The best tribute that can be paid to the 11 victims of the massacre in Lusignan is the review and implementation of improved security arrangements, both at the community and national levels, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) has said.
In a press statement the union declared that “expressions of condolence must now go hand in hand with a national insistence on a complete review of the security arrangements for communities scattered throughout this country.”
GAWU further suggested that the security forces have to be supplemented with specific, well-trained, even sophisticated groups of law enforcement agents. And the union warned that intelligence gathering must not be compromised by what the body referred to as “the deceitful and deadly rogue elements amongst the forces.”
The union recommended that there must be more well-equipped police outposts in the heart of village communities, more vehicles for more mobile patrols, additional recruitment into the Police Force and temporary specialized assistance from overseas.
Other aspects of the new security arrangements, GAWU said, must take into account the “existence of collaboration between certain despicable villagers who offer safe haven to the murderous marauders and the bandits themselves. All of these criminals do not inhabit the backlands. They rob, maim and kill, then filter right back into the communities with relative and friends. Any proper and complete security agency must be able to infiltrate this evil enterprise with all its criminal support systems.”
The union also called on the government and the law enforcement agencies to move to correct the current state of affairs as ultimately it can affect the country’s economy. “Economy apart, the very good and welfare, security and longevity of our nation’s people are at stake,” GAWU noted, as it called for “instant action with long-term objectives.”
Expressing appreciation for all the actual efforts and assurances now in place, the union said that, like the rest of the vulnerable, it was “convinced that much more must be done in a hurry.”
The union said it was humbled by the loss and grief being experienced by the surviving relatives and friends of the gunned-down victims, and called the massacre a manifestation of “the lowest level of human behaviour.” GAWU urged the communities to not merely mourn but to also “organize.”
And the union, in mourning the loss of the innocent children who had no connection with the murderous killers, also recognised the loss of the adults, while pointing out that Guyana’s image as a “peaceful, secure society was being compromised by a band of inter-village terrorists.”