Family did not want probe in Walter Rodney’s death – PM

Government has not acted on a resolution to investigate the death of Dr Walter Rodney because the family didn’t want to go ahead with it, Prime Minister Sam Hinds said on Thursday.
But the administration was ready to commence such an investigation should it be desired, he said in response to a question by Sheila Holder of the Alliance for Change (AFC) during Wednesday’s sitting of the National Assembly.
Holder said that it had been two years and a half years since the passage of a resolution on June 29, 2005 calling for a full and impartial investigation into the death of Dr Rodney, killed by a bomb blast in Georgetown on June 13, 1980. “Why has this resolution not been honoured to date?” she asked.
Hinds said that he was advised that the family of Dr Rodney no longer wanted the resolution to be proceeded with. He said Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon and official of the Working People’s Alliance Dr Rupert Roopnaraine had been engaged in pursuing the resolution.
The Prime Minister indicated that the wishes of the family in the matter had to be considered.
Holder found the Prime Minister’s answer unacceptable, and said that the onus was on the government to take the investigation forward. She said that by not following through with the resolution, a dangerous precedent was being set.
Holder said Rodney’s wife had indicated to her that she wanted the resolution to be acted upon. “The governing party seems to think it has the power to overturn resolutions of the House,” she said.
Hinds asked what purpose such an investigation would achieve 28 years later. “But if people out there want an investigation, the PPP/C is ready, willing and able,” he said.