Dear Editor,
I was charged for treason in 1980, with five other persons by the Burnham dictatorship. I fled Guyana and finally ended up in the United Kingdom, where I lived for 27 years. I can say without a doubt that we were completely against the PNC regime, but did not have a plan to overthrow the government by force of arms at the time of our incarceration. In legal terms treason is a conspiracy to remove a government by using physical force. Even if we were training to use arms, that in itself did not constitute treason. Our treason charge was dismissed after being tried four times, because there was no evidence of a plot to remove the government by force of arms.
The law on treason is very archaic. It is rooted in our colonial legal system, inherited from the English legal system. The PPP government under Dr Jagan and his successors, Janet Jagan and Mr Jagdeo, had ample opportunities to change the laws and remove them from the statutes. Instead, they made no fundamental changes to the colonial legal framework left by Burnham.
One is shocked by the trappings left by the legal-minded Forbes Burnham, a lawyer, who cursed the white slave-masters and their enslavement of people of African descent but let these laws remain within our legal system.
I strongly urge President Donald Ramotar to issue an amnesty to the three persons who are currently in the lock-ups in the interest of peace, goodwill and national unity.
Yours faithfully,
Jinnah Rahman
