The Guyana Bar Association (GBA) yesterday expressed grave concern over the government’s handling of torture allegations against the security forces and the alleged misconduct of Minister Kellawan Lall and said there is enough information upon which charges can be laid.
President of the GBA, Kashir Khan is also questioning the statement issued by Minister of Local Govern-ment and Regional Develop-ment, Lall on his involvement in a fracas with a teenager and the firing off his weapon while allegedly attempting a citizen’s arrest. After six weeks of silence Lall said in a statement that he was assaulted and had fired one shot from his weapon.
His account differed significantly from that of Joseph Doodnauth who said that he was assaulted by Lall.
The bar association is urging that investigations into the minister’s conduct and of the torture of two Buxtonians allegedly by members of the joint services and of two members of the Guyana Defence Force allegedly by the soldiers, be concluded without further delay and that those found culpable be made to face the consequences.
The GBA President told Stabroek News and two television newscasts yesterday that it was unfortunate that the issues were not being addressed promptly and have resulted in a pile-up of allegations without answers being provided.
On both issues, Khan said that the GBA had withheld its comments since it was felt that a fair opportunity should be given for the investigations that were launched to be conducted and concluded in a timely manner.
On the New Year’s Day statement Lall issued on the incident that occurred on November 18, 2007 with Doodnauth, Khan said it had a number of interesting features. In the first instance, he said that Lall alleged that he fired his weapon pursuant to making a citizen’s arrest. However, he said that a person making a citizen’s arrest would do so as a positive act and not as a defensive one.
Secondly, he said that the minister did not state the nature of the crime being committed for which he was going to make a citizen’s arrest. “Was it armed robbery?
Was it a heinous act that he needed to haul his gun out and fire some shots?” he questioned.
The minister’s admission in his statement, he said raises more fundamental questions about the use of guns for any excuse including a licensed firearm holder pulling out his gun and discharging a round or two when he sees two young boys scrambling on the road.
He said it was now a matter of public record that Lall has admitted to discharging a firearm in a public place whilst seeking to proffer a justification. “These and other developments suggest that there is now more than enough information upon which charges can be properly laid,” he said.
On the allegations of the torture of citizens by the Joint Services and of its members by the Guyana Defence Force, Khan said that the army should be telling the citizenry more about the findings of their investigations. “Enough time has elapsed since the first series of allegations were brought to the public domain,” he said.
He feels that some of the issues are dragged out with the hope that they would be forgotten as appears to be the case with many of them.
He said that the Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee’s statement that people were more interested in food than torture was “a very callous statement” indicating that people were thinking about Christmas time and barrels. “While callous in some respects,” he said it was a frank and brutal assessment of how he (Rohee) and other Guyanese felt that people were studying barrels, Christmas and Old Year’s night partying that they had no time to think about two men from Buxton who were beaten.
And in a statement he issued on behalf of the association, Khan said that taken against the backdrop of the current government campaign against violence, it appears inconsistent that while violence against women and children is condemned, and rightly so, other incidences of violence are treated with less priority and concern and made to seem somehow tolerable “a notion that is repugnant and in contradiction to the maintenance of the rule of law in our society.”
“Allegations of torture as well as incidences of alleged misconduct on the part of government officials are not trivial matters and if not addressed in a timely and proper manner, cast a dark and unsavoury shadow over the entire policing and justice system since an Orwellian impression can be created that some are more equal than others,” the statement said.
Asked about President Bharrat Jagdeo’s criticisms of the recent ruling by Justice Jainarayan Singh Jnr in the case brought by the AFC in the High Court, Khan said that he needed more information on the case to make an informed statement on it.
However, he reiterated that in relation to criticisms of the judiciary by the executive the issue of security of tenure was necessary for members of the judiciary.
He said that having an acting Chancellor, an acting Chief Justice, an acting Director of Public Prosecutions for four years, and an acting Commissioner of Police for a number of years, “allows the government to pull the strings.”
He said that when there is security of tenure, regardless of the decisions they give, the members of the judiciary are provided some insulation against the arbitrary actions of the state or the government. (Miranda La Rose)
