PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The main opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) Wednesday said the government had other options than a state of emergency to deal with an escalating crime situation and accused it of trampling on the human rights of Trinidad and Tobago citizens.
Opposition Leader Dr. Keith Rowley told a news conference that the recently passed Anti Gang Act provided enough measures for the coalition People’s Partnership government to seriously tackle the crime situation without trampling on the human rights of the entire population.
“This country came under a state of emergency by accident,” Rowley told reporters a few minutes after both Attorney General Anand Ramlogan and the National Security Minister retired Brigadier John Sandy appealed to citizens to assist law enforcement agencies “recover the streets of Trinidad and Tobago”.
Sandy, responding to reports of police brutality in some sections of the capital, said “officers have been told they must be firm but courteous”.
He told reporters that while some of the constitutional rights of citizens were being affected by the state of emergency and the eight hour curfew “the intent is to make you more comfortable” in the future.
Police Commissioner, Dawyne Gibbs, whose whereabouts have become a major concern here after the Police Service Commission (PSC) said it was unaware of his absence from the country, said that police officers would “be firm while seeking the support of the public.
“We are not out there to provide the citizens with grief,” the Canadian-born Gibbs said, adding that 117 people, including 56 gang members and leaders and 48 drug offenders, had been detained since Tuesday evening.
Ramlogan said he was using the opportunity to urge gang members who wanted to become la abiding citizens to do so acknowledging that some of them may be afraid or threatened to leave.
“I want to make an urgent appeal to you to turn away from a life of crime,” Ramlogan said, adding that “by and large responsible citizens have been feeding us with credible information” since the state of emergency was announced on Sunday night.
Initially, Prime Minister Persad Bissessar said that the limited state of emergency would be for “hot spots” across the country, but the government has since upgraded the emergency to cover the entire country. In addition, they have also announced an eight hour curfew starting from 9.00 pm to 5.00 am (local time).
The Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce in a statement said while it welcomed the initiative also questioned how the current curfew will address the crime situation.
“We remain concerned, however, as to how the 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew will address the now commonplace practice of homicides blatantly occurring during the daytime period.
“The business community stands ready to cooperate fully with the directives of the Commissioner of Police and to assist in any way that it can during this period. We trust however, that some mechanism will be found to facilitate the normal flow of goods and services to keep the economies of both islands stable for the duration that the limited State of Emergency will be imposed.”
Rowley told reporters that under the Anti Gang legislation, which the opposition had actively participated and supported, gives law enforcement officials the powers to arrest without warrant persons suspected of being a gang member.
He said it also provides for these officials to enter into and search premises without a warrant if they believe gang activities are being conducted there.
“It had available to it those provisions of the Anti Gang Act without disturbing the country’s equilibrium with a state of emergency,” Rowley said of the government, adding as he had said previously that the drastic measures were a panic reaction to the murder of 11 people over a 48 hour period last week at a time when the government was congratulating itself on a decline in murders across the country.
Rowley said it was also interesting to note that the Prime Minister and the National Security Minister had approved a request for the Commissioner of Police to leave the island one day after the “massacre” in Arima, east of here and before it announced the state of emergency.
Brigadier Sandy confirmed that the government had given Gibbs permission to attend a conference in Brazil involving the European Union and Central American countries, but said it had done so on the basis that the Canadian born head of the police force had obtained the required permission from the Police Service Commission.
“I had come here wanting to call for the dismissal of the Commissioner of Police,” Rowley said, noting that he had changed his mind after he heard Sandy’s explanation, which he described as “ludicrous”.
But Rowley told reporters that “nothing that is said here is meant to encourage any citizen to do anything other than to obey the laws of Trinidad and Tobago.
“In so far as there is a state of emergency affecting the entire nation, every citizen is required to obey the law and that is what the opposition advocates,” he said, even as he told reporters that it would not be farfetched for the security forces to arrest him over his remarks made at the news conference.
Earlier, members of the joint trade union movement also warned that the government may be planning action against the leadership of the unions gearing for a national strike.
President of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU), Ancel Roget, the main spokesman for the trade union grouping, told a news conference that union leaders were preparing themselves to be arrested under the state of emergency powers.
“…we have a government that by and large the population does not trust and therefore we suspect strongly that many of us, not just me, but many of the leaders may be detained, arrested and that is a price we have to pay.
“If it is a price that we leaders have to pay to ensure that justice and equity and social justice is metted out to the country even in a period of a state of emergency we will not stop our campaign,” he added.
The unions have warned that the national strike “will come like a thief in the night” as they protest the government’s five per cent cap on negotiations within the public service.
