Dr Chand in moulding his defence claims that he is not part of the structure of the Guyana Police Force and thus not competent to give them orders. Agreed. However, he is part of the structure of the medical authority, and thus competent and authorized to issue orders that have to do with alleviating pain and suffering, and healing the sick. Dr Chand either needs to re-examine the ethical obligations of his profession, or get out of the business.
Dr Chand goes on to say that the bag on the head of the youth was not tied, and that he examined all the injuries on the body of the lad. But how can he say that? What kind of a medical professional called in to examine a patient, observes horrible injuries on portions of his or her body, and does not demand the right to examine the entire body of the patient in order to determine that there are no life threatening injuries elsewhere? One of the suspects who was tortured received injuries to the head. Of course Dr Chand can rightly claim that he did not know this at the time. But neither did he know whether the boy was suffering from injuries above the shoulders. How could he adequately determine whether this lad needed emergency medical life-saving attention without observing and examining that portion of his body above the shoulder? Surely he is jesting.
Dr Chand, as he stated, is not part of the command structure of the Guyana Police Force, and thus his actions had to follow a pattern in keeping with his professional obligations. He observed what were hideous injuries to the mid and lower torso of a patient. Remember, Dr Chand is not a policeman, so this lad is not a suspect, he is a patient. There is a bag on the head of the lad. In keeping with his professional obligations he should have demanded that the bag be removed from the head of the boy so that he could examine his entire body. If the police refused to comply, Dr Chand’s duty as a medical professional was to take their names and ranks as a process of reporting their conduct to higher authorities. Further, rather than recommending that the lad be taken to the hospital, Dr Chand should have issued a medical order to that effect, and remain with the patient until he was handed over to competent medical authorities for emergency medical attention. That is what would have happened in most civilized countries.
For Dr Chand’s information, if that examination had occurred in the US along the lines it did, he might have been prosecuted. US law mandates that medical, educational and other social services professionals report all incidents that suggest child abuse. What that lad experienced was not only torture, it amounted to child abuse. I know that many take offence when I write that we have been dumbed down. But what other condition can produce the never ending flow of fatuous and insipid explanations and excuses that issue forth from people in positions of responsibility when their excesses or failures come under public scrutiny. Torture is roughing up. Guyanese are more interested in the contents of their Christmas barrels than they are in torture.
Police Standing Orders authorize them to use a measure of force to get confessions. Again, George Orwell had to have looked into the future, got a glimpse of Guyana circa 1992-2009, and immediately sat down and began scribbling away at what would become a dystopian presentation of hypocrisy, deceit and connivance as a strategy to obtain and maintain a hold on power. Sadly that fictional allegory titled Animal Farm that many of us were given as an assignment for literature seems to have become a depiction of our reality in the land we call our home.
Yours faithfully,
Robin Williams
