Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 29, 1990                   TAG: 9007290166
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD                                LENGTH: Medium

DEATHS CITED IN COUP TRY

Government-run radio announced late in the day that a settlement had been reached with the rebel leader, Abu Bakr. It said he had asked for a plane to take him and his supporters to Libya.

The radio report, which quoted an unidentified police superintendent, could not be immediately confirmed. The report did not say if the government had accepted the request to provide the plane.

The report of deaths in Friday afternoon's takeover of the Parliament building and subsequent fighting came from the Barbados-based Caribbean News Agency. Officials gave no casualty figures, but the Red Cross issued an urgent call for blood donations.

In addition, the station reported a gun battle late Saturday after announcing the settlement. It said four people were wounded in the clash between two policemen and two civilians outside a television station where the rebels were holding hostages. It gave no details.

Roman Catholic Archbishop Anthony Pantin said Bakr told him the prime minister and the other officials captured Friday "are wired up with explosives."

Pantin said on state radio the threat was relayed in a 25-minute telephone conversation with Bakr, who threatened to blow up the captives and himself if government troops attacked the rebel-held television station.

The Moslem rebels fired automatic weapons in storming the Parliament building, seizing Prime Minister Arthur Robinson and several Cabinet ministers.

Bakr went on government television Friday evening after his followers seized the station and said the government had been taken over.

Bakr, a former policeman in his mid-40s, heads a group of about 250 followers called Jamaat al-Muslimeen, Arabic for the Moslem Group. The group has been linked with Libya.

The education minister, Clive Pantin, said Saturday the government remained in control.

"The government of Trinidad and Tobago has not fallen," said Pantin, speaking on government-run Radio 610. "The Cabinet members are in command and taking the necessary decisions to ensure the peace and well being of all."

He said two ministers and four civilians had been released, but the exact number of people being held was unknown.

Police in the former British colony of two islands off the Venezuelan coast imposed a curfew until this afternoon, and acting President Emmanuel Carter declared a state of emergency. President Noor Hassanali was in London.

In Washington, a State Department official said it appeared the insurrection was limited to the television station and Parliament building. The television station is in northeastern Port-of-Spain about two miles from the Parliament building and the main police station.

Trinidad and Tobago, which gained independence from Britain in 1962, is mostly a Hindu and Christian nation of 1.3 million people. About 6 percent of the population is Moslem, while those of East Indian and African descent each make up 40 percent of the population.

There has been great tension between the black and Indian Moslems. Since the black power movement began 20 years ago, the black Moslem population has grown.

Bakr's sect is known to have connections to Libya that reportedly include some funding.