Imam Lorris Ballack, a bodyguard for Jamaat al Muslimeen leader Imam Yasin Abu Bakr during the July 1990 uprising, refused to apologise for the event.
“I am not going to apologise. Apologise to who?” Ballack shouted during his testimony at the Commission of Enquiry into the attempted coup.
The Imam of the Jamaat’s Palo Seco Mosque is the third insurrectionist to appear before the enquiry.
He claimed everybody knew what was happening at the Jamaat headquaters in Mucurapo where police were spied on their women who bathed in outdoor washrooms.
“I seek forgiveness only from my Lord, not from Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.
Ballack said he cannot reconcile with people who rape the wealth of the nation and leave poor people with nothing.
“It is the politicians who need to apologise for all the money they stole,” he said. “Speak about Calder Hart," Ballack added.
“I don’t need no reconciliation,” Ballack insisted, noting that "not one single Trinidadian" had openly attacked him for participating in the insurrection.
“After I came out of prison in 1992 not one Trinidadian threw stones at me. Not a child ridiculed me. I have never seen one placard in the village saying, ‘you bad boy, you should not have done that’.
“I am the Imam of a mosque. We built a kitchen and feed people in Palo Seco and in Port-of-Spain.
“We continue to take people who are lost. Who are you to reconcile with?” he asked.
He said he grew up on an estate and learned at age seven how to use a gun to shoot squirrels and manicous. He said he didn't question what the Jamaat was doing because "a good Muslim does not ask questions".
Ballack also told the commission he was unaware of the group's plan to overthrown the elected government or that its members were being trained for such an exercise.
However he did say that part of the reason for the uprising was that the Jamaat learned of a plot to kill Bakr and other members of the Jamaat. He said the Muslimeen uprising was partly a case of “do them before they do us”.
He also said the US Drug Enforcement Agency has hired the group to guard a container at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex.
Ballack couched much of his testimony in religious practices. “There are times in each of our lives that you have to defend certain things. There are some things you keep between yourself and your Creator,” he told the chairman of the commission who suggested that he was not telling everything he knew.
The Imam said all the insurrectionists were "prepared to go to paradise". Ballack said he was falsely charged with killing seven people in the Red House, noting that he was never in the legislature building. He was with Bakr at the state television station, ttt, he explained.
“I seek forgiveness only from my Lord, not from Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.
Ballack said he cannot reconcile with people who rape the wealth of the nation and leave poor people with nothing.
“It is the politicians who need to apologise for all the money they stole,” he said. “Speak about Calder Hart," Ballack added.
“I don’t need no reconciliation,” Ballack insisted, noting that "not one single Trinidadian" had openly attacked him for participating in the insurrection.
“After I came out of prison in 1992 not one Trinidadian threw stones at me. Not a child ridiculed me. I have never seen one placard in the village saying, ‘you bad boy, you should not have done that’.
“I am the Imam of a mosque. We built a kitchen and feed people in Palo Seco and in Port-of-Spain.
“We continue to take people who are lost. Who are you to reconcile with?” he asked.
He said he grew up on an estate and learned at age seven how to use a gun to shoot squirrels and manicous. He said he didn't question what the Jamaat was doing because "a good Muslim does not ask questions".
Ballack also told the commission he was unaware of the group's plan to overthrown the elected government or that its members were being trained for such an exercise.
However he did say that part of the reason for the uprising was that the Jamaat learned of a plot to kill Bakr and other members of the Jamaat. He said the Muslimeen uprising was partly a case of “do them before they do us”.
He also said the US Drug Enforcement Agency has hired the group to guard a container at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex.
Ballack couched much of his testimony in religious practices. “There are times in each of our lives that you have to defend certain things. There are some things you keep between yourself and your Creator,” he told the chairman of the commission who suggested that he was not telling everything he knew.
The Imam said all the insurrectionists were "prepared to go to paradise". Ballack said he was falsely charged with killing seven people in the Red House, noting that he was never in the legislature building. He was with Bakr at the state television station, ttt, he explained.
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