By Sue-Ann Wayow

LOUD gunshots sounding through the city of  Port of Spain on July 27, 1990, were first thought to be the loud sounds coming from steelbands.

At least, so Winston Dookeran thought, only to realise soon after that Parliament was under siege and he was being held hostage.

Dookeran, now 81, a seasoned politician, former Central Bank governor and retired lecturer at the University of the West Indies (UWI), was the Minister of Planning under the then National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) government led by prime minister Arthur NR Robinson.

Dookeran was also deputy prime minister. Due to the 1990 coup, he would remain as deputy prime minister for a longer period, as an injured Robinson who was shot.

He shared his experience with AZP News on Saturday, recalling in exact detail, the moment that changed the course of history for Trinidad and Tobago.

Being such a traumatic experience, he says almost daily, he remembers the fateful and tragic period that left 24 persons killed and many more wounded.

Dookeran said, “Every year, I think about it, I think about it almost daily, it is never out of my mind. It was such a traumatic event. At one point, that first night, I too felt that I would die in the process and I went through all the emotions of someone on the verge of dying, as I was told by a psychiatrist after who interviewed me. It is not moment that you would forget.”

“During the night, guns would be placed to my head on several occasions to convey messages to the army outside and I don’t forget those things at all.”

More than three decades later, Dookeran admitted there were still unresolved issues involving the uprising led by former leader of the Jaamat-al-Muslimeen Yasin Abu Bakr.

“It was indeed a traumatic event for the country, the attack on Parliament. It was the first time that it has happened to that gravity and hopefully it is the last time it will ever happen. It is something we should guard against because our security system at the time had left a lot of loopholes that allowed it to take place without foreknowledge or official foreknowledge of it.”

Although after six days, the Jaamat-al-Muslimeen surrendered and were tried for treason, the Court of Appeal upheld the amnesty offered to secure their surrender, and they were released.

And although the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council later invalidated the amnesty, the men were not rearrested.

Dookeran said, “It is regrettable that the matter was not completely finalised in the courts of the country although they did agree that it was an act of treason but felt that perhaps the time had elapsed in order to apply the penalties attached to such acts and all these are issues of a legal nature.”

He also said it was one of the reasons why he spoke very little publicly about the matter up until more recently.

A Commission of Enquiry was appointed in 2010 by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar during her first tenure as prime minister to provide insight into the events that took place in July 1990. The report was released by the Commission in 2014 and revealed that many of the victims of the coup attempt have yet to be identified.

Dookeran  said some issues were dealt with in the Commission of Enquiry which took almost 20 years after.

“It was an extraordinary cost that those individuals had to meet and I think there are still outstanding issues with respect to the families of those victims that are directly involved,” he said.

Dookeran also said the country has become alive again to discussions surrounding the 1990 coup.

“I believe people are now free to see it as part of our history and we must ensure that we have the history correct.”

Dookeran recalled the exact moment he first gunshots at around 6 pm on July 27, 1990.

He said Robinson had asked him to be his deputy prime minister for the session as he was in Tobago and would have been arriving late to the Parliament where the Tesoro corruption scandal was being debated.

Robinson had suggested having a lawyer speak on the issue before Parliament adjourned for tea and so Dookeran had Joseph Tony, a lawyer on the government side speak.

Dookeran said, “In the middle of Mr Tony’s speech, these gunshots started to appear. At first most people were not aware of what it is. I myself thought it was a steelband on the road playing music and loud noise but all of a sudden, I realised it was much more ominous than that because gunshots were being fired right left and center, and all of us in Parliament had to lay low in order to be able to prevent ourselves from being shot. And that was the first instance.”

Dookeran, tied up with guns to his head had to endure the night along with Robinson and others not just in Parliament but also at TTT.

He was also involved in discussions that took place initially between government and the captors and then subsequently over the next six days until the surrender on August 1, 1990.

Dookeran shared a light moment in all the drama.

He said he was asked by a captor what office he held in parliament to which he responded “Minister of Planning.”

His captor told him, “I am sure you did not plan for this one.”

Dookeran said, “While it was tense moment in which shots were being fired both from within and outside it did reveal to me that here is a Trinidadian making picong of a serious issue and that relieved a lot of stress in my mind.”

In the days that followed international aid would be heavily relied on.

“We had an entire network of support internationally,” he said.

Support was sought from the United Kingdom, Canada, Jamaica and the United States.

“The United States government was very supportive through their Ambassador Mr Charles Skeete, I say that specially because we owe him a debt of gratitude for the role he played in the resolution of this problem.”

He said international and regional forces were involved in the restoration of a sense of order in the country to assist  particularly for the order of the opening and closing of the banks and for the looting that took place in the aftermath of the 1990.

Regarding the commemoration of the 1990 coup during a State of Emergency, Dookeran said, “I think it is unfortunate since 1990, we have had several States of Emergency that have been put into place. That itself is an indictment on the state of security in the country. It is a complex issue and it is not an easy issue. It is not only an issue of security, it is an issue of development.”

On Sunday, Dookeran will be participating in an online event in commemoration of the coup.