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Originally published in the Los Angeles Times January 2, 2005
Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times
Island's abduction rate is second in
the world to Colombia's. Most victims are Indians, who complain of
police complicity and racism.
By Carol J. Williams, Times Staff Writer
For
as long as pastel rum drinks and hedonistic pre-Lenten celebrations
have been in fashion, fun-seekers have flocked to this tropical duet of
lush islands to sunbathe, sway to calypso and savor the exotic flavors
of its multicultural cuisine.
But an ugly
social ill threatens the perpetual party atmosphere: kidnapping, a
crime so epidemic that Trinidad ranks second in the world behind
Colombia for its rate of abductions.
Victims
and police point to a home-grown radical Muslim gang that sought to
topple the government in 1990 and has since built a lucrative criminal
empire. U.S. intelligence operatives are believed to be watching the
militants of Jamaat al Muslimeen for signs that they are linked to
global terrorist networks such as Al Qaeda.
Abductions
targeting the prosperous and politically influential have evoked
comparison to the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, whose kidnappings in the
Philippines and Malaysia have chilled business at island resorts in
those Pacific countries. They have also instilled fear in this country,
the Caribbean's most dynamic economy, that visitors and foreign
investors could begin looking elsewhere.
The
relatively small and obscure Jamaat al Muslimeen sparked the kidnapping
wave that flared up about two years ago, but authorities see an even
more troubling copycat phenomenon. Amateur crooks and street kids are
getting into the act, inspired by the ransom paid by relatives who may
fear the police as much as the abductors.
Kidnapping
has been on the rise throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, but it
has soared in Trinidad. In 2001, this country of 1.2 million had fewer
than 10 kidnappings. In 2002, the number was 29. In the last couple of
years, the figure has been about 150.
Police
say most kidnappings are instances of gangland score-settling or drug
dealings gone wrong, an explanation that serves to defuse public anger
and convince honest citizens that they run little risk of becoming
targets.
The victims are primarily
Indians, who make up 40% of the population and tend to be more affluent
than blacks, who compose a similar proportion. They contend that the
kidnappings are being fueled by police corruption, government
complicity, racism and an attitude that most victims had it coming.
Still
missing six months after his June 21 abduction, 11-year-old Vijay
Persad has become a symbol for the plight of ordinary Trinis caught up
in the violence. "People say they're after us. The black community
doesn't give us support. They are scared of these people," Ragkumar
Persad, 38, says of his neighbors' indifference to his family tragedy
and Jamaat al Muslimeen.
Saran Kissoondan, whose family paid $167,000 to free him last year, accuses the police of being in league with organized crime.
"The
criminals were getting information from the police. I could hear their
conversations," Kissoondan recalled of the 18 days he spent handcuffed
and blindfolded in a dirt-floor shack, listening to his captors talking
on their cellphones. "The police officer handling my matter was
advising the criminals not to let me go [for a lesser ransom]. The
police were telling them my family could pay more."
Kissoondan,
owner of a car dealership and brother of one of the country's most
successful restaurateurs, identified two of his captors, who were
arrested shortly after his release. One of the men, a member of Jamaat
al Muslimeen, agreed to testify against the crime masterminds of the
group and was put under police protection. Before he could testify,
however, the witness' body was found in a lake, shot, wrapped in
plastic and weighted with rocks. All charges were dropped against the
rest of the suspects.
"Since the PNM came
to power, kidnapping of Indian people has come alive," Kissoondan said,
referring to the ruling People's National Movement and Prime Minister
Patrick Manning. "There's nothing and nobody to stop it. The police
know who the main kidnappers in Trinidad are, but they are their
associates so they will do nothing."
A
senior police source, who spoke on condition that he not be identified,
confirmed that authorities knew that members of Jamaat al Muslimeen had
been involved in the kidnappings. After a failed 1990 coup, the group's
leaders were freed on a legal technicality and have since run drugs,
smuggled arms and carried out other criminal activities with impunity
from a mosque complex in the south.
"The
group isn't really religious anymore. The leader has been picking up
hardened criminals and getting them into his fold," the official said.
Police don't move against them "because both the present government and
the past government rub shoulders with that group to win votes."
Jamaat
al Muslimeen members are seldom denied bail, even on murder charges,
which enhances suspicion in the business community that the government,
courts and security forces are not to be trusted.
"Ninety
percent of the time, relatives are not willing to go along with the
police. They think the police are dragging their feet, or worse. I'm
not saying there is not corruption," the official said. "Their main
concern is to get back their loved ones."
Police insist that the kidnapping threat is exaggerated.
"There
have been problems, but we are getting on top of the situation," said
Supt. Adam Joseph, head of the anti-kidnapping squad within the
National Police Service. "Very few innocent people are killed. Most
murders involve gangs. They are killing each other off. Still, it's not
good for society to be without law and order."
Of
the wealthy and influential people who are increasingly among the
victims, Joseph turned philosophical. "Criminals will always be
inclined to go after people with money," he said. "There will always be
an element of society motivated by greed and envy. But by and large it
is a very small element."
Joseph
acknowledged that Jamaat al Muslimeen was suspected in much of the
crime wave and noted that the group's leader, Yasin Abu Bakr, and three
other kingpins face charges of conspiracy to murder stemming from the
assassination of the state's witness in the Kissoondan case. The
defendants are free on bail.
Asked whether
U.S. intelligence or security officials had expressed concern about the
group or any ties it might have with global terrorist organizations,
Joseph said he wasn't privy to talks at that level.
A
spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Port of Spain wouldn't comment on
whether there was concern in Washington that Jamaat al Muslimeen posed
any threat beyond Trinidad's borders.
But
Hamid Ghany, dean of the social sciences faculty at the University of
the West Indies, said he thought the extremists probably had ties to an
international network such as Al Qaeda. "My suspicion is that they are
not operating in isolation," he said.
The
Trinidad & Tobago Express newspaper has covered the kidnapping wave
and Jamaat al Muslimeen's leading role, drawing veiled threats against
reporters and editors transmitted through a radio station with close
ties to the group.
Reporter Richard Charan
said he's been told by senior police officers that they know Jamaat al
Muslimeen controls the kidnapping rings but believe they are powerless
to stop them. He also worries that the targeting of Indians by the
predominantly black gang members threatens to expose racism "that is never spoken about but is just below the surface."
Average
Trinis echo the official line that upright citizens have nothing to
fear from the kidnapping wave or the concurrent string of killings.
"It's
just criminals knocking off criminals," tour guide Balkissoon Narine
said. "There's a lot of drug business in the country, but they keep
themselves to themselves."
Early this year, calypso artist Weston Rawlins, who goes by the stage
name Cro Cro, brought the simmering racial issue to the surface with
the song "Face Reality," in which he appeared to condone kidnapping as
a tool for social justice.
"Dey
dress with jacket and ties. Dey thief and living a lie. Dey better pay
back all the wrong things they do, or the bandits coming for you," Cro
Cro rapped to appreciative audiences.
News commentators, opposition politicians and Indian community leaders denounced the song as inciting violent crime.
Joseph, the leader of the anti-kidnapping squad, brushed off the controversy as political posturing by the opposition.
"If one listens to the lyrics of the song, it was tongue in cheek," he said.