Former Prime Minister under the Forbes Burnham-led PNC administration, Hamilton Green says that he has no knowledge of the movement of weapons from the army to government ministries in the 1970s.
He also insisted that the then government and the party were under threat from “terrorists” from within and without during that period.
On Monday Stabroek News was told that several government ministries and semi-autonomous bodies were issued with army weapons during the Burnham-led government and that the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) had records showing weapons being issued to one senior, current PNCR official which to date have not been returned.
President Bharrat Jagdeo last week announced that he would be commissioning a board of inquiry to investigate how many guns were issued to government departments by all para-military organisations from the 1950s to the present. He did not give a timeline as to when the inquiry would begin, although hinting that it would be soon. Jagdeo had also disclosed that between 1976 and 1979 some 237 guns of various calibre were issued to the Ministry of National Development. The announcement of the probe was triggered by the police recovering three weapons from gunmen in the Zeskendren, Mahaicony, West Coast Berbice area two weeks ago. The GDF subsequently said that two of the weapons- an M-72 rifle and a 9mm Beretta submachine gun belonged to the military and they were issued to the Ministry of Mobilisation and National Development between 1976 and 1979. Stabroek News was however told that weapons were not only issued to the national development ministry, but several other such agencies. According to a source, based on records it could be more than 237 weapons that were issued. The source mentioned that guns were issued to the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and other semi-autonomous bodies. The army source also disclosed that at one time some 50 Beretta submachine guns were issued to the youth arm of a political party.
Contacted for a comment, City Mayor, Green, who was a cabinet minister in the 1970s and later became Prime Minister told Stabroek News that he had no knowledge of the movement of weapons from the army to state agencies at that time, noting that although he was a cabinet member he was not always in the ‘know’.
The former Prime Minister however said that what he knew was that the government at the time and the country were the targets of terrorist from various sources. He said coupled with that Guyana was under threat from Venezuela. Asked directly whether his ministry at the time was issued with guns, Green replied in the negative and when asked whether he knew of any other departments which received weapons, he said he could not answer for them. “If the army has information then they should pursue it to see what weapons were returned and what wasn’t,” Green, who said he supported the inquiry which will be commissioned by President Jagdeo, said.
Rice bags
He however, noted that Jagdeo should not limit his inquiry to guns issued by the security forces in the 1970s, but the movement of all guns across the country. The City mayor recalled that there were instances in the history of this country when guns moved across the country in rice bags and this was not done by the PNC. “The public needs to know also who were issued gun licences during the period 1992 to now,” Green said adding that there should be an audit of all guns. He said because of the serious threat illicit guns posed to national security, the President should broaden his inquiry. “A gun is a gun, whether it was issued in the 1970s or now, it remains a gun and a very dangerous weapon,” Green said.
Asked how as a senior official of the then PNC government he did not know about the issuance of weapons by the army to state agencies, Green said “We are not deities