A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has demanded decisive action from the Ministry of Home Affairs to protect vulnerable women and girl children from sexual violence and murder and is calling for there to be a study done to determine the cause of such criminal conduct.
“APNU protested particularly the lack of action and poor official response to the rape of a five-year-old girl at Betsy Ground, East Canje on December 23, 2011 and the rape/murder of a 66-year-old woman at De Willem North, West Coast Demerara on January 1, 2012,” the party said in a press release yesterday.
“The Betsy Ground incident is not isolated. APNU has pointed out that the frequency of rape/murders highlight how low the level of human security is, particularly for women and girl children, in rural areas of the country,” the APNU said in its release.
The party said these serious crimes have exposed the seeming inability of the PPP/C Administration and its law-enforcement and social welfare services to comprehend the causes of the crisis. “As a result, no policies have been put in place to ensure the safety of the country’s most vulnerable citizens – the very old and the very young,” the release said.
APNU said that the increasing number of rape/murders over the last ten years is frightening. “These include the killing of a geriatric, blind, shut-in; the gruesome rape/murder of a 12-year-old schoolgirl and the vicious rape/murder of 75-year-old, all on Wakenaam Island. Other rape/murders include a woman at Leguan; a 17-year-old student at Naamryck; a woman of Johanna Cecilia; an 18-year-old waitress at Port Mourant, a 32-year-old woman at Maida and a 16-year-old schoolgirl at Warren, all on the Corentyne Coast,” APNU said.
It said that there were also the violent rape/murders of an 18-year-old girl at Good Faith, Mahaicony; a 24-year-old mother of two of Mahdia, a nine-year-old child of Mocha Arcadia and women at Port Mourant, Vigilance, Herstelling, Glasgow, Betsy Ground, Nismes and Skeldon.
“The list is long and bloody, but with all this evidence, the Minister of Home Affairs must surely realize that something has gone wrong. Mr. Clement Rohee has the responsibility to remedy the problem. It should be clear, also, that some sort of study should be initiated to determine the cause of this particular type of violent criminal conduct,” APNU said.
