President Donald Ramotar yesterday made an unannounced visit to Linden, where he offered his regret for the deaths of three men that escalated protests over a hike in the electricity tariffs over the last month into a major crisis for his fledgling administration.
Ramotar’s visit, which was greeted with anger by some residents during his tour of the community, also saw the announcement of the members of the technical team to examine the electricity sector for the town, based on an agreement out of ongoing negotiations between the government and Region 10’s representatives. Although it had been hoped that negotiations yesterday would have yielded a resolution to the unrest, the meeting was cut short and is to continue today.
Ramotar had previously planned to go to Linden on July 28 but called off the trip on the advice of the Joint Services, after they were unable to establish control in the town amid sustained protests after the July 18 killing of the three protesters and injuries to 20 others. Lindeners had been blockaded the town, squeezing interior mining communities and areas as far away as Lethem until security forces managed to clear critical last Friday morning.
The visit yesterday came in the wake of the Joint Services’ recent securing of the community road network, Office of the President (OP) said, even as regional leaders and residents continued to voice concern over the actions of the forces on the ground.
Ramotar, accompanied by advisors Gail Teixeira, Odinga Lumumba and Transport Minister Robeson Benn, during visits to Wismar and Mackenzie, was met with shouts of “Murderers! Murderers! Get out of our town murders!”
The delegation first met a sparse group of Lindeners at Watooka House, which security forces had encircled with barbed wire earlier in the week. He was greeted by Chief Executive Officer of the Linmine Secretariat Horace James, with whom he discussed the extent of the losses at the Linmine Secretariat complex, which was hit by fires on July 18 and August 10 by unknown arsonists. There was a closed-door meeting before he emerged to address residents, who numbered less than 30, apart from members of the media.
Ramotar’s address to the gathering centred on the negotiations with the region’s leaders, and he made a point of saying that his visit was as a result of the roads being cleared and because his repeated calls for the leaders to invite stakeholders to the meetings have been falling on deaf ears. It was during this time that he expressed condolences on his own behalf and the government for the shooting deaths of the three residents of Linden, Ron Somerset, Shemroy Bouyea and Allan Wilson, on the evening of July 18. The failure of Ramotar or any senior government official to visit the town after the shooting had been repeatedly criticised.
“Sir, Welcome to Linden, but you came like a ‘thief in the night’ and it was the same thing you did when you came for the opening of the Linden Expo, you keep coming here like a ‘thief in the night,’” Linden resident and businessman Leon Barret told him during a question and answer session yesterday.
Barrett attempted to point out concerns over the modus operandi of the PPP/C government but was interrupted by Ramotar, who told him he was speaking out of anger and that it appeared that he had a political axe to grind.
Ramotar was also asked about the absence of the Regional Chairman Sharma Solomon and the regional MPs, who yesterday indicated that they were given no prior information about his visit. “We had a meeting with them last night [Wednesday]; we are to meet them again this afternoon. We have been meeting them on numerous occasions, so I did not see it necessary to invite them to this meeting,” he explained.
Electricity review
Meanwhile, Teixeira announced that Narvon Persaud would chair the electricity sector review team, with members Winston Brassington, Norman McLean and Bharrat Dindyal named by the government and Professor Clive Thomas, Lloyd Rose and Haslyn Parris named by Region 10 leadership.
The government and the region’s representatives finalised the composition of the technical team during resumed negotiations on Wednesday at OP, where talks on economic development for the region were to be held yesterday.
Both Solomon and Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, who are part of the region’s representatives, told Stabroek News last evening that progress was made in negotiations on the economic situation facing the mining town. Roopnaraine said that there were hopes that this issue would have been finalised yesterday but the talks were cut short because persons had other engagements. Nevertheless, he stressed that progress was made, while Solomon said that that the economic aspect of the negotiations was addressed and the talks would continue today.
At the Watooka House meeting, Ramotar gave a background to the supply of electricity in the town and noted that when oil was cheap, there was no incentive for electricity conservation because the rates were low. However, with what he said was extensive growth of the town over the past five years, he said conservation has become a critical issue. The tariff hike, now on hold, was due to a phased withdrawal of the subsidy for power in the region. The technical team is expected to present a final report within 60 days, in which it will make recommendations on the situation.
Apart from Barrett, Ramotar was questioned at the Watooka House meeting by former Linden Mayor Stan Smith, Valarie Adams-Patterson of the Linden Utility Services Co-op Society Limited (LUSCSL) and PPP/C activist Eon Hall.
Adams-Patterson asked for clarifications on the issue of stakeholders’ involvement in the negotiations and why there were no consultations held in the community prior to the imposing of the increased tariff. In 2008, she noted, a decision was taken not to institute an increase, but Ramotar said the decision was to hold off until this year. “Your question about the stakeholders’ involvement is wrongly directed,” he added.
Smith, meanwhile, expressed concern about not being given the opportunity to negotiate on his own behalf with the government, while noting that it is not likely that he would be able to recall all his workers when the impasse is at an end. Also, businessman Norvil Fredrick questioned the president’s interpretation of the business community in Linden, saying that it was being suggested that the main businesses were Bosai and the Toucan Call Centre. Others at the meeting included Regional Executive Officer and her deputy Youlanda Hilliman and Maylene Charter, respectively, Pastors Allen and Leroy James and members of the Linden Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Development.
Get out
Ramotar stopped at the Mackenzie end of the Mackenzie-Wismar Bridge, from where he viewed the remains of the burnt out Linmine Secretariat complex, which housed several regional offices that were torched during the continuing unrest.
Under heavy security, the entourage proceeded along the Winifred Gaskin Highway, where the reception continued to be angry. Residents of West Watooka, who were kept at a distance by the heavily barbed wire cordon and GDF security, shouted from a distance: “Yall kill we sons and fathers!” “Get out deh place!” and “A whole month and now y’all gat deh face fuh come? Get out! Get out.”
The chants were similar as the team headed to the Wismar Four Corner, where a group of residents shouted similar remarks while asking if he had anything new to say. “We don’t want to hear no talk about putting no tariff on hold we want it removed or ‘no retreat, no surrender,’” a resident told him.
The delegation then returned to Mackenzie. There, Ramotar was once again engaged by a number of residents, who voiced similar concerns and was drowned out by the chants for them to get out.
They then proceeded to visit the Bosai Bauxite Plant where they were given a guided tour of the Machine Shop and the site of the recently installed dust collector unit on kiln #14 before they left the town.
The night prior to Ramotar’s visit, a large number of person assembled at Amelia’s Ward were arrested. According to Regional Councillor Mayfield Greene and others, at the time most persons were viewing the football match between Guyana and Bolivia. “Just so, all of a sudden, you would think it as the whole police force drive up suddenly and started beating and cussing we up in the worse possible way,” Greene said.
According to her and several other persons on the scene at the time, the police hurled several remarks at the crowd, including that residents have been causing them too much work and they must stay off the road or face the consequences.
“They go in people shops and drag out dem guys, beat them up and threw them in the prisoners van as if they were criminals,” related one man.
Approximately 50 persons were said to have been arrested. The account was related to the Ramotar during his visit and he said that it was news to him. He, however, emphasised that the Joint Services were not operating from instructions out of his office, while also dismissing the claim that he had issued any instructions to bar media operatives from taking photographs and recordings of the actions to put out the fire on the bridge and the clearing of the road by Joint Services last Friday.
