By Sue-Ann Wayow
ATTORNEY General Reginald Armour, SC, is dismissing claims that the government has not attempted to assist nationals of Trinidad and Tobago stuck in war-torn Syria to return home.
Armour, in a media release on Monday, referred to another one issued by the Human Rights Watch Group, contents of which were published in a local newspaper.
Armour said that by letter dated February 1, 2013, the Human Rights Watch Group wrote to him as well as Minister of Foreign & CARICOM Affairs Dr Amery Browne by letter of the same date, with reference to the status of nationals of Trinidad and Tobago being held in detention camps and prisons in Northeast Syria.
Armour stated that the group advised him that they intended to release a report of their findings on Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday and requested that he meet with them either on February 27 or March 1.
He said he responded in clear terms on February 15 that it would have been wholly impractical to request a meeting for those dates with reference to a report already prepared and intended to be released on February 28.
“It would not appear that there was an intention for the government’s actions to date to have been included in that report,” Armour said.
He stated, “In that letter of response I made it clear that as a sovereign democratic state, Trinidad and Tobago is cognizant of what is required in the best interests of its nationals, including their physical and psychological health and welfare, their fundamental rights and the national security and public interest considerations involved and that, all of this was being actively addressed and balanced.
“I emphasised then, as I do now, that of paramount importance in the ongoing multi-disciplinary and multi-agency attention which this Government is giving to the plight of its nationals are the national security concerns which necessarily must be carefully investigated and addressed.”
Armour said that in his two letters dated February 15 and addressed to Advocacy Director, Children’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch Jo Becker and Minister of Foreign & CARICOM Affairs, he emphasised the multi-agency perspective being engaged that included the work of the Nightingale Team established by former National Security Minister Stuart Young.
He added, “Accordingly, it is incorrect, premature and misleading for Human Rights Watch, by its releases to the media to state and to impute that the Government of Trinidad and Tobago has taken no steps to help its nationals or that the Nightingale Team is not actively engaged in evaluating the national security considerations together with all other pertinent considerations relevant to the return of our nationals.”
The Attorney General also called for media practitioners to ensure that the coverage of the issue was balanced, accurate and reflective of the very serious national security considerations involved in any prospective returns from conflict zones in Syria and Iraq.
On Tuesday, the Human Rights Group intends to release a report entitled “Trinidad and Tobago: Bring Home Nationals from Northeast Syria.”
The group in its invitation to attend stated, “This report finds that over 90 nationals of Trinidad and Tobago, including at least 56 children, are unlawfully detained in life-threatening conditions as Islamic State (ISIS) suspects and family members in northeast Syria. The government of Trinidad and Tobago has taken almost no steps to help them return, even as dozens of countries including the United States and Barbados repatriate some or many of their nationals.
“The report calls on the government to bring home its nationals for rehabilitation, reintegration, and prosecutions of adults as appropriate. Many children in other countries are successfully reintegrating after being brought home from northeast Syria, Human Rights Watch has found.”
