The PNCR has accused the government of being content with a reputation for violating the rights of citizens and taking an inordinate length of time to investigate infractions by the security forces.
Listing a number of recent cases where members of the joint services are accused of assaulting persons, the party at its weekly press conference last Friday said it would continue to protest the violation of the human rights of citizens.
The party’s statements came mere hours before those of Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee who last Friday evening told the media that while with major investments the police force was making greater inroads into crime, its successes were being undermined by weak prosecution and a fixation with the rights of criminals.
“Human rights is human rights.
All that I am saying is that there must be a balanced approach. This does not mean giving human rights to the one person who is involved to the disadvantage of the other. A person has committed a crime, murdered or shot some.
What about that person who suffered the trauma? What about the children who witness? Where should they be placed?” he asked. The minister called for a more balanced approach, saying too many persons are on the sidelines taking the position that the perpetrator of the crime must be given justice.
According to the PNCR some time back it had called on the administration to investigate allegations concerning the torture of Ryan Gordon and Mitchell Thomas by the joint services.
“There were promises, by both the Minister of Home Affairs and the Commissioner of Police that they would launch an investigation. It is a matter of grave disappointment that no such investigation has been undertaken,” the party said in its press statement.
The party also made reference to the allegations made by the John family of Agricola, who had accused the police of barging into their home and assaulting them for no justifiable reason. The father of the home and his two sons were later taken down to the Brickdam lock-ups where they spent hours before being released.
In this instance the PNCR pointed out that instead of investigating the allegations, the John family members were instead charged with disorderly behaviour.
Stabroek News’s recent report of allegations of brutality meted out to two men at Nottinghamshire, Linden by members of the joint services were also mentioned by the party, and it described it as being further proof that “sections of the joint services believe they can take the law into their own hands and torture our citizens.”
The party referred to the recent developments and many before them as an erosion of the rule of the law, the further violation of human rights and an out-of-control section of the joint services.
“It is time that this is brought to an end and members of the joint services understand that their role is not to violate the rights of our citizens but to uphold the law,” the party said.
The government was reminded by the party that it was responsible for the consequences of such developments under well-known international treaties, in particular the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT) which states at Article 2 (2): “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or an public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.”
The party stressed it would not allow the government and the rest of the nation to forget that members of the police had brutally tortured David Zammett to the point where he could hardly enter the court for the beginning of his trial, and while an investigation was promised none never took place.
Zammett who is known as David Leander called ‘Biscuit’ is accused of the murder of former Minister of Agriculture Satyadeow Sawh, his two siblings and a security guard.
