The joint opposition parties are continuing to organise stakeholders’ engagements to galvanise support for the call for an international inquiry into alleged links between government and drug trafficker Roger Khan.
The engagements are a component of the parties’ planned public education campaign in view of the outcome of the Robert Simels trial, as they hold firm on the need for an inquiry to ensure accountability to the people. The AFC, GAP, NFA, the PNCR and the WPA announced a partnership at the start of the month to sensitise local and international organisations on the saga and to force greater accountability from the government.
According to AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan, the collaboration between the parties on the issue remains healthy and he noted that his party would continue to work with all political and civil forces to ensure an international inquiry. Ramjattan added that while members of civil society are supportive of the calls for an investigation, they are weary of the “fear and smear” campaign he says the government has deployed against the opposition.
Meanwhile, GAP-ROAR MP Everall Franklin said most of the groups to which the parties have reached out are concerned, though it is taking time for them to act. “It takes time to develop a response one would be satisfied with,” he explained, saying that the work of the joint opposition “is a work in progress and I don’t see any reason why it should not be successful.” He added that ultimately, it is in everyone’s interest to find a solution.
Franklin said too that the joint opposition would continue to engage with stakeholders, to ensure that they would be more proactive in dealing with the issues affecting them. “No matter how many chutney or reggae shows they bring here, by Monday… the same situation would be facing us,” he noted, while adding that engagements would be extended countrywide.
On Thursday, at a joint news conference with the AFC, he had emphasised that all is not well in the country, with workers continuing to call for a living wage while the wealth of the nation is being divided among a selected few. He noted that constantly government claims that there is no way that the wages and salaries can be bettered, yet the country is in the midst of “squandermania,” and the sheer outrageousness of the corrupt practices being perpetrated against the people is a constant outrage. Franklin pointed to the recent exposure of a few contracts, which left many people shaking their heads in bewilderment, calling it a small portion of the uncontrolled mismanagement meted out to the populace. “If we continue to bury our heads in the muck, which is now evident, we leave exposed the most vulnerable parts of our anatomy for further violation and abuse,” he declared.
The opposition parties have also agreed to compile a comprehensive dossier, cataloguing the government’s human rights abuses, including extra-judicial killings, torture and complicity with known organised crime gangs and narco-traffickers and the resulting corruption. The dossier, upon completion, will be submitted to local, regional and international bodies, including the courts with the appropriate jurisdiction, and released to the media and the public.
AFC leader Raphael Trotman said the work on a dossier is continuing and the parties are aiming to have the work completed before the end of September. He added that the information was being carefully developed, while pointing out that information is being received on nearly a daily basis.
Meanwhile, Ramjattan, who had pushed for the preparation of the dossier, explained that it is receiving input from several sources, including local experts as well as assessments by international organisations on government corruption and state abuses.
Individually and collectively, the parties have also been reaching out to local and international organisations to highlight the problem.
The PNCR has been staging small picketing exercises and street marches to push for a probe. Earlier this month, PNCR leader Robert Corbin wrote members of the international community, seeking support for an international probe. In the letters, he referred to the “sordid” developments arising out of the US trial of Robert Simels, former lawyer of confessed drug trafficker Roger Khan, and he emphasised the national and international security implications as well as the grave consequences for the stability of the state. In this regard, he sought assistance to encourage President Bharrat Jagdeo and the Government of Guyana to heed the call by citizens, for an international criminal investigation, to be conducted by a reputable international body such as Interpol. “It should be now obvious why we consider it necessary to seek international assistance and support to have an investigation conducted by Interpol, or a similar body, and we now formally seek your support and assistance,” Corbin wrote, citing mounting evidence in the period since 2002 and official disregard.
Meanwhile, at a subsequent meeting with civil society representatives at City Hall, leaders of the joint opposition and representatives of several civic groups passed a resolution supporting the demand for an international Commission of Inquiry, to carry out a fair and impartial investigation into all the violent acts committed in the wake of the 2002 jailbreak, including activities and relationships to the narcotics trade. The meeting also resolved that the Terms of Reference for the inquiry should include the investigation of the allegations of torture and degrading treatment meted out to citizens at the hands of elements of the security forces and the involvement of criminal elements with the state. Among the civil society representatives at the meeting were union leaders, religious leaders, women’s and rights activists, youth leaders and concerned citizens.
