The murderous attack on residents of Lusignan by criminals was intended to spread terror on the East Coast Demerara and in the country in general but Guyanese must be careful that it does not succeed because it could be exploited by criminals and others to spread ethnic tensions.
Briefing the media at State House yesterday in the aftermath of the gunning down of 11 residents – including five children – of Lusignan during the early hours of yesterday morning, President Bharrat Jagdeo also said that whatever “warfare” was needed to defeat the criminals would be pursued.
He also put forward the hypothesis that the attack had been intended to deflect attention from the investigation into the issuing of weapons by the army to the Ministry of National Development in the 1970s, and how some of the weapons had ended up in the hands of criminals.
Responding to a question as to whether the government would commit to funding operations to battle criminals engaged in tactics reminiscent of urban guerrilla warfare, Jagdeo said that it was clear that the government had to do whatever it took to rid the country of the criminals. If there were persons not vested with the authority of the state to bear arms, said Jagdeo, but who were using those arms against the state, “If they do that as clearly as this group has been doing, then whatever warfare it takes to get to them the state has to end it. It does not have an option.”
Responding to a question about the effectiveness of the security forces in the war against criminal elements, whose hideout included the backlands of Buxton where the army had had a presence for over two years but had not succeeded in eradicating or reducing their activities, Jagdeo said that even though the army had good soldiers and the issues should have been dealt with earlier, that previously there had been “a lack of will.”
Concerns about the easy acquisition of ammunition also remained a matter of concern, he said.
He felt that the problem of not curbing the criminal elements was one of intelligence gathering, since the people whom they might be hunting might also be posing as farmers going into the backlands.
Jagdeo went on to describe himself as unhappy with a situation whereby years after the start of criminal activities in the area, the security forces had not been able to deal with the problem, especially “a few who are notorious and this brutal.”
Commenting on the onslaught against the villagers, Jagdeo said that the motive was not robbery but to create fear, since those killed were poor people. He said it took an animal to kill babies. “Only an animal could do this. They are not macho as they would like to present themselves,” he said.
Urging Guyanese not to place any kind of interpretation along ethnic lines on the acts of a few criminals, he said that the country should be supportive of the efforts of the security forces to hunt down the criminals.
The motive was to spread terror on the East Coast Demerara and in the country in general, he said; “We have to be careful at the national level that this does not succeed because it could be exploited by the criminals and others to spread ethnic tensions.”
He expressed the hope that there would be no ambiguous statements coming from some of the leaders in society, some of whom “still think that Buxton does not have criminals hiding out there in the face of all the evidence to the contrary.” He added, “I hope they would support the fight of the security forces to hunt down these criminals.”
Expressing himself worried by the ambiguous statements made by many leaders in the society, he said, “It seems that they are very hot and cold on the issue of the fight against these criminals. It seems that somehow they think there is a constituency to be protected.”
He went on to say that there had been a lot of speculation following the revelation concerning the issuing of weapons by the army to the then Ministry of National Development, since some of those weapons had recently been found with criminals: “Maybe, these acts were designed to keep the focus away from that investigation.”
He reiterated that the investigations would continue and the cowardly acts would not divert attention from the fact that some of the weapons had been found with criminals recently. How the weapons got into the hands of the criminals, he said, remained the key question.
Jagdeo said too that there were fears there were linkages to the missing weapons from the army arsenals which had still to be found, and that there were some elements in contact with or benefiting from the advice of former security personnel.
He alluded to a couple of very senior people in the security forces who it was felt were equipping the criminals, as having been held in the past. He said he gathered that one such person had gone off to the USA and that he might be back in Guyana at present.
Speaking about the earlier attack on the headquarters of the Tactical Services Unit the head of state said this was clearly a diversion for these criminals to refocus the attention of the police in the city.
Since he had been notified of the attacks, he had asked several ministers and the Prime Minister Sam Hinds to visit the affected communities and did so himself later yesterday (See other story on page 16).
Expressing condolences to the relatives of those who had perished in the onslaught, Jagdeo said that he understood the fear and anger, not only because of the criminal act but because of the slow response by the police to the attack.
He promised that the Commissioner of Police would fully investigate the police response and gave the assurance that “the toughest possible sanctions” would be taken if the reports were true. “We have increased the resources substantially to these stations and they have to respond in peoples’ time of need,” he said.
The commander-in-chief said he had met earlier that morning with the security forces and his instructions had been to “dominate the East Coast [Demerara].” He expected by the end of the day that there was going to be visible presence of this security on the East Coast Demerara and in the communities. “I said I want static presence as well as mobile patrols in the villages,” he told the media.
Urging those blocking the roads to desist from doing so, he said it would be to the disadvantage of commuters travelling along the East Coast corridor, including those coming from Berbice to Georgetown and vice versa.
At his security briefing, he said that the issue of criminal gangs operating in other villages, such as Agricola on the East Bank Demerara, had been discussed but he was not at liberty to say what the talks concerned.
