The Joint Services’ movement into Linden last Friday morning was ordered by President Donald Ramotar, a day ahead of a planned operation, after residents allegedly attempted to burn the Wismar/Mackenzie Bridge, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon said yesterday, while government accused the Region 10 leadership of deliberately prolonging the negotiations.
According to Luncheon, the Tactical Services Unit (TSU) and the detachment stationed at the bridge was able to prevent the burning down of the bridge, which led to “an orgy of arson on both sides of the river,” resulting in a number of buildings both public and private property were torched.
“This activity was brought to the attention of [Ramotar] and he issued directions for the Joint Services—the Joint Services that were mobilising for an activity on Saturday—to bring forward the date of the movement into Linden to Friday morning,” he was quoted as saying at an Office of the President (OP) daily brief with presidential advisor Gail Teixeira and communications coordinator Kwame McCoy, a transcript of which was released to the media last evening.
Luncheon noted that on the Mackenzie side of the bridge, the Joint Services cleared obstacles on the roads and bridges and subsequently the eastern side of the river was cleared and open.
Luncheon explained that on the bridge, the Joint Services moved on to the western end, where the protestors had occupied and ultimately secured both the eastern and western ends of the bridges.
By Sunday, he noted, ranks were fully prepared and moved into Wismar area. “Throughout the day on Sunday, the Joint Services engaged protestors who confronted the law enforcement and security detachments with fire bombs, destroying military vehicles, injuring military and Joint Services servicemen,” he said.
By yesterday, Luncheon noted, the bridge was secured, portions of the road on Burnham Drive were under the control of the Joint Services, although they continued to be engaged in exchanges with the confronting protestors with firebombs going out to the Wisroc junction. As a result of the clearing of the eastern end of the rover, he said Lindeners in Mackenzie were freely moving. “Indeed the benefit, the consequence, the aftermath of the Joint Services intervention in Linden and particularly on the Mackenzie side has clearly shown what was being repressed, what was being denied, what was being frustrated by protestors who have been vanquished by the Joint Services,” he added.
The Joint Services Coordinating Council had previously denied in a press release having an early morning operation in the mining town to clear barriers that day and thereby contributing to the escalation of the unrest in the town that lasted throughout the weekend.
Region Ten officials and members of the combined opposition said that the “brazen attack” on Lindeners by the joint services was an act of intimidation that could jeopardize the finalizing of negotiations with government.
‘Tremendous
restraint and patience’
But Teixeira suggested that in the wake of the start of the protest on July 18, when three men were killed and at least 20 were injured, the Region Ten delegation, led by Chairman Sharma Solomon and including APNU MPs Rupert Roopnaraine and Vanessa Kissoon as well as Aubrey Norton and Nigel Hughes, sought to drag out negotiations to resolve the unrest in the town.
From July 23 to August 8, there were four meetings with the regional delegation at OP, where she said the government consistently tried to ensure that there was agreement. I think the public is well aware that the decision of July 19 with the stakeholders to have a Commission of Inquiry proceeded on a parallel line and was concluded on August 2nd and these Terms of Reference were agreed to so that specifically the Region 10 delegation was dealing with the issues of Region 10 in particular, the electricity subsidy and the issues relating to electricity,” she noted, while adding that it was clear that a number of persons in the delegation were not in a great haste to reach a resolution on the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the technical team, which did not receive a response until a week after being presented.
Teixeira said that the region did not keep the August 2nd deadline to submit the TOR but did so two days later, while the government was on time. She said that the economic proposal was not submitted until the night of August 9.
While noting there was some progress on August 6, she said that on August 8 they had reached to a point where the Terms of Reference were initialled by Dr. Luncheon on behalf of the government and Solomon on behalf of the Region 10 delegation. “…And then we said could there still be a return to normalcy? Because we had clearly reached a benchmark by the initialling of the draft Terms of Reference for the technical team to look at the electricity issues in Linden and the subsidy,” she noted, while, however, adding that no commitment could be made on having the roads cleared because there was still the issue of the economic proposals.
Teixeira suggested that “the playing for time obviously had a sinister agenda,” particularly to extend unrest in Linden given the statements made by members of the delegation to Lindeners during public meetings in the town while negotiations were still taking place.
On August 7, she related public meetings were held where it was clearly pointed out that the resistance will continue regardless. The following day, as scheduled, the two teams met and according to Teixeira it was on this occasion that the TOR for the technical team was agreed to.
Despite the government advancing that this agreement meant a restoration of normalcy, the Region Ten delegation responded in the negative and insisted that the August 10 meeting must take place as there were outstanding issues that had to be dealt with. She accused the delegation of being unfair and continuously stalling the negotiation process to the point where protestors “hit the streets at 2 am.” “…The government has exercised tremendous restraint and patience in trying to reach a resolution of the issues in Linden as of August 10,” she declared.
Last Friday, region Ten Chairman Solomon said his delegation was still prepared to meet with the president and his team as scheduled.
Solomon, however, stated that the actions of the Joint Services could be seen as provocative, since all parties involved were about to enter the most crucial stage of the negotiations to resolve the Linden situation. “One can generate from this that it is only set to derail these very progressive talks that we have had over the past few weeks”, he said, adding that in spite of these recent developments he and his team are still committed to engage the government on the various issues raised by the Region as the progress made so far “should not go to waste.”
