President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday said that the Defence Board is yet to examine a report from the army on its probe of torture allegations levelled against it.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon had told reporters at a press briefing two weeks ago that the Defence Board was to meet and examine the report, which according to sources in the military was completed months ago and submitted by the army high command.
Asked for an update on the report, Jagdeo told a press conference yesterday that it was not presented formally to the Defence Board apparently owing to an oversight. “We did have a general discussion that the investigation was done and there is a report, but the report itself was not circulated – that is where we are,” said Jagdeo, who is also Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.
A number of soldiers had complained to Stabroek News that they were tortured by members of the Military Criminal Investigation Department (MCID) over allegations that they were responsible for the theft of a single AK-47 rifle from the army’s headquarters, Camp Ayanganna last year November.
Michael Dunn, Alvin Wilson and Sharth Robertson said they were pepper-sprayed, immersed in a gutter and whipped with metal pipes during interrogation.
The army has since recovered the weapon following a sting operation in Berbice and the police have charged two of the soldiers for the theft of the weapon. Stabroek News was told earlier this year that the army would have reduced in rank the officers implicated in the mistreatment of the soldiers.
Several organizations had condemned the army over the allegations -which had come mere months after two Buxtonians Patrick Sumner and Victor Jones had made similar allegations against the army.
The two men had displayed violent wounds about their bodies after spending about a week in police and army custody.
The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) had said at the time of the revelations that it was very disturbing that the army had allegedly engaged in torturing citizens – atrocities previously associated with the police.
The organization had also chided Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee and President Jagdeo for making light of the brutality reports.
