Former Chief of Defence Staff Kenrick Maharaj says he has received no response from incumbent CDF, Brigadier General Rodney Smart, on his calls for a retraction to the claim he (Maharaj) acted on “his own volition” in authorising the visit of Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi and his family to Camp Cumuto in March last year.
Smart’s response was contained in a letter to Opposition senator Wayne Sturge.
Smart is currently on pre-retirement leave and is due to return in early August for his retirement ceremony. The T&T Guardian was unable to contact Smart or the Acting CDF Captain Hayden Pritchard yesterday.
But Maharaj reiterated yesterday that he had nothing to do with the visit. He said “correct protocol required that if he was inviting the AG to the Camp I would have written a letter of invitation and the AG would have responded with an acknowledgement that the date suggested was okay. Protocol required that on the day of the visit I would have presented myself to receive the AG and his family.
But I had no idea that they were coming. I was not informed and I was nowhere around.”
He said it appeared to him that what transpired on March 27, 2016 “appeared to be something informal, and I am not sure what the protocol arrangements were.”
Maharaj said he was saddened this has turned into “a war of words” between himself as former CDF and Smart. He said from a military standpoint “there is nothing wrong with training for a VIP from a military or procedural standpoint, but in this case there were compromises, children with weapons, that is just not done.”
He said his pain is that “up to this time, no one has addressed the critical issue. I do not share the view about placing children in the same manner we place adults. Children are children and those responsible for the protection of children are the protective forces, it is okay to familiarise an adult, but children are not mentally prepared for those issues. I don’t agree with that.”
Maharaj reiterated that he is “deeply concerned that the disturbingly misleading statements made in the TTDF response carry the potential to do serious harm” to his “character and reputation.”
He said the letter also did not address the issue of whether there was a breach of the Military (Prohibitions) Act 14 of 1996 by allowing minors to handle TTDF weapons.
Maharaj said acting CDF Pritchard would have received his letter sent last week in which he asked for, among other things: a retraction of the statement issued by Smart in which his name is mentioned, “an official public statement be made by the Defence Force to undo the hurt caused to Maj Gen Kenrick Maharaj and members of his family,” and that consideration be given to a comprehensive review of the board of inquiry conducted in the matter with specific focus on the terms of reference required to guide its deliberations, including the central issue of who was responsible for the handing over of the military weapons to unauthorised children during a range firing practice.
Also contacted on the issue yesterday, columnist Raffique Shah, a former lieutenant in the army, said the confusion may have been created by Smart’s wording in his letter to Sturge. He said the Board of Inquiry Report “may not have pointed a finger, we don’t know.
It could have said these were standing operating procedures as approved by the CDF who at the time was Maharaj.
I think they owe Maharaj an apology at the very least to clear his name, as being the person who by inference in the letter is deemed to have been responsible.”
Shah said “Maharaj was right to come out and defend himself.” He said while as the CDF at the time Maharaj may not have actually been aware the AG and his family were invited to the camp. He is of the view that “the officer who is culpable is the officer who was in charge of the range that day, the senior person.” But he said the BOI Report should have “apportioned blame where it belonged and recommended what should be done.”
In his letter to Sturge, Smart stated that “the BOI deduced that the Attorney General’s children were not allowed to have high-powered weapons belonging to the Defence Force in the presence of the Attorney General and members of the TTDF.”
