Date: 03 Aug 95 01:28:49 EDT
From: Jan Ziff <72662.3351@compuserve.com>
Subject: Re: Fwd: Perspective on Bad Days

Dear Dave:

This is where my former BBC hat is being firmly righted and I get to grips with
something near and dear!!   The Supermac story you mailed round is lovely, but
if the spelling and general knowledge of the writer is any indication of the
accuracy of events - it's not true!  

First -  " some middle level official from the legitimate government of
Trinidad.  The fellow spoke very good English...."   as English is the national
language of Trinidad, one can only hope he did. 

"It seemed that there was a coup attempt in progress at that moment." - there
was, this must have been July 27 1990. This story's taken a while to get to us
hasn't it....

 
"the national armory for that city was kept in the same building as the 
Legislature, and it seems that there was a combination lock on the door to the
armory.  Of the people in the capitol city that day, only the Chief of the
Capitol Guard and the Chief Armorer knew the combination to the lock, and they
had already been killed. "  - this isn't true. 

The national armory for Trinidad was not in the Red House, as the Parliament
building is known. The Chief of the Capitol Guard - is a position that's
unlikely   - "Capitol" is not a word used other than for the home of the US
Congress and no such official was reported killed.  Ditto the "Chief Armorer".
Former British colonies talk of Parliament buildings not capitol buildings. And
there is no such place anywhere as a "capitol city". Not even Washington!!! <g>

"That night, the legitimate government of Trinidad fell".  - no it didn't.  In
fact the coup attempt lasted 6 days, and ended with the unconditional surrender
of the rebels and the release of all their hostages, including the Prime
Minister who had been shot in the leg (actually released the day before because
of illness - probably diabetes) and seven Cabinet ministers including the
Minister of National Security who was also shot in the leg.   The rebels had
taken over the Parliament building (Red House) and the government run TV. They'd
also blown up the main police headquarters with a car bomb which may have been
where our story teller got the idea of an "armory" from. 

"One of the BBC reporters mentioned that the casualties seemed heaviest in the
capitol, where for some reason, there seemed to be little return fire from the
government forces."  -- As the BBC's State Department Correspondent at the time
this does not strike me as odd at all. The reason there may have been little
return of fire was that the rebels had taken some 41 hostages and claimed they'd
wired the Cabinet ministers to explosives. Government forces were on alert but
unlikely to storm the Parliament and trigger the mass execution of the
government!!

And just to put this in context - the attempted coup took place Jul 27/Aug 1.
Just about the time Iraq was crossing over its southern border into Kuwait. No
wonder we didn't take that much notice of it. 


Sorry for the history lesson - but as I said, it's a lovely story even though it
has more holes than a colander.


Best as always,

Jan Ziff