Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee yesterday rejected claims that the administration and Dr Leslie Ramsammy had conspired to burn down the Health Ministry saying that there is no evidence to support such “utter rubbish”.
He suggested that the claims are smoke-screens meant to shift the focus of the ongoing investigations into the July 17 blaze at the ministry, and declared that “only an experienced sleaze ball can conjecture up such imaginative foolishness”.
Condemning the allegations against the administration, while declaring open the police’s data centre at Eve Leary, Rohee said that a whole anti-government network has been uprooted and exposed to the public in the wake of the fire investigation. He added that efforts are now being made by some politicians to throw dust in the eyes of the public by pointing fingers at the government.
“What about the incendiary devices, the channa bombs found at the scene of the crime? What were they doing there? Was it to prepare barbecue channa and who put them there? We never found any evidence that Minister Ramsammy went purchasing channa, empty rum bottles or gasoline days before the fire took place,” Rohee said.
Rohee then questioned why condemnations of what happened at the ministry have not been forthcoming from some quarters.
“What is interesting is that those who have axes to grind have never condemned the burning down of the ministry. Did Benschop condemn it? Did Witter condemn it? Did the PNC condemn it? Did the Justice for Jermaine movement condemn it?” he asked.
His questions were in direct reference to social activist Mark Benschop, trade unionist Norris Witter, the main opposition party and the Justice for Jermaine Committee. Rohee said too that he finds their silence very interesting.
The minister again mentioned Benschop, Witter, and the PNCR when he asked whether “any of them” expressed concern about the two arson suspects who managed a clean escape from the Providence Police Station.
Police Commissioner Henry Greene told reporters after the opening of the data centre yesterday that the force is following reports that the two escapees might have skipped the country. He said also that they are probing whether the Police Corporal who was discharged from the force and placed before the courts yesterday in connection with the station break might be linked to persons under investigation.
According to Greene, the force is still actively searching for one person. He added that the police had detained and are still in possession of the vehicle which belongs to former chief magistrate Juliet Holder-Allen.
Rohee also addressed allegations of torture during the fire investigations stating firmly that the administration never gave any instructions for anyone to beat or torture any suspect.
He referred to Troy Small, who has alleged torture at the hands of a gang which included a uniformed solider, saying “we said we would investigate and it is being investigated”.
The Home Affairs Minister said that certain elements in the society are bent on disturbing the peace and warned, “those who don’t hear will feel”.
He said that many persons were surprised at the speed with which the investigation in the ministry fire began to unravel leading to arrests made by the police.
“Mind you the police did not have to call on any phantom group to assist them in unearthing the network,” he declared. “They accomplished it by painstaking experienced and skilful investigations. There are some in the society who do not like to see police success such as this. They like to see the police fail so they can laugh at them and heap scorn on them but that era is slowly but surely coming to a close.”
Further, he dismissed claims that the fire scene was cleared prematurely, calling those claims “political wickedness hatched by those who live at a place where such conspiracy theories are hatched and bred”. He added that all the standard operational procedures were followed by the fire service and by the police before the site was handed over to the Ministry of Health.
