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OROPOUCHE East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal is demanding a full-scale independent investigation into the “bungling of the Coast Guard” after a boat with human corpses, which a Coast Guard vessel was towing to shore, somehow separated from the Coast Guard vessel and is believed to have sank beneath the sea off the east coast on January 16.
Speaking at the UNC's cottage meeting at the Chaguanas South Secondary School on Monday evening, he said this was a major embarrassment to the “hapless” Rowley government and all of TT, especially after extensive amount of taxpayers' money would have been allocated to the Coast Guard.
He said even with the recent return of two vessels to full duty, this maritime security agency could not land a drifting vessel with corpses, to shore.
“This disaster would deny the authorities the opportunity to effectively co-operate with international agencies to trace the origins of this wandering boat and its occupants,” Moonilal said.
The shadow national security minister said this was not a joking matter as it could have serious international implications, and hence the need for an international investigation.
“Those men and women on board must have come from somewhere and the US DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations) and Interpol would have an interest.”
He also had choice words for Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds and prime minister-designate Stuart Young, saying this was an indictment of their “pathetic” leadership of that ministry.
Young, the Energy Minister and Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, served as national security minister between August 6, 2018-April 18, 2021.
“Only in TT, under Hinds and Young could the CG tie a boat (to have it towed) and then lose it.”
Tongue-in-cheek, he wondered how this small vessel could survive crossing the Atlantic Ocean on the same route of the Kala Pani (black waters) used by Indian-born indentured labourers to get to TT – including those on the Fatel Razack – only to disappear once in the custody of the Coast Guard.
He questioned where the Coast Guard crew was when the vessel disappeared from their sight.
“There were 16 men on board, so what were they doing? Playing All Fours downstairs, and then somebody come upstairs and ask where the boat gone? This is the only country where a coast guard could lose a boat with dead people in it. You could imagine if it was living people on board?"
Moonilal said whether or not the people on board were involved in illegal activity, the incident speaks to criminal activities.
“The Coast Guard has previously been inept with respect to drug and human trafficking, illegal migration, and illicit importation of contraband goods." He said the continuous bungling by the Coast Guard is yet another reflection of Hinds’ gross incompetence, which was also on display with the bloody crime crisis even amidst a state of emergency.
“The prime minister’s steadfast refusal to dismiss the inept Hinds makes him (Dr Rowley) a direct accessory to the failure of national security agencies and incidents such as the Coast Guard’s latest botch,” Moonilal said.
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