In its first formal response to the dossier, the government said the compilation of abuses, including the torture and murder of citizens allegedly carried out with state support contained inexplicable and reckless entries as well as major omissions. “It is obvious that the PNCR and their acolytes in their parliamentary opposition parties have used the publication of the dossier to advance their grand design which is to sensationalise, to confuse and to score partisan political points using the circumstances of the dead as their primary tool,” OP said in a statement issued last evening.
On Tuesday, the PNCR, AFC, GAP, WPA and the NFA launched the dossier, which chronicles a decade and a half of abuses, including unlawful killings. The goal of the dossier is to establish that there is a sufficient ‘prima facie’ basis to warrant further interrogation of grave human rights abuses by an independent body with the requisite legal authority. The parties have warned that the failure to launch such a probe could fuel a cycle of hatred that could stoke the return of violence.
The dossier includes a partial list of citizens unlawfully killed by citizens between 1993 and 2002; a partial list of citizens allegedly shot to death [and] otherwise unlawfully killed by the “Black Clothes” squad or other rogue elements of the security services, the “phantom squad,” as well as other instances of extra-judicial killing, execution or assassination; and a full list of extra-judicial and other killings between 1993 and 2009, numbering 449. Addressing the alleged link between the government and convicted drug kingpin Roger Khan, the dossier concludes that hundreds of killings committed in the wake of the 2002 jailbreak were the result of a gang “war” between the 2002 Mash Day prison escapees and Khan’s ‘phantom squad,’ with both sides aided by rogue elements of the disciplined forces that were being supported by the government.
However, OP dismissed the effort yesterday as part of a continuing campaign by the PNCR against law and order. It said public records would show that the PNCR has consistently been opposed to the government’s defence of public order and democratic gains and it accused the party of offering support to criminal gangs in this regard. “The PNCR under successive party leaders and their like-minded co-conspirators have openly supported the aims and objectives of those gangs, joining in the glorification of gang members and leaders in life and in death,” it declared, adding that with the publication of the dossier the party succeeded in co-opting other parliamentary political parties into its grand design.
According to OP, a preliminary review of their dossier reveals that among the 449 entries are: persons who are alive; persons “officially” listed as missing; victims of criminal/terrorists gangs; law enforcement officers, police and soldiers killed in the line of duty; known wanted criminals who died in armed confrontations with the Joint Services; victims of vehicular accident; cases currently under police investigation; and cases subjected to judicial review. It added that if the compilation is to be deemed “appropriate and comprehensive, the omission of major cases would have to be explained.” OP did not cite any of the “major” omissions.
The government has insisted that some opposition parties should be asked whether they are prepared for full disclosure about their role in the tragedies that affected Guyana in the period between 2001 and 2008. For the purposes of an international probe, the joint opposition parties have given “unequivocal and unreserved” commitment to comply and make their organisations and members fully and freely available to all independent investigations conducted in pursuit of truth in any matters. They note that the parties and their members had always been subject to the law. “None of us, as individuals or organisations, has the capacity or desire to stand above and beyond Guyana’s law, rules and regulations,” they said.
The parties, however, emphasised that there can be “no moral equivalence” between an inquiry into the joint opposition parties and the call for an inquiry into state actors and those allied to them.
