A strange epilogue to the case of the flying fish, which threatened a Caribbean war

It seems that the "silly season" exists, even in faraway places. Parliamentarians in Trinidad and Tobago are now on holiday. A local journalist I know visits the library of the University of the West Indies from time to time to peruse the New Statesman. He sometimes writes articles for the local press off the back of this column. His latest has caused quite a stir.

The issue goes back months to when I wrote about "the war of the flying fish". Two Barbadian fishermen were arrested off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago in pursuit of flying fish, the Barbadian national dish. The Barbadian prime minister huffed and puffed and protested to the UN. He wanted his country's maritime boundaries extended, not only so that his fishermen could catch flying fish but, Trinidadians suspected, to get a cut from the natural gas and oil that exist closer to Trinidad than to Barbados. There was talk of war, though both countries' armies would hardly add up to half a platoon. It was all fantasy.

However, my column included the fact, which I gleaned from a local source, that when the Barbadian fishermen were released, the order to set them free came directly from the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Patrick Manning. Local politicians pounced on this innocuous bit of information. Opposition leaders said Manning had tampered with the rule of law and should resign. Legal luminaries intervened for and against. An old friend, now a judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, added a pompous statement about who has the power to discontinue a prosecution. Back and forth went this nonsense. Darcus Howe was described as one of the UK's leading journalists (not true) and the NS as a prestigious journal (true).

But, as a result of all this, I got a new insight into local prison conditions. After reading the local papers, a prisoner on remand wrote to me, describing himself as a member of a group called Individuals for Reform and Action. He wrote about the murder of a prisoner who was found to be in possession of a cigarette; of 11 remand prisoners herded into a 10ft by 10ft cell meant for one person; of rampant sodomy, with prison officers involved. And this is the norm. There is no piped water in these hell-holes, and no toilet facilities.

I know that Amnesty International paid a visit to one of these prisons in the past few months. Its report may now shame the Trinidadian government into action.

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