Newspaper columnist and human rights activist Freddie Kissoon was late Wednesday night attacked on Brickdam, near the Public Buildings.
Kissoon, who was punched multiple times to the face and head, said that his attacker fled in a black vehicle parked a short distance away.
Up to press time last evening, police were still looking for the attacker although they managed to trace the getaway vehicle to a former policeman. Police sources said last evening that the former policeman was contacted but he denied that his vehicle was in the vicinity of the area where Kissoon was attacked.
The attack occurred as Kissoon was headed to his vehicle around midnight, after a public meeting and a vigil at the Stabroek Market square organised by the Working People’s Alliance (WPA).
An upset Kissoon, who was yesterday suffering headaches in the wake of the incident, recalled that he parked his vehicle opposite Parliament Buildings around 6 am and went off to the WPA meeting being held nearby.
He later ended up at a vigil being held in solidarity with the residents of Linden and during the vigil the black vehicle circling the area was noticed.
Around midnight, Kissoon said that he decide to leave and he was about to cross the road to get to his vehicle when the attack occurred. His assailant, a “tall, well-shaven man, dressed in a vest and short pants,” approached from behind and punched him to the face. “I had cuffs to the head. He pelt the first cuff to my face,” he recalled.
He said he fell on the ground and the man continued the assault until women belonging to the Red Thread group and AFC executive Michael Carrington rushed to his aid and he subdued his assailant. Kissoon stated that the man, however, managed to free himself and ran to the black vehicle, which was parked near the under-renovation Georgetown Magistrates’ Court building along Avenue of the Republic.
The attack came just three days after a Kissoon column in Kaieteur News, “I am pleading with my country to protect me,” in which he catalogued instances that he said were evidence of his being targeted and harassed by the state.
He told Stabroek News yesterday that the dislike for him is being taken to an “obsessive level.” He said that he is viewed as a dangerous person who can hurt the government.
He, however, stressed that this latest attack on his person would not stop him from writing or standing up for citizens.
“I love this country and I have chosen to stay in it regardless of what. I can’t see any other life. I want to help people,” he said, while suggesting the attack might be connected to something he wrote.
In an attack in 2010, human waste was thrown on Kissoon. His assailant was never found.
Meanwhile, the WPA, in a statement, yesterday condemned the attack. It was noted that it occurred a few hours after Kissoon addressed a WPA public meeting.
“WPA views this as yet another manifestation of the intent by the ruling class to silence its critics at all cost.
We have reached the point where political protest against the government is a crime which attracts the full force of state and its phantom forces,” the party said, having noted that in light of the previous attack, it seemed that Kissoon was singled out for special treatment by the rulers.
It added that despite “persistent harassment, including loss of employment at the University of Guyana,” Kissoon continues in the frontline of the resistance against oppression.
The party said that it stood in solidarity with him and it called on the powers that be to respect the right to protest.
