By Heppilena Ferguson
The parliamentary opposition parties believe that infiltration of the security services by criminals may have prevented the US from sharing information with the local authorities on drug accused Roger Khan and his possible association with a phantom squad believed to have murdered dozens.
The revelations about Khan emanating from the US court where he is to be tried on drug charges, the parties say, should not be taken lightly and added that the seeming non-committal attitude by this government on such information will raise eyebrows. They argued that an independent probe should be conducted since the revelations also point to some amount of complicity on the part of the government.
In an invited comment on the revelations being made in the US court in Khan’s case, Opposition Leader Robert Corbin told this newspaper that he was not surprised that the US did not share their information with the local law enforcement officials and attributed this to the current state of the security services in Guyana.
Corbin, also the PNCR Leader, said it was clear that security is compromised and has been infiltrated by drug lords. “There is no integrity here and if information is shared with them it can get back to the drug lords and that could compromise everything,” Corbin insisted. He said too he felt it was pathetic that the local authorities would have to rely on the US’s information to deal with a purely internal matter.
“We should have been in a position to give information. So the question should have been not whether they are withholding information but whether we were able to provide any information to them,” he said.
Referring to the high tech piece of equipment to listen into phone calls which Khan and others were found with at Good Hope, East Coast Demerara years before his interception in Suriname, Corbin questioned how it was able to get back into Khan’s hands even though it was initially seized by the very law enforcement authorities. “And until now we have not heard how Khan was able to import that sophisticated piece of equipment which usually only governments are allowed to import. So this proves that there had to be some concert between high officials and Khan,” he said.
Corbin also referred to the killing of George Bacchus, who had implicated former Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj in a series of extra-judicial killings. An inquiry was conducted which cleared Gajraj of such allegations. This inquiry had been criticized as too limited.
“(President Bharrat) Jagdeo must not hide behind the fact that the US had not passed on such information to us”, Corbin argued.
Credibility
Meanwhile, Alliance for Change (AFC) Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan said he felt the non-committal approach by government in this regard must raise eyebrows and noted that the way things unfolded and the way murders were committed over a period of time gives an impression of association at a high level.
Ramjattan pointed this newspaper to the advertisements which had appeared in a section of the media in which Khan made it clear that he was helping the government to fight crime. However he said at no time at all has the government made a public statement with credibility denying these assertions.
“So this will cause reasonable suspicions in the minds of people that indeed there may have been some elements of complicity with Khan,” he said, adding that at this stage an investigation should be done to ascertain whether there was any government involvement and its extent, if any.
“It is at best what a government can do to clear its name and to verify the matter. A good democracy is one where the truth must come out and this can’t be so if there is no attempt to find out what is happening. They cannot continue to behave as though nothing has happened,” he said.
Asked for a proposal in this regard, Ramjattan recommended that some external force do a thorough probe. “The government must conduct a probe in view of this information being revealed in the US courts.
The information may be harder to get here because people may be afraid to talk, but the US has the (ability) to ensure witnesses are protected and so we could make much of this information,” he said.
He insisted that probe be done to clear the air once and for all.
He also told Stabroek News that he felt that the Government has more or less abandoned Khan like it has done many other citizens now entangled with the law, “and so I suspect that more astounding information may very well come out eventually.”
“It is a serious matter and they need to bring closure to it, the truth must be spoken out and this can only be done through a genuine and authentic probe,” Ramjattan insisted.
Also concerned about the revelations being made in US courts, Guyana Action Party/Rise Organise and Rebuild Guyana (ROAR) member of parliament Everall Franklin queried who will carry out such investigations.
Insisting that only an external investigative body could bring any meaning to such investigations, Franklin told Stabroek News that the many mysterious killings which occurred after the 2001 jail-break could not just have occurred without great assistance.
“Then why else would the US withhold information from us,” he asked. He told this newspaper too that it was unfortunate that the local police were unable to come up with any solution to some of these cases, but notwithstanding that, they should officially request this information from the US and pursue all leads. “But the investigation will have to be done by external forces since “who is going to critically investigate those cases even with US information?” he queried and added that there may be a situation where people would be investigating themselves.
However, he said that there is a serious breakdown of law and order in the country and people are convinced that there must have been some collusion at high levels.
“We have seen police rubbing shoulders with some of these very phantoms squad accused so who will investigate who,” he queried.
Franklin stated that an investigation done by the locals would only be the government going through the motions and will come up with weak, lame findings.
“Just as how the president has brought in forensic people to deal with the GRA matter we should bring in people to investigate these killings which came after the jail-break,” he insisted.
Franklin was also adamant that many of the killings could not have occurred without some help and asserted that the help could have even come in the form of simply turning a blind eye.
At a press conference last week, Jagdeo, responding to queries told reporters that he hoped that the US would provide the local police force with help in getting to the bottom of the murders. “If the murders are unsolved here in Guyana then it will make a difference … There if we have 200 cases solved by just one interaction or this one investigation then this will make a big difference here,” he had said.
Jagdeo also said police commissioner Henry Greene should make a formal request to the US government for the information to be provided,” so that the police force can continue the investigations and bring conclusion to these matters.”
The US has implicated Roger Khan in at least two murders and a witness for the US government in the case has so far linked him to a phantom squad which the witness says may have been responsible for 200 murders.
