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

DATE: MONDAY, July 30, 1990                   TAG: 9007300113
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PORT-OF-SPPAIN, TRINIDAD                                 LENGTH: Medium

TRINIDAD REBELS GET OFFER

Prime Minister Arthur Robinson offered Sunday to resign and call early elections if black Moslem rebels free him and about 30 other hostages and end their coup attempt, an official said.

At least 27 people have reportedly been killed in the violence. However, there was no official toll.

Robinson apparently made his offer as he and other government officials remained wired to explosives and threatened with death. They were taken captive Friday when several hundred rebels with automatic weapons seized control of broadcast buildings and the Parliament.

Government radio said the rebels were optimistic about reaching a settlement with Robinson but that they also wanted immunity from prosecution.

However, Energy Minister Herbert Atwell appeared on national television late Sunday with an official statement offering no hope for a quick settlement.

"I am in no position to offer any hope that the situation will be resolved speedily and-or amicably," Atwell said. "The situation in Parliament remains a touch-and-go one with relation to the hostages and their captors," he added.

Acting Police Commissioner Leonard Taylor announced during the same broadcast that joint police and military patrols had been dispatched to control widespread looting along the 25-mile-long corridor from the capital to its international airport.

A journalist who was inside the Parliament building when it was stormed said Sunday the rebels shot Robinson in the leg and also shot in the leg the minister of justice, Selwyn Richardson. The two were being treated by Minister of Health Emmanuel Husin, a medical doctor who was in the building.

The journalist, released by the rebels Saturday night, spoke on condition of anonymity.

State-run Radio 610 said Nolli Clarke, an Anglican priest, was assisting in the negotiations at the Parliament. Hundreds of government troops were patrolling around the building.

Coup leader Abu Bakr, a former policeman in his mid-40s, claims Robinson's government is corrupt and undemocratic. He said on television Friday that the coup was intended to stop "poverty and the destruction" of Trinidad and Tobago, a Caribbean nation with high unemployment and skyrocketing food prices.

by CNB