Hostages Freed, Rebels Give Up in Trinidad

The five-day hostage crisis that devastated the capital city of Trinidad and Tobago ended Wednesday with the surrender of 112 black Muslim rebels who were holding 46 captives in two besieged downtown buildings.

Minister of Planning Winston Dookeran, who led the government’s negotiating team, said the hostage takers surrendered unconditionally and are being detained under heavy guard at the Teteron army barracks, 10 miles west of Port of Spain.

When asked if the government had deceived the rebels into believing they would be pardoned and released, Dookeran evaded a direct answer and simply repeated his assertion that the capitulation was unconditional.

Government spokesman Gregory Shaw had earlier suggested that the rebels could face charges of treason and murder for crimes that included the bombing deaths of at least two policemen. But Dookeran, who was himself a hostage for the first day of the five-day ordeal, would go no further than to say that “appropriate charges will be laid after an investigation.”

“The government condemns this abhorrent crime,” Dookeran said at a press conference late Wednesday.

Dookeran announced that Parliamentary Secretary Leo Divine died of gunshot wounds to the leg, received during the violent takeover of the Parliament building.

He added that ailing Prime Minister Arthur N. R. Robinson, who was released by the rebels on humanitarian grounds Tuesday, was hospitalized in good condition and “there is no intention for him to resign.”

But some rebels of the group known as Jaamat al Muslimeen insisted that the government had promised them amnesty and that they were to be allowed to return to their controversial religious commune just north of Port of Spain. They said part of their supposed deal included Robinson’s resignation.

The rebels, a number of whom appeared to be of East Indian descent, looked more like prisoners than pardoned men as they filed out at gunpoint, one at a time through a drenching tropical rain, to tightly guarded buses outside the Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT) building, where 29 of the hostages had been held.

The leader of the attempted coup that led to the hostage taking, Yasin abu Bakr, was spread-eagled against the wall of a building near the TTT headquarters and searched before being prodded toward a bus.

Abu Bakr, clad all in white and with hands clasped atop his head in surrender, smiled broadly and called “Allah is the greatest” to journalists. Earlier, he had walked out of the television building, placed his rifle in the street and then stood at attention as his followers came out singly at two-minute intervals, holding weapons over their heads. He submitted to a search only after all his followers had been searched first, face down on the concrete or up against a wall, and then loaded aboard the buses.

A few hostage takers spoke to reporters from the windows of the buses that took them away, with one crying out, “We succeeded in our goal of exposing the corruption of this island.” Several insisted that the government had promised to abide by an agreement to grant them full pardons, let them return to their homes at a Black Muslim enclave north of the capital and call elections in the near future to form a new government.

Three hours later, as darkness settled over the no-man’s land around Red House, the Parliament building where 17 top government officials had been held, the hostages there filed out singly, applauding with relief.

Several, including Minister of National Security Selwyn Richardson, limped out of the Parliament building to a waiting panel truck. Richardson and Robinson had suffered gunshot wounds to the leg during the violent takeover last Friday.

Although most hostages and all but three hostage takers appeared unhurt, there was no official word on their medical condition. The hostages were taken to the army’s Camp Ogden for physical and psychological examinations.

Asked what development had led to the breakthrough Wednesday that ended the crisis, government spokesman Shaw replied, “I have no idea.”

Shaw said, “As far as the government is concerned, (the surrender) is unconditional. The hostage situation is over.”

As to what would now happen to the rebels, he said, “I know nothing about what their prospects or their future will be like.” But he added that “they could be charged with treason and murder.”

Shaw insisted that the government had “made no agreement” with the rebels. During the past three days, there had been authoritative reports that an agreement detailing a staged release, as was finally achieved, had been at the heart of hostage negotiations and tentatively accepted by both sides.

A number of Trinidadians interviewed during the hostage release expressed shock when they heard rebel claims that they had been promised amnesty.

“Any agreement made under that kind of duress will not stand up legally and must not be honored,” said Bonny Patrick, a Port of Spain businessman.

The hostage crisis began at 6:10 p.m. last Friday when the rebels drove an explosives-laden car into the enclosure of the country’s central police station. The station was demolished and the policemen died when the car bomb exploded.

Almost simultaneously, two groups of rebels assaulted the Parliament and television buildings, trapping the government officials, including the prime minister, employees of TTT and others. A handful of the captives in Red House were allowed to go free during the early hours of the siege.

Negotiations with the hostage takers began early Saturday and were carried out mostly through the mediation of an Anglican clergyman, Rev. Knolly Clarke.