The leadership of PNCR, AFC and GAP would support the resort to United Nations assistance for the security forces to solve some of Guyana’s security and justice problems, but the government is not keen on the idea.
Asked to comment on a suggestion that Guyana seek assistance from the UN in adopting an International Commission Against Impunity similar to the one which was recently established in Guatemala to fight mainly narco-trafficking and organized crime, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon said the government did not need the UN to assist in dealing with its current problems.
The UN Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala was established to help strengthen local institutions in Guatemala, a country where it is widely believed that powerful clandestine organisations operate outside the law.
The commission consists of 150 lawyers and forensic investigators who will prosecute cases in local courts. Members of the UN commission will act as “complementary prosecutors” under Guatemalan law.
While some Guatemalans opposed the establishment of the commission, human rights groups and foreign diplomats argued that only outsiders could rescue the country’s police, prosecutors and judges, who are believed to be widely influenced by organised crime groups, cash-rich with the profits of drug trafficking.
A January 2, 2008 report in the Los Angeles Times said the killing of three Salvadoran legislators in Guatemala last year by members of an elite police unit heightened the sense that crime was out of control, since a few days after the officers were arrested, they were slain in their jail cells.
On the establishment of such a commission in Guyana, the Cabinet Secretary said, “It is not our intention. I think our legal and justice administration is competent enough. Our security services are committed and resourced enough. We can deal with this problem. We don’t need the UN to come and assist us in investigations and whatever.”
Asked whether he was saying that Guyana did not need external assistance to deal with the issues surrounding the Lusignan massacre, he reiterated, “I am saying that we are satisfied with our justice system. We are satisfied with our resources and the dedicated efforts of our law enforcement. We will deal with this matter.”
Not well resourced
Asked the same question, PNCR Chairman Winston Murray said even though the PNCR had not discussed this particular issue, based on its recommendations in the past, and his own view, Guyana needed to invite the international community.
He did not share Luncheon’s view that Guyana was well resourced and could deal with its problems. He said a lot of work had been done in identifying the problems as well as in dealing with some of them internally, but that they could be better dealt with if augmented with external assistance.
He said he and many like-minded persons could not understand the government’s reluctance to seek assistance in terms of the implementation of a number of recommendations put forward by stakeholder bodies, including the Disciplined Forces Commission and the Simon Study, in finding solutions to the problems.
A UN commission could assist in putting together a number of recommendations from the various studies and projects already being implemented, such as the British-funded Security Sector Reform Project, he said, and it could work along with the government and local stakeholders in the implementation of a number of recommendations until the government had a handle on the situation.
He said, too, that assistance was also needed in keeping the issue of security in focus. Experience, he said, had shown that the government was unable to grapple with the situation and once a crisis died down, seeking a solution to the problem was no longer the focus.
While the problem might be manifesting itself in criminality, given the lopsided nature of many facets of the society, including that of ethnicity, Murray said the response by the government so far had been far from adequate and the various initiatives that had pointed the way forward had not been pursued with vigour.
He said, too, that there was the political dimension that needed to tackle the problems with criminals linked to the underworld and vengeance killings, which might be a result of “crossovers,” since a lot of people were using the proceeds of criminality in legitimate businesses.
Instead of the political posturing to protect constituencies, which the Lusignan massacre had brought to the forefront, he said he saw no harm in a multilateral initiative to define a security framework that would be to the benefit of all Guyanese.
Worth discussing
AFC leader, Raphael Trotman said the proposals were worth discussing.
The AFC, he said, was aware that others were calling for a UN intervention and the AFC would give its support. He said that the AFC and GAP were attempting to bring together persons and organisations which shared the belief that it was not business as usual given the level of criminal activity and its repercussions, and that it was worthwhile to reach out to the UN and other international agencies and bodies for assistance.
He cautioned, however, that the problem transcended standard criminal activities as it was crisis of governance which was allowing the state to collapse. This had led to narco-trafficking, a descent into corruption, an increase in murders and sexual offences, and just plain lawlessness. “We would like to take this matter beyond, to look at the issue of governance as well and not only at a criminal response to bring healing and reconciliation to Guyana,” he said.
GAP Leader Paul Hardy said he was in favour of external assistance, especially from the UN. He said he felt the situation was volatile, particularly in affected areas on the East Coast Demerara and that the slightest agitation could be the straw that broke the camel’s back and sparked violence that would not involve only bandits but Guyanese who were tired of feeling left out.
Expressing support for a petition for the UN’s involvement and a commission of the Guatemala model, Hardy said Guyanese would have to convince the government that the UN’s assistance was good for Guyana given the number of years that the problems had been simmering without any long-term solution.
“Guyanese are saying that enough is enough. Let us come together and find a way forward,” he said, adding, “We should take this sad opportunity to start putting our house together. We are too fragmented.”
Also adding his voice to the debate, regular letter-to-the-editor writer and overseas-based Guyanese, Clarence F Ellis suggested on February 6, that the AFC should get the facts relating to the initiative and request the PNCR and the GAP-ROAR alliance to call for an emergency session of Parliament to debate the proposal for its urgent adoption in Guyana.
He said many Guyanese in the diaspora would welcome the opportunity to return home to work for salaries that should be pitched at levels within the reach of those paid to Caricom officials working in Guyana.
Stating that time was of the essence in getting this facility, he said the present leaders of the PPP and the PNCR were too compromised to seek UN assistance.
“What will proceed from here on is the murder of alleged criminals to placate supporters as if the lives extinguished in this cruel game of racial control are worth no more than the mosquitoes that are swatted away from one’s hands as nuisances,” he said, adding that the UN facility would make it possible to take guns away from civilians, and this would be a first step in the restoration of law and order.
Ellis said Lusignan was not the only community where there was an energy yearning to take its place in the modern world. Those places, he said, were imprisoned by small-minded politicians who distributed guns to selected cohorts and who sat in Neighbourhood Democratic Councils mak
ing decisions in a zero-sum environment that is producing the same sugar, rice, cassava and plantains that were being produced for the last 300 years.
