Khadijah Ameen Arrested
UNC councillor arrested in protest MAY 17, 2008
UNITED National Congress-Alliance councillor for Valsayn
South/Carapo Khadijah Ameen was arrested yesterday during a protest
by residents of Spring Village, Valsayn, over a Housing Development
Corporation (HDC) project.
At around 6 a.m. a number of residents began protesting on Southern
Main Road, Valsayn. Police and fire officers were quickly on the
scene. Half an hour later 19-year-old Daniel Benny from Curepe was
arrested for obscene language.
Police say that during the protest Ameen was repeatedly cautioned to
stop blocking traffic on the Southern Main Road; the protest caused
traffic to be backed up to the Caroni Bridge at one point.
Police report that 27-year-old Ameen indicated she was not going to
stop and at 8 a.m. she was arrested for obstruction of the free
passageway by Acting Corporal Nirmal Ramjattan.
She appeared at the Tunapuna Second Magistrates’ Court before
Justice of the Peace Kavita Mahadeo.
Ameen pleaded not guilty and was released on $10,000 bail. Benny was
released on $5,000 bail and both are scheduled to reappear in Court
on May 20.
She emerged from the Court to loud cheers and whistles from
supporters. She told members of the media that they planned to seek
legal advice following their “rough” treatment by the police, saying
that a number of senior citizens, including a pundit, were shoved.
She said that they would continue fighting for a recreational ground
in Spring Village that had been promised for more than 28 years, for
the farmers to be allowed to use land for agriculture and for the
squatters to be regularised.
HDC said in release yesterday that it was disappointed by the
protest, as Minister in the Ministry of Planning, Housing and the
Environment Tina Gronlund-Nunez, HDC and LSA officials met with a
delegation from Spring Village on Thursday, including Ameen.
HDC corporate communications manager Lesley John reported that
assurances were given by the officials that no residents would be
displaced during the regularisation exercise, and that recreational
facilities and green space would be provided with any development.
They were also advised that work on the site was at a very
preliminary stage and that plans would be shared with the villagers
when they became available.
Residents, however, have charged that acres of vegetable crops were
being destroyed by bulldozing, but HDC has denied this. Villagers
told the Express that they were not being communicated with by the
officials and protests would continue.
Gronlund-Nunez, who at the meeting apologised that villagers had not
been communicated with prior to the exercise, agreed to hold a
public meeting with all residents early next week. – UNC GROUP