Dear Editor,
The voices of discontent are rising slowly but ominously. However, the PPP/C government continues to ignore the potency of the message. Instead the government haughtily argues all is well. This is a new Guyana since October 5, 1992, with the constitutional rights of citizens fully respected.
Yet Donna Herod, a mother of nine children, is killed by the armed forces. She carried no guns nor issued any threats. Her apparent offence was that she was a Buxtonian traversing the territory of her village that has been categorized as ‘hostile’ by her own government.
There has not been an official inquiry into the circumstances of her killing by any arm of her government.
Verifiable claims of torture to Victor Jones, Patrick Sumner and David Zammett aka David Leander by the Joint Services have been advanced. Leander ( Biscuit ) looked so physically distorted on his first court appearance that an onlooker might have felt that he was witnessing a surreal scene in a movie about a barbaric country.
Basil Williams, the noted defence lawyer, laid bare to the court the gruesome injuries Leander had suffered after being captured by the Joint Services. His zealous effort was no match for the vividness of a disfigured and helpless Leander as he struggled up the court stairs in shackles and handled by policemen, with no medical aide present.
In this new democratic Guyana, Leander’s claims and those of Jones and Sumner, have not been investigated by their government. A brazen omission since Leander’s injuries were so publicly displayed in the place where a citizen’s rights are vigorously protected-a court of law.
Then there is the Minister who fired shots in the air near a young Guyanese man because of an altercation over a woman with whom the Minister was erstwhile romantically linked. The crassness of the Minister’s conduct is illustrated by his going after his victim in a public street after the initial fracas in a bar.
An appropriate question that Mr Doodnauth and other citizens may rightfully ask is whom and what illegal acts their government will prosecute. A fitting inquiry since a few months ago a senior police official was allowed to retain his rank after he was heard demanding money from a drug dealer. According to the official, he was carrying out an investigation, which was only known to himself.
With the full confidence of the government, this senior police official continues to serve. A public inquiry is yet to be convened into his misconduct.
Lest it be overlooked and forgotten, a large number of Guyanese were murdered in a killing frenzy that is unequalled in the history of the country. Roger Khan, indicted in the
United States for drug dealing, has said that he was involved in fighting crime in Guyana and he hired persons to help him in this crusade. Just recently, a police official stated that “execution style killings” had decreased since the capture of Roger Khan.
The democratic government of Guyana has not seen it fit to open a public inquiry into the deaths of so many Guyanese in light of Khan’s disclosures, and confirmation by its own police department.
If democracy has come to Guyana since October 5, 1992, it has in a crude and discriminatory form. It is not enough to say things are better. The voices for redress may very well become unmanageable action.
Yours faithfully,
Derrick G. Arjune
