PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – Trinidad and Tobago Monday quietly marked the 25th anniversary of the failed coup attempt by a group of Muslims, with one of the hostages accusing the Kamla Persad Bissessar-led coalition People’s Partnership Government of giving lip service to the recommendations of a Commission of Inquiry into the insurrection.

On July 27, 1990, the leader of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen group, Yasin Abu Bakr, led more than 100 members in coordinated attacks on the Parliament and the lone television station hoping to overthrow the then government of Prime Minister ANR Robinson.

At least 24 people, including one legislator, Leo Des Vignes, were killed during the six-day insurrection that ended on August 1.

Bakr and his men were tried for treason, but the Court of Appeal upheld the amnesty offered to secure their surrender, and they were released.

However, the London-based Privy Council, the country’s highest court, later invalidated the amnesty, but the Muslimeen members were not re-arrested.

Soon after it came to office, the coalition administration here set up a Commission of Inquiry headed by prominent Barbadian jurist Sir David Simmons to probe the matter.

In March last year, Prime Minister Persad Bissessar urged citizens to read the report of the Commission saying the document “must go beyond mere study, mere scholarship, mere education, and information”.

She told legislators that the report “must serve to provide tangible lessons for the people of Trinidad and Tobago with the objective of ensuring that such a grievous and heinous assault on our democracy must never happen again”.

But in a radio interview to mark the occasion, Wendell Eversely, who since 1991 had been advocating for a Commission, said the Government was not implementing the recommendations.

He said the commissioners had urged the Government to deal with the recommendations “very urgently” and asked whether or not  “they were swept under the carpet.

“Or is it that we just spent money for a Commission and that’s it. So after 25 years of an attempted coup, the recommendations also state how to deal with the day itself, which is today in Chapter 11 and again it is swept under the carpet.”

Eversely said that if the authorities were inclined to take the recommendation seriously, July 27 “would not have passed and be forgotten.

“It shows clearly where there is a lax in our national security where our citizens are concerned,” said Eversely, who received a national award for his campaign to have a Commission held to probe the factors leading to the failed coup.

The Government last year laid the “voluminous” report of the Commission in Parliament and said it would be made available on the Parliament’s website for the benefit of the general public.

Prime Minister Persad Bissessar said then that her administration had taken a decision to waive the confidentiality aspects on national security so as to ensure national debate on the document.

Meantime, the Office of the Parliament paid “tribute to those who lost their lives, the hostages and those who suffered directly or indirectly as a result of the events of July 27th to August 1st, 1990.

“We also acknowledge the yeoman service of those men and women whose united efforts preserved our highest institution of democracy during and after those tumultuous days, including members of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, the Defence Force, members of the media and thousands of patriotic citizens of our beloved country,” it said.

Last week, police detained Bak, 74, for questioning in the murder of prominent attorney Dana Seeathal who was gunned down in May last year as she left a casino for her hme during the early hours.

Bakr has since been released and was among members of the public who on Monday sought to enter the Magistrate Court here where 11 people, including members of the Muslim faith, have been charged with her murder.