Prime Minister Mottley; no one is saying Barbados deliberately participated in the Brent Thomas affair, but Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar did not lie.
It is disheartening to see our two great nations resort to a war of words because not only did the Barbados Government actively participate in the “abduction” (the word used by High Court Judge Davindra Rampersad to describe what occurred to Brent Thomas), there is documented proof that their Attorney General, Dale Marshall, accepted liability on behalf of the Barbados Government for Barbados’ role in the Brent Thomas affair.
How could one accept liability and then claim they are not in any way culpable?
This reminds me of the Dole Chadee case, when the law found the ‘driver’ was just as guilty of the murders of the Williamsville family as the men who pulled the trigger.
For clarification, these are the facts:
– The Barbados Police Service was contacted by officials in Trinidad and Tobago who requested that Brent Thomas be detained for extradition back to Trinidad and Tobago.
– Members of the Barbados Police Service detained Brent Thomas at his hotel in Barbados, and he was placed in the back of a transport vehicle.
– On or around the same time, officers of the TTPS left Trinidad and Tobago to go to Barbados with the use of a RSS aircraft, and Trinidad and Tobago is not a part of the RSS.
– The Barbados Police handed over Brent Thomas to the TTPS officers, and Brent Thomas was flown back to Trinidad and Tobago via the same aircraft.
Prime Minister Mottley has every right to refuse to cooperate with Trinidad and Tobago regarding their role in this incident. But she must appreciate that Mrs Persad-Bissessar stated the facts that are already in the public domain. And while it is never pleasing to see a squabble between our two great nations, surely it must also be appreciated that Persad-Bissessar was also on a fact-finding mission to put an end to this sordid episode, which is a blot against our two countries—and, indeed, every CARICOM citizen—because the precedent being set here is that anyone can be abducted from their respective country based on false claims by a neighbouring country.
The reality is, Barbados played a role in the abduction of Brent Thomas from Barbados back to Trinidad and Tobago, albeit by being misled by officials of the last Trinidad and Tobago Government.
The importance of this is finding a way to ensure that those responsible can be brought to justice. It is not about pointing fingers but rather it is about CARICOM working together to get the facts so this doesn’t occur again.
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