The non-completion of the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the July 18 Linden protestors shooting yesterday resulted in the Region Ten delegation refusing to sign the list of agreements reached with the government last Friday.
The signing is now expected to take place this afternoon, by which time the TOR are to be completed. Three men, Ron Sommerset, Allan Wilson and Shemroy Bouyea, were shot dead and at least 20 more injured when police opened fire on protestors on July 18, which the inquiry is to examine.
“Unfortunately over the last two days, a minor matter among the TOR of the Commission of Inquiry has remained unresolved and as such the understanding that encompasses this spirit of the signing of this agreement has not been reached,” Head of the Presidential Secretariat Roget Luncheon told reporters who had turned up at the Office of the President to witness the signing.
From the time reporters gathered in the Cabinet Room at OP, it was clear that here was a disagreement. Members of the Region Ten delegation and the government team where engaged in quiet consultations out of the hearing of the media. However, their facial expressions, particularly those of Regional Chairman Sharma Solomon, APNU Chairman Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine and PNCR member Aubrey Norton, told the story.
Also present for the signing were APNU’s Region Ten MP Vanessa Kissoon—who is part of Region Ten delegation—and presidential advisers Gail Teixeira and Odinga Lumumba, Transport Minister Robeson Benn and Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, for the government’s team.
Half an hour after the scheduled time of the signing, Luncheon said that it had to be postponed. “We are undertaking, all things being equal, to reassemble same place around 5 pm, by which time we feel that the outstanding matter of the terms in the COI would be addressed to our mutual satisfaction and indeed the signing ceremony would then live up to its fullest intent,” he said.
Solomon subsequently pointed out that he and his delegation turned up at OP with the understanding that the total package of agreements, including those of the TOR of the Commission of Inquiry. He said the issue of the terms has so far been unresolved, but it is expected to be resolved by this afternoon. He noted that the region wants the terms of the COI to be part of the understanding as it relates to the issues affecting Linden and Region Ten over the past month.
“We are in a position now that we have some of the outstanding issues resolved and we would not have proceeded with some of them because they were already being handled by the government and the opposition and it is our intent that those Terms of Reference are put together in such a manner that we could have that to take back to the people of Linden and Region Ten as part of the completed package, completing the agreement that we would have today signed,” he explained.
Luncheon did not take questions from the media at that point but later he explained that the TOR said among other things that the commissioners would be looking into the organisation of the protest, including the role played by political parties and other forces.
He noted that “rather lately” there was an objection to including the political parties and then last Friday there was a further objection, which included the entire clause.
It was the AFC who raised the objection, saying that it was unacceptable given the constitutional right of citizens to protest. The party said the proposed inquiry “into the role, involvement and other forces in organising, mobilising and promoting the protest actions from their commencement and immediately after the shooting on July 18th 2012,” was an affront to the dead.
Following weeks of discussions, the two sides reached an agreement last Friday night on four remaining issues which were raised by the Region: the issue of the tariff increase and the creation of a technical team that has specific terms of reference; the establishment of an economic team and its terms of reference, which were also agreed to and the mechanism for the appointment for the economic team; the licensing in relation to the Region 10 television station; and mechanisms for the establishment of the regional land selection committee.
‘All or nothing’
Quoting from what he said where the words of Luncheon, Solomon said that “nothing is agreed to until all is agreed to.”
He said that it is been more than a week since he and his delegation have been asking for them to have a firm understanding as relates to the TOR. “Unfortunately what we did was to allow the political parties who were already dealing with this matter (July 18), to continue to deal with it with an understanding that at August 2 this matter would have been dealt with. Unfortunately it did not get resolved,” he said.
Solomon noted that the clause that deals with the organisation and mobilisation of the protest is irrelevant. “We are dealing with killings. It matters not who organised the demonstration,” he said, noting that the protest action was legal as approval was sought from the police.
“We need to know what occurred on that day and who is responsible”, he said, while adding that with the terms not being completed, it would be difficult “to go back to Linden without explaining to people what will become of those three men. We already have an understanding with the people.”
Later when quizzed on the issue of Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, he said Lindeners are partly satisfied because of the no confidence motion passed by Parliament, noting that all will be done to ensure that the minister’s stay in Parliament is not pleasant.
Norton, meanwhile, said that from the beginning, the Region Ten delegation made it clear that there must be a comprehensive agreement. He explained that there were two parallel arrangements; one was the Region Ten delegation negotiating those things that were agreed to last Friday and the other one was the APNU and the AFC and the government negotiating the TOR of the COI.
“We made it clear that the TOR has got to be completed and agreed to together with the agreement in Region Ten. What in essence happened today is that when we arrived, they wanted the signing of the one for Region Ten delegation without an agreement on the one which should have been completed since August 2,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Roopnaraine told reporters that the delegation felt that it was coming to sign just the agreement for Linden but the residents have “pointed out, quite correctly, that what they want us to take back to Linden the complete package.”
“The people in Linden expect that when they hear that an agreement is reached, all the issues would have been dealt with, including the central issue which concerns them, which is the killings on July 18. They [the region] cannot take back an agreement that does not encompass the issue of July 18,” Roopnaraine stressed.
He also stated that what is being argued is that political parties have a perfect right to organise a protest if they so desire and “we don’t believe that including that in the TOR does anything to resolve the issues around July 18. It is a large irrelevance to examining the circumstances surrounding the killings.”
“We believe that anything that detracts or distracts from the central issues – the killings – should not be in the terms of reference,” he added.
Roopnaraine stated that the issue surrounding the TOR was raised several days ago and it was suppose to have been addressed by Luncheon, APNU’s Joseph Harmon and AFC’s Khemraj Ramjattan, who are compiling the terms.
