Dear Editor,

I was so shell-shocked on reading your news article, ‘Guyana to defend rights record at UN,’ (May 11), it took me a couple of minutes to regain my mental composure and pick up my jaw from the floor. Like your newspaper, I had no knowledge that the Jagdeo government was asked by the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) to field answers to specific questions about Guyana’s disgusting human rights record. And the fact the government proceeded to provide answers without holding its usual stakeholders meeting showed its concept of inclusive governance is selective.

Because stakeholders’ meetings with the President have become a political convenience for his government, stakeholders need to consider forming a body (Guyana Civic Society Council?) with elected leaders, learn to speak with one voice, and stop being pulled in and pushed out conveniently by government. With the UN, the US and the UK now focusing intently on the government’s behaviour, this is the window of opportunity for stakeholders and Guyanese of all persuasions and standings to let these countries know what is actually happening. Demand that the UN either gets the government to set up an impartial panel or let the UN set up one of its own. We need to get to the bottom of the pre and post-Mash Day 2002 fiasco, and the US could surely help by providing the UN with vital information it extracted from Khan et al now in the US.

What these questions from the UNHRC magnify is a government that has abdicated its humane responsibility to its people and the world body (UN) of which it is a member. People are humans and they make mistakes, even when they form governments, but there is a difference between having made (past tense) a few egregious mistakes and making (present continuous tense) several egregious mistakes. So it is not as though government had a one-time flagrant misstep; flagrant missteps have actually become a pattern or way of life.

Meanwhile, there were several specific areas of concern in the UN report, but here is the one question from the United Kingdom that still remains the millstone that weighs heavily around the neck of the government: “Serious allegations of Government links to a ‘Phantom Squad’ in 2002-6, led by a convicted drug trafficker, have been a regular focus of political and media concern and debate in recent years. Does the Government of Guyana feel it has addressed these allegations sufficiently and would it consider an independent investigation to bring to justice those responsible and bring closure to this issue, including for the relatives of the numerous victims?”

This question could be linked to a report of the UNHRC independent expert on minority issues which noted concerns by Afro-Guyanese and others regarding the killings of numerous Afro-Guyanese men since 2002 and the existence of the phantom squad. According to the independent expert, “the perception was of a collusion of government and law enforcement with criminals to facilitate the targeting and killing of young Afro-Guyanese known to the security services.”

What was the government’s response here? The government rejected the allegations! No explanation, just a flat-out rejection of the allegations. It’s like these things never happened. At this juncture all bets are off that the Jagdeo government has any redeeming qualities left, and it is now imperative for the international community to band together to impose major sanctions against it. For it is obvious that once the government denies what is known to all Guyanese and even the diplomatic community in Georgetown, it will never seek to launch an impartial enquiry into the deaths of so many people at the hands of a drug baron and his phantom squad associates, and with the seeming complicity of government officials.

Anyway, some uninformed persons have asked: what about the victims of the demented criminal gangs? The UNHRC is not as concerned about criminals engaging in criminality; it is more concerned about the role of government and its security forces against the people’s rights. It expects governments to operate responsibly towards their peoples. So while it can’t be denied that there were more Indians than blacks who suffered and died at the hands of demented criminal elements disguising their criminality under the cloak and mask of freedom fighters, the government, on realizing the police and army had failed to do their job in assuring internal safety and stability, should have at least sought emergency security assistance from Caricom rather than seemingly rely on a man who was clearly a fugitive from US justice and a known major drug smuggler in Georgetown and who engaged in extrajudicial killings. In the end, what is perceived to have been the government’s response made it appear no different from the demented criminals posing as freedom fighters.

While I look forward to seeing what action the UNHRC will take in light of the lame denials and explanations from the Jagdeo administration, I am also finally delighted to read another related article in SN, May 12, ‘US concerned at reports of extrajudicial deaths, cop brutality.’ The US did not have to wait for the UNHRC’s report on Guyana to express its concern, because it already was in possession of damning information culled from Roger Khan and others who testified at the trial of his now jailed lawyer and also from former GDF major, David Clarke. Still, I am glad to read where the US is finally speaking up, and I hope to see some tangible sanctions against this government, including but not limited to visa denials and revocations until the government either cleans up its act or steps down.

Editor, I wrote a letter to the office of the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme in Kenya highlighting the truly pathetic governance of President Bharrat Jagdeo even as he was awarded by the UNEP for his role in promoting the agency’s global climate change fight, and I have received a response. I am currently completing another letter to the UNHRC letting them know that they need to help bring about changes in the way Guyanese are being treated by the Jagdeo government, which has absolutely no respect for the law, let alone the people.

Finally, here’s a brief word on the topic of discrimination.Whereas there was a time when even I called on my fellow Guyanese to provide evidence backing up charges of discrimination and marginalization against the PPP government, I am appalled that the government, which doughtily denied the charges, would brazenly go on to continue committing such acts and now appears not only guilty as charged, but stumped and humiliated by the lines of questioning from the UNHRC. Even I have managed to put together my own list of examples. Why are so many Indian Guyanese enjoying lucrative deals from the PPP government? There are so many other examples of discrimination that this matter also needs to be addressed head on and now.

Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin