PNCR Leader Robert Corbin believes weapons issued to the ministry of national deve-lopment under the Forbes Burnham-led administration in the 1970s were returned and he is urging the army to verify its records before making public declarations.
The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) said last week, after two guns were found in a boat in the Mahaicony area, that it had issued 237 of its weapons to the now-defunct ministry between 1976 and 1979.
Corbin also criticized the government for not moving with the same alacrity to investigate other matters of national security in the past. Next month will mark two years since 30 AK-47 rifles were stolen from the GDF; more than half of them remain on the streets.
President Bharrat Jagdeo, as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, Corbin said, did not order a full investigation into the theft of those weapons although imploring the force to find the weapons. To date there has been no public inquiry into the missing arms and the army has not produced a single report in relation to its investigation.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Corbin did not say outright that the ministry had received weapons from the army. Instead, he said that some decisions taken back then were of a security nature and he would not speak of them. However, he added that if the President wanted to conduct an investigation into weapons issued by the security forces back then, it should be done in the context of security conditions that existed at that time in the country’s history. Jagdeo announced on Tuesday at a press conference that he was launching a full investigation into the issuing of weapons by all military and paramilitary organisations from the 1950s to present. He said he had decided to conduct such a probe because of the recent recovery of the M-72 rifle and a 9 mm sub-machine gun that were issued to the national development ministry in the 1970s, but were never returned. The weapons were found after gunmen fled the scene during a shoot-out with the police last week Wednesday at Zeskendren Mahaicony, West Coast Berbice. Jagdeo told the press conference he was very concerned that the weapons ended up in the hands of criminals. He gave a list of the weapons that were issued by the GDF, but provided no detail as to how many were returned, only saying that the inquiry would reveal this. Observers said that the same way the GDF could have determined how many weapons were issued it could have reported how many were returned.
Addressing members of the media at his Congress Place, Sophia office yesterday, Corbin said he elected to hold the press conference in view of the unfortunate statement made by General Secretary of the PPP Donald Ramotar, and the media conference held by Jagdeo. Corbin said the GDF must be commended for its ability to keep such good records that it could trace the ownership of weapons 30 years after they were issued.
Corbin said that the PPP had been trying to politicise the issue, although Jagdeo has said that he did not intend to do so.
‘Not surprising’
Corbin referred to news items carried on the state-run National Communication Network (NCN) over the weekend and on Tuesday evening, which he said made attempts to link his party to the distribution of guns to criminals. He said Ramotar, in his call for the PNCR to “come clean” and tell the nation how many weapons it allegedly took from the GDF, had actually implied that the party of which he is leader placed the weapons in the hands of criminals. “This is not surprising coming from him as he is famous for putting his foot in his mouth and it is no different this time,” Corbin declared.
He reiterated that even if the weapons were issued to the ministry of national development and mobilisation it was entirely a government arrangement, since the ministry was part of the state. “The weapons were therefore issued to a government ministry and not the party,” Corbin asserted.
In his initial response to the issue, he had said that the authorities were trying to divert attention from the serious torture allegations levelled against the army. Yesterday he said his position remained the same. He said the PNCR would pursue the issue of torture with the same vigour as before, and would not be sidetracked by the unearthing of national security and intelligence matters, which occurred some 30 years ago. “The PNCR is concerned with the present and not the past. It is the wish of our party that the security forces are allowed to do their jobs, including the apprehension of criminals, drug lords, pirates, gun runners and stamp out corruption in high places in the society.”
In this regard, the opposition leader said instead of making baseless statements, Ramotar should concern himself with ensuring that his party convinces the nation that it is not in bed with the drug lords and is therefore not condoning the narcotics trade, which has fuelled the trade in guns. Saying that he took careful note of the mood and tone of Jagdeo’s press conference, Corbin said that unlike Ramotar, the head of state said his wish was that the matter not be politicised.
“I am not a reader of minds, but I am sure that President Jagdeo must have realized that, in a racially divided society such as ours, shouting from the roof tops is not the best way to manage an issue as sensitive as the discovery of missing weapons,” Corbin said.
Other investigations
He said he did not have a problem with the President ordering an investigation, and offered his fullest co-operation. However, he said, he could not help but note that the government had moved with commendable speed in this instance, though it had dragged its feet over other investigations. And he cited the death squads, the phantom gangs, the container of weapons, which one of its supporters allegedly illegally imported into this country, and the issuing of thousands of gun licences by the former home minister Ronald Gajraj.
“I dearly wish that President Jagdeo and his administration had taken such a serious interest in the very obvious proliferation of high-powered arms in the hands of criminals over the past eight years. Why there was no serious response to an inquiry after several instances of major arms busts that involved known drug lords who more recently have claimed to be providing support for the security forces?” Corbin asked.
Challenging period
On the issuance of the weapons, Corbin said he would not venture to speak on behalf of the past PNC administration and the policy it adopted three decades ago with respect to the issue and distribution of guns to a state agency. “This matter should be examined in the context of the security conditions that existed at that time in our country. The question of the issuing of weapons to state agencies in the seventies and eighties has a specific context. This was a troubling and challenging period in our history,” said the PNCR leader who admitted that he was a parliamentary representative within the national development ministry at the time. He said the late Dr Ptolemy Reid was the minister then.
Referring to the troubled period in the 1970s, Corbin said there were critical events occurring and cited one in 1976 when Guyana faced yet another challenge to its sovereignty from Venezuela. He said the then PNC administration had to craft strategies to counter the aggression from the country’s western neighbour. He said in search of such a strategy the PNC was aided by an important development.
“The PPP, despite three previous years of promoting instability, agreed to hold talks with the PNC in a spirit of national reconciliation. It was during these talks that the then leader of the PPP, Dr Cheddi Jagan, who was suspicious of the GDF, proposed the formation of a People’s Militia.”
The PNCR leader quoted a document from the Library of Congress, released by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). According to the document, which this newspaper was able to access, Jagan proposed the formation of the militia, whic
h he envisioned at the time as a more ethnically diverse force than the GDF, which it would replace. “Jagan saw the militia as a popular organisation that would have branches on every city block and in every village. The government agreed to form the People’s Militia, but only as a supplemental security force,” the document stated.
