homeless. They do not do all the above things because of greed, power, self centred concerns and revenge.
VERNE W RICHARDS
Attorney-at-Law
Port-of-Spain
Arson is suspected in an early morning fire that ripped through Caroni (1975) Limited’s Human Resource Department, Industrial Relations and Training Departments at Sevilla House, Brechin Castle, yesterday.
According to police reports, around 1 am, two Caroni watchmen Ramjit Subhag and Joanas Sampat were on duty when they were accosted by two men, one of whom was armed with a gun. The intruders beat and tied up Subhag and Sampat and left them on the floor of the guard hut. A few minutes later, a loud explosion rocked the building housing the company’s Human Resource and Personnel Departments. A statement by The Board and Management of Caroni (1975) Limited revealed that neighbours alerted the police on hearing the explosions. When the police arrived they found the company’s security guards beaten and tied up and one of the buildings ablaze. Fire officers from the Couva Fire Station responded and quickly extinguished the fire which destroyed the eastern half of the building.
The police also found empty gasoline containers near the site, the statement said. Sevilla House is also the building in which all the company’s employee records are kept, and documents pertaining to the company’s VSEP offer, including acceptance letters and queries, were being received and stored. When contacted, Caroni’s CEO William Washington denied claims that the VSEP packages were being stored there saying that they were removed from the building at the end of each working day and stored at another location. He said fire officers had advised against entering the building until investigations surrounding the source of the fire had been completed. Washington said the fire would not affect the company’s April 3 deadline for receiving VSEP applications by workers.
At 6 pm, yesterday, a statement revealed, the Industrial Court granted the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers’ Trade Union (ATSGWTU) an injunction restraining Caroni (1975) Limited from implementing its VSEP offer for daily paid employees. The company is currently considering the implications of that order in consultation with its Shareholder and its Attorneys. In the statement, The Board and Management of Caroni expressed their deep concern in regard to destruction of the company’s offices and the danger and bodily harm faced by its security personnel who were on duty at their location at the time of the blaze. The company wishes to advise that alternative arrangements are being made for accommodation of the departments and personnel affected by the fire, and steps taken to reinforce security in general throughout Caroni’s estate and operations.
Kidnap victim Kenrick Baboolal has vowed never to return to Guyana again. The 39-year-old supervisor employed with General Earth Movers, at San Fernando, was kidnapped while on his job site near Boxton, Guyana last Thursday. He was safely released some five hours after a ransom demand of $3 million Guyanese currency was paid.
Speaking about his ordeal for the first time yesterday, Baboolal told Sunday Newsday he had given up hope of being rescued and was pondering how his abductors were going to kill him. “I believed they were going to kill me. I saw my whole life flash in front of me. One thing that kept running through my mind was how painful my death was going to be,” he said. Sitting in the comfort of his home at Poco Alley, Siparia, Baboolal in recounting his ordeal said: “Around 10.30 am on Thursday I was walking around the job site supervising the workers when a man came up from behind me and pushed his hand around me. He placed a gun on my back and ordered me to walk.”
Baboolal said the man’s accomplices then proceeded to rob the other workers. He said the men took him to the downstairs of an old abandoned wooden house, some 200 yards away from his job site. They handcuffed his hands behind his back and made him sit on a four inch concrete block. He said there were at least 11 men surrounding him. Baboolal recalled the men telling him that they wanted money. They used his cellular phone to contact his boss and arrange for a drop off point. While negotiations were taking place, Baboolal said the men beat him with a gun butt on his head and cuffed and slapped him. They also threatened to kill him.
“One of the men even take off my left shoe and sock, placed my foot on a piece of wood and threatened to chop off my toe. Another one played Russian roulette with me. He pointed a gun at me and pulled the trigger several times,” he said. As he spoke about his terrifying experience to Sunday Newsday, Baboolal’s eyes filled with tears, saying that no one could understand what he went through unless they had been in a similar predicament. Around 3 pm, a short distance away from where they had held him hostage, the men collected the money and released him. “The first thing I did was pack up my bags and head home,” he said.
Baboolal, who is married and has two children, said he was very happy to be back home with his family, whom he thought the would have never seen again. Baboolal, who stayed at Atlantic Gardens East Coast, Demerara, said he was working on a project in Guyana since last September. Baboolal said he worked every other month there and the project was expected to be completed by next month. “I am glad it is over and I not going back there again,” he boldly declared.
BAGHDAD, Iraq: A suicide bomber in a taxi killed four American soldiers in an attack yesterday. Iraq’s vice presi-dent identified the bomber as an Iraqi army officer and said suicide attacks will now be “routine military policy.”
“We will use any means to kill our enemy in our land and we will follow the enemy into its land,” Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said at a press conference. “This is just the beginning. You’ll hear more pleasant news later.” The suicide bombing was the first against US and British forces since the invasion began. The bomber struck at a US checkpoint on the highway north of the city of Najaf, US military officers said. A taxi stopped close to the checkpoint, and the driver waved for help. The soldiers approached the car and it exploded, Capt Andrew Wallace told Associated Press Television News. Wallace said the victims were part of the Army’s 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division.
US Central Command in Doha, Qatar, confirmed the incident. Maj Gen Victor Renuart said that kind of attack was “a symbol of an organisation that’s starting to get a little bit desperate.” Ramadan identified the bomber as Ali Jaafar al-Noamani, a noncommissioned army officer and father of several children. A detailed statement on the bombing would be issued later, he said. Regarding suicide bombings, Ramadan said Iraq, like many other nations, cannot match the weaponry of the United States. “They have bombs that can kill 500 people, but I am sure that the day will come when a single martyrdom operation will kill 5,000 enemies,” he said. He said thousands of Arab volunteers have been pouring into Iraq since the start of the war and that Iraq will provide them with what they need to fight. “The Iraqi people have a legal right to deal with the enemy with any means,” he added.
Later Saturday, Iraqi state television aired footage of President Saddam Hussein meeting with top aides while an announcer said the Iraqi leader praised the suicide attack. The programme did not carry any audio of Saddam speaking. “The enemy, having bet on less than a week to achieve his goals, has been defeated on all the locations that he had thought to have established a foothold,” the announcer said. Iraqi state television reported that Saddam posthumously promoted al-Noamani to a colonel.
Ramadan said Iraq won’t accept any diplomatic bid to end the fighting unless it provides for the departure of US and British troops within 48 hours. He also rejected the latest UN Security Council resolution on resuming humanitarian aid to Iraq, saying it provided a blanket of legitimacy for the US-led invasion. “We categorically reject the Security Council resolution,” he said. “It was born dead and will remain dead.” There have been warnings of suicide attacks in Iraq. Iraqi dissidents and Arab media have claimed that Saddam Hussein has opened a training camp for Arab volunteers willing to carry out suicide bombings against US forces in Iraq.
Terror mastermind Osama bin Laden also urged Iraqis last month in an audio tape aired on Arabic television to employ the tactic against the Americans. Other Arab militants also spoke about suicide missions against the invading armies. Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri was asked in a mid-March television interview, whether Iraq would use suicide attacks against the invading American forces. “We have prepared ourselves for all kinds of war. For many months, tens of thousands have volunteered to serve as martyrdom-seekers (suicide attackers) in the battle with the American enemy,” he said. “We trained them and readied them. We have prepared ourselves for street fighting and desert fighting.”
CENTRAL IRAQ: Confused frontline crossfire ripped apart an Iraqi family yesterday after Iraqi soldiers appeared to force the four civilians towards US Marine positions, American officers told Reuters at the scene.
A four-year-old girl, blood streaming from an eye wound, screamed for her dead mother while her father, shot in the leg, begged to be freed from the plastic wrist-cuffs slapped on him by the Marines, so he could hug his terrified younger daughter. The Rahi family was treated by US medics after crawling towards a military checkpoint in the aftermath of a volley of heavy gunfire from US positions. Initially the father of the two young girls was handcuffed but was quickly untied. The Marines said they fired after Iraqi soldiers came behind the family car and fired through its windows, killing the wife of Haytham Rahi, a civil servant from the town of Rifa, to the south of the US positions where the shooting occurred.
The massive firestorm the Marines unleashed killed two Iraqi soldiers and could possibly have caused some of the injuries to the family. Three other Iraqi troops were taken prisoner. The names of the two children were not available. The elder daughter was hit in the eye, the stomach and the shoulder. Her younger sister was physically unscathed. Their badly damaged car lay in no-man’s land. Behind it stood a truck, from which Marine Captain Daniel Rose said the Iraqi soldiers jumped out to threaten the family in the car. US Marines are extremely wary of suicide bombings after an attack on Saturday near Najaf killed four soldiers. They suspect treachery from surrendering Iraqis who, they say, have launched ambushes while pretending to give themselves up.
In the confused situation while the family were treated and loaded onto a helicopter for transport to a US military hospital it was not possible to discover why they were trying to move south towards US Ranks parked behind barbed wire. Nor could this Reuters correspondent determine the reason for the reported conflict between the family and the Iraqi military. US commanders allege that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s loyalists have terrorised families and used violence to prevent soldiers surrendering to the invading forces. “I think they forced that family to come down here,” said Captain Rose of the Marines, who thought the civilians were being used to test US defences. Marines later approached the truck involved in Saturday’s incident with the Rahi family and killed a man inside who, they said, had been pretending to be dead but then jumped up with a pistol. The truck was found to be carrying military equipment.
AFTER surviving on Crix biscuits and juice, psychologist Ronald John, brother of former UNC government Minister Carlos John, was rescued yesterday by police from a Tunapuna house — three days after being kidnapped from his Woodbrook home.
“This has been a trying time for me and my family and I would like to thank them (the family) for their prayers and the police for their quick work,” stated a visibly tired and haggard-looking John. He spoke briefly to Sunday Newsday at the posh Moka, Maraval home of his brother Carlos. Elsewhere in the house, officers of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) mingled freely with relieved family members. Carlos John heaped praised on the police whom he said had set up a small base at his home where certain aspects of the investigations were carried out. Pressed further by Sunday Newsday reporters, Ronald John waved his hands and said “ ah tired, maybe in a few days time”. He was then led off by relatives to a bedroom.
John, 50, was kidnapped around 10 pm on Wednesday outside his Petra Street, Woodbrook home. He had just arrived home in his Honda CRV when a car pulled alongside from which two gunmen jumped out. They forced him into the car which sped off. His family was later notified by the kidnappers, who demanded $5million for John’s safe release. This was the second time within the past six months, that John had been snatched from his home. Last October 2, John was kidnapped outside his home but was found in a house in Cascade two days later. Yesterday’s rescue came after Tunapuna police received an anonymous telephone tip-off. The rescue operation was coordinated by Snr Supt Rodvan Bastien and Supt Leon Anthony.
According to reports, around 11.30 am, Northern Division Task Force officers led by Cpl Jagdeo and Tunapuna CID officers led by Insp Michael Modeste and including PCs Durmot Highly, Ronald Williams, Anthony Sutherland, Dave Thomas and WPC Petra Forbes went to a house off Bamboo Trace, Upper Fairley Street, Tunapuna. The officers found the front door opened and on checking a room on the upper floor, found John lying on a bed with his hands secured by two handcuffs. John later told police that a man armed with a gun had been guarding him, but ran off minutes before police entered the house. John who was limping, was taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) in Mt Hope where he was medically examined. “I was home when I got a call saying my brother was at Mt Hope…so I rushed over,” Carlos John said.
He said that throughout the ordeal, the family prayed together asking the Almighty that Ronald be returned home safely. AKS officers led by Snr Supt Gilbert Reyes and including ASP Henry Millington, Insp Adam Joseph and Sgts Netram Kowlessar and Joseph Isaacs went to the EWMSC and later escorted Ronald and Carlos John to Carlos’ Maraval home. AKS police told Sunday Newsday that since doctors had advised that Ronald get immediate rest, they would return sometime over the long weekend to record a statement from him. Up to late yesterday no arrests had been made and investigations were continuing.
