If there was collaboration between senior figures in the government and the Roger Khan-led phantom group to prosecute battles against criminals and others – as is very widely suspected or even taken for granted in some quarters – then the evidence of it won’t be in the open for all and sundry to see. It will be cleverly hidden away without a MOU or engagement rules and the terms of the alliance entrusted only to those who won’t crack under the questioning of a not too intrusive media. Remember, the brutal interrogations so cruelly dismissed as `roughing up’ by a cabinet minister would certainly not be employed against anyone who enjoys the protection of the government.
And if there was collaboration between the government and this self-confessed drug trafficker then it must be relentlessly pursued and ferreted out by all those sections of society committed to law and order and good governance.
The growing dilemma for this government is that its protestations of innocence in this matter are being rapidly concentrated to a distillate which will either support its case or expose it as guilty with all of the attendant ramifications. If one were to examine the period during which the phantoms rose one can well see the adumbrations of the thinking of those who might have made the decisions to do a deal with the Khan organization. In the aftermath of the 2002 jail-break – in itself a blinding reflection of the abject state of prison security and intelligence gathering – the police force was completely unable to bring the situation under control.
After arming themselves and recruiting new members to their force, the prison five created mayhem day after day. Almost on a daily basis there were horrendous murders, bloody robberies, gratuitous violence and the most daring escapades. More worrying, and reflective of a societal sickness, these marauders found safe havens and a critical mass of support from ordinary Guyanese. They were afforded logistical help, training grounds, safe houses, arms, medical care, had their food catered for and were tipped off by rogues in the security services about operations that were being mounted against them. There are also convincing signs that bands of children were recruited as lookouts and later became child warriors. All of these characteristics of the support offered to the prison break five constituted very serious crimes for which too few were prosecuted because of the weaknesses in the criminal justice system.
So in the perfect storm of do-or-die desperadoes, the support for these criminals from unexpected sources and a demoralized and ill-equipped police force, the government was clearly trapped between a rock and a hard place. That, of course, could never have been justification for sliding into the clutches of someone of the likes of Roger Khan who, through his meteoric rise after jumping bail in the US state of Vermont, should have been separated from the government and state business by hundreds of degrees. Yet, it was this understated, under-the-radar connection between Khan and sections of the state that worried many. There were frequent reports of him being attended by a small private army – the beginnings of the phantom squad, being seen in the company of senior government officials and appearing in high offices. All the while he was moving up without the requisite due diligence by the intelligence services and those who should have been monitoring how he was suddenly flush with cash. And all the while there were allegations that he was connected to the drug business and enriching himself. From contracting for a building on the UG campus, Khan moved on to bigger things. A series of small businesses followed – a laundromat, a small housing scheme on the East Bank and then the purchase of a small island in the Essequibo River, ostensibly putting him into the business of lumbering. That wasn’t the end of it. He then aspired to acquire a timber concession in the south of the country and despite the subsequent denials by this government he was on the verge of having it consigned to him by the board of the forestry commission until this was exposed and pressure was brought to bear from various quarters.
All the while he was still living a charmed life and was already engaged in the prosecution of a struggle against people he deemed to be criminals and those who were a threat to his business. Found with the infamous spy equipment and a veritable arsenal at Good Hope in December 2002 by the army’s intelligence unit, he and his accomplices managed to be freed of charges which was not only astonishing but confirmed fears about the quality of the criminal justice system. It also had another unexpected consequence – the transformation of the army intelligence unit into one engaged in torture and answerable to persons in the Office of the President. Taken all together, Mr Khan’s history here after fleeing from the US laid an irrepressible trail leading to the subsequent conclusion that a drug operator – already with a paramilitary outfit – and aware of how he could protect his business and go after opponents at the same time could have presented a proposal to a crime-battered and under-siege government. This is the accusation that the government now has to defend based on the revelations and the sworn testimony from a court in New York and perhaps more revelations on the day that Roger Khan will be sentenced.
Discovery of what threads tied Roger Khan with the government and the criminal justice system must be discovered if the country is to have a chance to put to rest the tortured conscience of that period and to bring some type of closure to hundreds of families who have been savaged by mindless violence and mayhem.
There were many smoking guns including the almost hallowed status that Mr Khan had here until he was declared by the US State Department to be a known drug trafficker and other leads which spilled over into the general society. Mr Khan’s apprehension at Good Hope very early into his operations should undoubtedly have led to an immediate investigation of his organization and what it was up to. There was none. Mr Khan and his accomplices should be have been stringently prosecuted on indictable charges far more serious than the ones that ended up before Magistrate Stephney on the East Coast. The murder of Axel Williams and the subsequent revelations of his connections with a senior government official should have immediately unearthed the privatizing of important sections of the crime fight. His manner of execution was chillingly similar to several that have been spoken about in a court in the US and signalled that because of the wealth of knowledge he possessed about the killings that occurred he had become a serious liability.
And there were many more veins of rich leads into the intersections between Mr Khan’s operations and the mayhem of that period. Perhaps the most stunning and theatrical were the revelations by Mr George Bacchus. Not an extremely credible witness, he nonetheless made mind-boggling revelations which as time went by gained credibility. His role as a self-confessed informant was dismissed by officialdom as it clearly would have compromised the role of people like Mr Khan in the fight. In keeping with the murderous code of the business he was once associated with, Mr Bacchus was shot to death as he slept. All the while, there were dozens and dozens of unexplained executions and attacks which the police took no credit for and which could otherwise not be elucidated. Not even those could interest the government to aggressively pursue what was transpiring. Why?
As things progressed there was a crescendo of allegations against Minister of Home Affairs Gajraj until the government was forced to mount a limited inquiry into his role in any death squad. No witnesses with first-hand information on the death squad came forward although in a New York court one is now telling all he knows, a further sign of how our justice system is regarded. Minister Gajraj was subsequently cleared but the allegations persist. Now the name of another minister has been mentioned on several occasions in connection with the infamous spy equipment. The difference here this time is that this strand is completely out of the control of the government which has abdicated its role in magisterially investigating the mayhem of the period. It is also out of the control of the criminal justice system here that has also failed to deliver justice.
Under these circumstances, the law abiding people of this country who seek justice have every right to hang on every word that flows from this trial in New York as it has given them a sense that even if the answers could not be provided here they can be derived from elsewhere.
The key question remains how much longer the government can live in denial of the revelations. As was pointed out in yesterday’s editorial the only way the government can clear itself is through a careful investigation which produces evidence. As part of this quest there are three things it can do immediately: produce the alleged spy equipment that it says it still possesses and seek verification from Smith Myers that that was the one intended for Mr Khan, ask Smith Myers to make available all documents it may have retained on this transaction to establish who provided the authorizing signature and summon the independent contractor Mr Chapman to recount who made the arrangements for him to travel here and who he trained and interacted with while here.
The latter inquiry would answer the burning question that many Guyanese want answers to. Is the government prepared to match the heated rhetoric with real steps to clear its name?