By Darcel Choy Sunday, August 23 2009

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Leader of the Chaguaramas Legal Land Owners (CLLO) Augustin Noel (centre) stands among members of the CLLO and its supporters on grounds near the Chag...

Leader of the Chaguaramas Legal Land Owners (CLLO) Augustin Noel, was yesterday arrested for squatting on land owned by the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA).

Noel along with members of the CLLO and its supporters gathered on grounds near the Chaguaramas Convention Centre to reclaim their ancestral lands.

He and other members of the CLLO have been engaged in an ongoing battle with the CDA since they claimed that they were the legitimate owners.

According to the secretary of the CLLO, Germaine Oliver, two vehicles containing CDA officials and police officers drove up to the gathering and arrested Noel.

“They just grabbed him without reading him his rights and they took him to the Carenage Police Station and charged him for squatting,” Oliver said.

She said that they were trying to contact their attorney, Prakash Ramadhar to figure out what should be done next.

Earlier in the day, Noel said Ramadhar had warned them about going on the land.

“He thought that we would be breaking the law but if we insisted on continuing our gathering he advised that I walked with my deeds which I did,” he said.

Noel said that over 20 officers showed up brandishing their weapons at him and the other members.

“They want to use that as form of intimidation, but they can’t intimidate us,” he said.

He mentioned that in January, they won a matter against the Government for three acres of land in the area.

“The case was appealed and the matter was dismissed. It is obvious that the Government does not want to give in but come hell or high waters we are going to get back our land,” he said.

Their target areas include the grounds of the heliport, Convention Centre and hotel school, Mount Pleasant in Macqueripe and Scotland Bay.

Noel dressed in a Ku Klux Khan type garb insisted that they were not breaking the law since the land has been legally theirs since 1886.

“I am wearing the KKK outfit because we were slaves and these were the people that lynched us and they have to come out of Chaguaramas.

The yachties and the British, need to go. The Noels have been purchasing this land since 1808 and now they are enjoying the luxuries of the area. They are enjoying everything we planted, that is not justice,” he said.