Region Ten Chairman, Sharma Solomon says that he is not aware of any meetings scheduled between regional representatives and the international members of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry but would encourage it.
“I don’t know if something is being planned but that is not to our knowledge,” Solomon said yesterday. The international members of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the July 18 Linden protestor shootings will be arriving in Guyana on Wednesday, when they are to be sworn in. Justice Lensley Wolfe and Senior Counsel K.D. Knight of Jamaica and Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal of Trinidad and Tobago are to take the Oath of Office before President Donald Ramotar, after which they would meet to establish the rules of procedures for hearings by the Commission, a release from the Office of the President said on Friday. It added that the commissioners will subsequently meet with the Guyanese public on September 6, before departing on September 7, 2012. The local commissioners are former Chancellor of the Judiciary Cecil Kennard and Justice of Appeal Claudette Singh.
Solomon said that while he is not aware of any meeting being scheduled “we would encourage a meeting with them.”
Chairman of APNU, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine also advocated a meeting with the main players. “I would have thought that a meeting with the primary stakeholders would have been very much in order,” he said.
On July 18, three men, Ron Sommerset, Allan Wilson and Shemroy Bouyea, were killed and at least 20 other persons were injured after police opened fire on residents demonstrating against increased electricity tariffs, which took effect at the start of that month. The actions of the police, who said that ranks were provoked, have been condemned because of the failure to use non-lethal measures and there have been calls for murder charges to be laid against the officers who gave the orders to fire.
Following on a request from the Government of Guyana, Caricom Secretary-General Irwin LaRocque, after consultations, recommended the regional commissioners.
Justice Wolfe is a distinguished jurist and former Chief Justice of Jamaica. He is currently Chairman of the Public Service Commission of Jamaica and also served as chairman of the Police Public Complaints Authority of Jamaica. Knight, a practising attorney, has been a Senior Counsel since 1995 and has had a distinguished career in politics and law in Jamaica. He held positions in the cabinet of Jamaica including the portfolios of National Security and Foreign Affairs. Seetahal, also a practising attorney, has been a Senior Counsel since 2006 and is a former Independent Senator in the Trinidad and Tobago Parliament and a former lecturer at the Hugh Wooding Law School in that country.
