Dear Editor,
Operation Cleanup the Madness has been a complete success. The President had long declared war on gun-toting terrorists/ bandits/ insurgents. They were to be treated as the enemy, and the enemy had to be destroyed. The President had good reason; we had been gathering intelligence for years. We knew that the safety of the whole country was at stake. The bandits/ insurgents/ terrorists were demonstrating a capability of assaulting any community, the prisons, the police headquarters or any target they chose, even parliament. This could not be allowed. Safety of our nation was priority number one.
We immediately surrounded all the terrorist safe-havens each with hundreds of our specially trained troops. We had been training them for years since the crime wave got out of hand in 2002 with the help of the UK and US military. We already had pictures and maps of every building in there; every house, shack or fowl coop we were able to describe in detail. We already knew who lived where. Over the past five years, we had created a dossier on everyone. If anyone was capable of carrying a gun, we knew who they were, what they did, what habits they had, where they got their money and daily means from; who were their relatives, girlfriends everything! If they drank or smoked, we knew the brand. Our secret night vision surveillance cameras had been monitoring everyone’s movements in and out these areas for years. We had a file on the visitors, strangers, the cars the girlfriends, everything!
Our field officers had long asked the citizens of these villages to cooperate. We had fingerprints and photos of everyone. Of those who did not cooperate, we took careful note. We had a special file on them and they got special surveillance.
Our metal detectors, bulldozers and excavators had gone to work. We dug up every square foot of the terrorist village and its outskirts and found most of the weapons. These were rather small villages, so our work was not that hard. We already had satellite images from the US army so knew exactly where the likely hidden camps were. In addition, we received many anonymous tips.
Our intelligence units had long been monitoring telephone calls made by suspected terrorists. Our expert analysts whom we were training since the problems started several years ago had picked up patterns in the telephone calls and we had narrowed down a list of suspects. They had been our first targets.
Our secret agents whom we had trained overseas over the past five years, had infiltrated the gunrunning community. They had undercover contacts with the gun dealers. They had over the years actually purchased a number of AK47s and acquired a thorough knowledge of the gun smuggling operations. Once we had gathered enough data, we launched a most successful crackdown. We had been cooperating with our neighbouring countries for years on intelligence gathering and our findings led to the complete cessation of gunrunning through Guyana.
We had to level the surrounding cane fields and farms half a mile wide, but our government stepped in with a compensation package for the farmers. Our troops set up a quarter-mile wide perimeter of barbed wire preventing any access. Our gun towers covered a kill zone half a mile wide. Everyone going to the backdam had to pass through our checkpoints but no one minded; they knew that they would be safe. The entire outskirts of these villages are now military protected zones. The government says that this would apply to any bandit safe haven. It will remain that way for years. Through budgetary allocations for continued training, we are now ready and prepared to do the same with any new terrorist/insurgent/bandit area.
Our government at the same time launched one of the most comprehensive youth programmes in the developing world. It was easy since we did not have a large population. We made sure that there were no more street children. We had programmes for delinquent youth throughout the country. Role models were selected to lead youths in our communities and sports facilities were provided and properly run in each community. We did not tolerate youths liming late at night. We educated them and engendered in them a sense of worth and self respect.
Guyana is now considered one of the safest of developing countries with a focused and energetic young population.
Please do not wake me; it is a nightmare out there!
Yours faithfully,
(name and address
supplied)