The government will re-examine the methods to increase electricity tariffs in Linden, President Donald Ramotar announced to the nation last evening as he appealed for calm and a return to normalcy in the mining town.
Linden has been the scene of continued protests over the past week over the government’s decision to gradually phase out its subsidy for electricity costs in the town, with residents bearing more of the costs as a result.
President Ramotar, in a brief address to the nation broadcast on NCN, said he would establish a technical team to review “all the available and practical options and attendant implications, financial and otherwise, to move this process along” but he ruled out the increases being scrapped. He said Lindeners would still have to pay additional sums at the end of the deliberations by the technical team.
“This electricity issue is not a new one but it had reached the stage where our country could no longer sustain the high subsidy being provided,” he said. He added that the government made commitments to the tariffs increase in phases, while steps would be taken to cushion the impact of the rising tariffs.
“The global escalation of oil prices has made energy conservation an unavoidable necessity,” he said, adding that many community consultations and stakeholder meetings were held over the last six years to explore the options of bringing the electricity tariff rates of the Linden community gradually on par with the rest of Guyana.
He said in an era of an unhelpful global economy and unstable commodity prices, bauxite communities around the world have been facing closure. He said that here in Guyana, the government has managed to restore the viability of the bauxite industry and save jobs and improve Linden’s prospects as a destination for new investments in non-bauxite industry.
He added that the outlook for Linden today is brighter than anytime over the past three decades and for that bright future to be secured, a stable political and industrial relations environment is “absolutely critical.”
The President appealed for calm and return to normalcy in the mining town, while adding that he was “deeply distressed” by the loss of lives last week when police clashed with protesting residents. “I remain deeply concerned about the ongoing unrest in the mining town. Already, the blockading of major arteries in the area has disrupted life in the communities, led to loss for businesses, threatened the provision of critical social and utility services such as health, water and electricity, and led to an escalation of food and transport costs for Lindeners and interior communities beyond. If this continues it will do irreparable harm to the opportunities for investments aimed at creating more jobs and improving the living standards for the Linden community and Region 10 as a whole,” he said.
He said he had been in discussions with national stakeholders, including the opposition political parties, adding that a commission of inquiry with international presence would be involved in the investigations of the deaths of the three persons.
Tensions have been high in the mining town over the past week and nerves escalated when police opened fire on Wednesday on a group of protesters who were on the Mackenzie-Wismar bridge, killing three persons. Ron Somerset, 18, Shemroy Bouyea and Allan Lewis, 46 were those killed.
Lindeners have vowed to continue their protest actions.
Talks
Meanwhile earlier yesterday President Ramotar resumed talks with members of the opposition and Region Ten Chairman Sharma Solomon, while the AFC said that a Trinidad-based pathologist would be arriving in the country to witness the autopsies on the bodies of the three protestors that were killed by police.
Another round of talks are planned after the engagement at the Office of the President (OP) yesterday bore little fruit.
Moments after the talks had wrapped, Solomon told reporters that all the parties agreed that “we will continue to work to find common ground” while declining to go into the specifics of the engagement as negotiations are continuing.
He did, however, say that the focus is to find some solution for the instability in Linden. “We would have advanced our position and I think we will continue to hold firm to those positions. There is an understanding on the government side, as far as I have interpreted, to consider those positions and I think this is the reason why we will go back in tomorrow to see what sort of considerations would have been given to those positions,” he added.
Asked if the government has asked for the protestors to be removed, Solomon responded “they have asked us to ensure that there is some amount of normalcy in Linden.” He added that the positions advanced would guarantee some level of normalcy. However, he emphasised that Lindeners are prepared “to dig in as deep as they have to” until the advances that have been put forward to the government are seriously considered.
Meanwhile speaking on the looting and petty crimes that have coincided with protests in the town, Solomon strongly condemned “persons who want to engage in self inflicting further hardship on the people of Linden.” He added that it was vigilant Lindeners who had captured these persons and not the police. “I can say that the people of Linden will remain vigilant and they will remain mobilised in their efforts to achieve the things they are on the streets to achieve at the moment,” he said.
Meanwhile APNU member Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, remains firm that his party wanted a commission of inquiry into the death of the three protestors shot dead with an international component. “It is what the people in Linden say they want that is finally going to guide us, he said.
Roopnaraine, who was part of the delegation that met the President, noted that if the people in Linden are convinced that the only thing that will satisfy them is an international commission of inquiry then that is what APNU is going to support. “We want a commission where the outcome is going to be credible and accepted and I think we are inflexible only on one point and that is that the commission should come to a conclusion that satisfies the interest of justice. On everything else we are prepared to be flexible,” he noted.
APNU representative Aubrey Norton added that the people of Linden are committed to a cause. “There are a lot of discussions so that they understand the cause and we, who are representing them, will represent their interest,” he said. “I will say to you if there is an agreement, the people of Linden have got to benefit,” he added.
Nigel Hughes, the AFC representative at the talks, said party officials have gathered incriminating statements from several persons who were present at the scene of last Wednesday’s shooting. “I have enough evidence here to share with the appropriate tribunal whether it is a court of criminal jurisdiction, commission of inquiry of the UN human rights commissions, we have enough information in statements to implicate,” he stressed.
He added that his position Home Minister Clement Rohee is that the combined opposition should move a motion of no confidence against him before the end of the week and Roopnaraine at this point interjected and said that it was “not something that APNU would have any difficulty with.”
Meanwhile, Hughes told reporters that a pathologist, who is a professor based in Trinidad, will be arriving here tomorrow for the autopsies of the three men killed in last Wednesday’s protest, which are scheduled for tomorrow morning. He said that this was the arrangement he had with the police commander at Linden, Assistant Commissioner Gavin Primo.
Hughes, who is also an attorney, had told this newspaper on Saturday that he made the request to have the post-mortem examination delayed, after an international pathologist had expressed an interest.
When contacted, police spokesman Ivelaw Whittaker said that the PMEs will be done tomorrow. Asked about the request for a pathologist, he said, “Why are you asking me this? It was Mr Hughes who is requesting that. We are going ahead with our post-mortem on Wednesday.”
Relatives of two of the fatal victims and another who has been hospitalised have come forward to make reports of murder and attempted murder, the AFC said in a press release, while adding that the party was in the mining town last Friday and Saturday and were able to speak directly with eyewitnesses to the shooting and also with some persons who were injured.
