President Bharrat Jagdeo has said that the country needs to understand the context of the torture allegations.
The administration does not condone torture, Jagdeo said on Saturday last during a press briefing at State House, while pointing out that his government does not view any of the reports that had been circulating as torture reports.
He told reporters that the issues surrounding allegations of torture need to be examined in a context, noting that there had been investigations into recent allegations.
“We may not be able to avoid excesses but we can promise that cases would be thoroughly investigated and dealt with”, Jagdeo said in direct reference to the investigations conducted into the death of prisoner, Edwin Niles.
In examining allegations of torture, the President said, several issues must be examined noting that at one time the situation in Buxton had escalated to the point where police officers and soldiers were being shot at and killed. This, he said, warranted a certain response from the security forces during operations in the area, and a different approach in confronting criminals in the area.
He asked rhetorically whether the security forces should have knocked on doors in the area during that time when they were being greeted with gunfire and were running into people who were linked to criminal gangs. The main concern at that time for the security forces was their own protection, Jagdeo said, adding that in that context the security forces would act in a certain manner because their lives depended on how they approached the situation.
The President gave assurances that the long awaited torture report would be released to the public. However, he noted that an edited version that excludes the names of any member of the security forces would be released in an effort to avoid anyone being targeted.
He said that the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) officers who were grilled after the AK 47s went missing were questioned aggressively given that they had some level of responsibility for the missing stores. He again emphasized that the allegations must be viewed in their context.
Late last month, the main opposition PNCR had again called for the government to release the findings of the army’s in-house probe into torture allegations, saying it would name the officers implicated if the report was not made public. The report was subsequently raised in Parliament.
Buxtonians Patrick Sumner and Victor Jones have alleged that they were tortured over a three-day period after they were taken by soldiers during a joint services raid aback of the village. Three GDF ranks — Alvin Wilson, Sharth Robertson and Michael Dunn — who were implicated in the disappearance of an AK-47 assault rifle, have also alleged that they had been tortured during interrogations.
