Humphrey tells 1990 Coup probe Panday asked him to meet Libyans and Bakr in 1987

John Humphrey told the Commission of Enquiry into the failed 1990 Muslimeen coup he met with Muslimeeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr and a delegation from Libya at the Trinidad Hilton in 1987. He was at the time a member of the cabinet in the Robinson NAR administration.

The former MP said he held the meeting on instructions from Basdeo Panday, who was Trinidad and Tobago's foreign minister at the time. He said Panday called him from Guyana where he was attending a non-aligned nations conference, and told him to meet the Libyans in Trinidad. 
 
Humphrey said the Libyans wanted help to establish diplomatic ties with Trinidad and Tobago and the United States. However, Prime Minister A.N.R. Robinson was not interested, he said.

Humphrey, Panday and some other former ULF members later broke with the NAR and went on to form the United National Congress in 1989.

Asked by commission counsel, Avory Sinanan, if his meeting with Bakr was an attempt to forge an alliance with the Muslimeen, Humphrey replied: “Certainly not.”

He denied that the fallout with the NAR had something to do with the attempted coup and said is waiting to find out what caused the uprising. “I honestly don’t understand why they did it,” he said.

“I don’t have a clue. They did not ask for a reassembling of the coalition....They wanted the removal of the prime minister. They have to explain why they did it,” Humphrey said, adding, “I am waiting on the evidence of the Muslimeen leaders to find out why it was done.”

Humphrey had developed a relationship with the Muslieem group since 1985 when the PNM was still in office. It was the Williams PNM administration that had given Bakr lands at Mucurapo where the organisation built a mosque and conducted its affairs.

Humphrey also talked about a meeting with Bakr in 1985.

“I suggested to him that we go to the Sou Sou Lands project in Cunaripo. Citrus was in season and they were ripe....We spent the day picking citrus...We talked about everything you could talk about.”

At that time Humphrey was a member of opposition United Labour Front (ULF) and the leader of the party, Basdeo Panday, was opposition leader. Humprehy told the commission on Monday Panday had authorised his meeting with Bakr to gauge the man's political philosophy.

The ULF never made any political deals with Bakr. Instead Panday entered discussions with other political groups and dissolved his party to form the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) and handed the leadership to A.N.R. Robinson.

Humphrey told the commission he was the one who led the negotiating team during the Red House siege by the Muslimeen in July, 1990. Others involved included Winston Dookeran, Joseph Toney and the Muslimeen's Bilal Abdullah, who was the leader of the insurrectionists at the Red House.

“I brought up the Constitution to enable the insurrectionists to be dealt with,” he said, responding to questions from his attorney, Lennox Sankersingh, on the matter.“I wanted something in the Constitution to concretise the agreement.

“Section 87 enables the President of the Republic grant pardon to people who offend the laws of the land. It was agreed that the Muslimeen would have a conditional pardon, that there will be no further bloodshed and that all hostages will be freed unhurt,” the former cabinet minister explained.

He also told commission counsel Avory Sinanan that he would not have breached the amnesty after the hostages were freed. “Whether they broke the laws of the land or we were under duress, the agreement enabled us to settle the crisis," he said. “We should abide by it,” he insisted.

Humphrey said that agreement saved people's lives.