– APNU MP Desmond Trotman
APNU MP Desmond Trotman yesterday defended the actions of protestors who blocked the Mackenzie-Wismar Bridge on July 18, and said that the actions of police were unprovoked.
He was at the time testifying before the inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the shooting to death of Allan Lewis, Ron Somerset, and Shemroy Bouyea and the injury of several others near the Mackenzie-Wismar Bridge on that day.
Trotman and other APNU members arrived in Linden at about 9.15 am on the day in question and he said the protestors numbered in their thousands.
Around 10 am, he said, he overheard former E&F Division Commander Senior Superintendent Clifton Hicken instructing the black clothes ranks to load up their weapons and the driver to move rapidly towards the crowd at the bridge. “The driver then took off, drove rapidly to the crowd and then swerved aside and stopped… I went up to Hicken and asked him what he hoped to prove by that intimidatory act and that I overheard his instructions and why did he have to give those instructions… he smiled,” Trotman recounted.
Later that day, he added, the contingent from Georgetown arrived and approached the bridge as protestors chanted around them. “There was this one particular man who was begging the police not to shoot… please don’t shoot. We’re here in a peaceful protest, please don’t shoot but the police virtually ignored him,” he said.
Trotman said the police subsequently left and described the mood on the bridge as peaceful and festive. “People were on the bridge and on the banks. Music was playing, the crowd included women and children, children were playing games, persons recited poems, African drums were beating, it was festive,” he opined.
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COI Hearing 22/10/12 Desmond Trotman
However, Trotman said the lawmen reappeared at about 5.30 pm and a white banner was hoisted but he could not see the message it conveyed or hear what the officer with a loudhailer was saying at the time.
He stated that the ranks advanced and began to discharge teargas in the immediate presence on the crowd and pandemonium soon broke out. “People start running helter-skelter… women running with children trying to get them to safety and in the process of that action, the police continued to fire tear gas into that crowd,” he stated.
He said he himself assisted a few persons down into the Linmine Secretariat compound, where teargas was being fired too and at that time he heard noises which he assumed to be gunshots.
“There was a blackout at about ten to six and that increased the confusion on the bridge…. The gunshots continued… I saw two persons with shotgun pellets,” he added.
Considering the actions of the police as “unprovoked,” Trotman further stated that he saw the police shooting. Asked by Attorney Basil Williams whether he saw any other person beside the police with guns at that time, the witness responded in the negative.
‘Maximum impact’
Under questioning by Commissioner K D Knight, Trotman said he saw the bridge blocked at a certain point with pieces of debris, vehicle parts and a few logs.
“I don’t believe that it necessitated the action of the police,” the witness said.
“You don’t think that there was need for police intervention as regards the behaviour of the protestors?” Knight asked.
“That’s what I am saying,” Trotman responded.
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COI Hearing 22/12/10 – Gordon Callendar aka ‘Bad Heart’
Under further questioning, the witness said he believed that if the bridge was blocked and it was creating a problem that would affect other road users, then the police must try to unblock it.
However, he noted that he found the blocking of the bridge necessary, since it was done for “maximum impact”.
“Protest demonstration around the world is conducted at a place where maximum impact is made and I believe in that situation that those people took a decision to block it. They blocked the bridge for maximum impact… I don’t consider the action of blocking the bridge breaking the law. I thought it was necessary action at that time. And I do believe that it is the government’s failure to respond to the people’s request that caused them to block the bridge,” Trotman said, adding that it was because of economic hardships that the people of Linden were forced to that point.
“It is indeed disappointing to hear a member of the legislature saying what you are saying,” Knight said.
“Sir, members of the legislature must, must understand and empathise with the problems people are faced with and I do and say so unapologetically,” Trotman fired back.
“So peace, tranquillity and festivity reigned on the 18th of July as far as the behaviour of the protestors is concerned and as a Member of Parliament, in your view, no law was broken by the protestors?” Knight asked.
Trotman indicated that he could not say the protestors had broken any law.
He further stated that there were other causes for the protest beside the raise of the tariffs. “There was the promise that 2,500 jobs will be made available to the community, there was the problem of a dust nuisance which persons were asking to be addressed for a long period of time, there was the problem of the return to the community of the television station which was under their control but was taken away by the government… there were a number of concerns which the community had. The issue of the tariffs was just one in a number of issues,” Trotman pointed out.
APNU MP for Region 10 Vanessa Kissoon last week said that blocking the bridge was wrong, while Chairman of the Region 10 Regional Democratic Council (RDC) Sharma Solomon could not remember asking the protestors to get off the bridge.
‘Concealed’
Also taking the witness stand yesterday was Gordon ‘Bad Heart’ Callendar, a contractor and also a member of the Linden Town Council, who said he saw former Hicken with a concealed weapon while on the ground near the bridge.
“They come back about 5-5:30. They start formation, coming with the guns. No warrant like first time. Just licking corn left, right and centre… firing guns and teargas with pellets all kind thing they start firing,” he said.
Asked what he meant by “licking corn,” Callendar explained that bullets were called “corn” and the term meant the police were shooting bullets. “Mr Hicken had a firearm wrap up in a newspaper… a small arm in a newspaper. The place start get dark and they keep licking they corn and teargas. I catch a boat and get back over to Wismar and by 6-6:15 the whole place blackout and them man start like Baghdad, start clearing the bridge… shooting coming through from Mackenzie end going to Wismar end,” he said. Further questioned on the pistol he reportedly saw, Callendar said “it’s a small arm, a pistol. I won’t be able to say what calibre but I know it was a pistol because the mouth of that pistol was showing through the paper”. He said it was “rusty-ish” in colour. He further pointed out that this was seen about 5:45pm-5:50pm, before the blackout.
According to Callendar, an estimated 9,000 to 11,000 persons were heading towards the Toucan Call Centre but as they approached the Mackenzie-Wismar Bridge, they stalled as they encountered a confrontation with the lawmen.
“Mr Hicken, Mr [Assistant Superintendent Walter] Stanton and them, they were trying to monitor the situation but the people start moving a little slow. A police guy who was driving a police vehicle… he drive up to the bridge to the people and start say ‘get out the way’ and he start revving the vehicle and going on and that get the people mad and so the people decide to stop right there and then,” he said, adding that this was in collaboration with a plea for justice.
He said that at about 2-2:30pm, he observed black clothes police and also those dressed in khaki uniforms disembarking a Canter truck and they subsequently fell into a formation some distance from the bridge. “And then they had a tall, strapping fat one and he tell them man tek out a black cloth with a white writing and they pull out this banner and then he start hollering,” the witness said.
Asked whether he knew the individual he described, Callendar said he heard people yelling out “Mr Todd” and so he was made aware of his name. He was referring to Assistant Superintendent Patrick Todd.
“Todd holler, ‘you need to disperse or we will fire… go to your homes’. The people start get wild,” he added.
Later that afternoon, around 6 pm, the witness continued, he saw the lifeless body of Bouyea. “While I was standing, there it is, a young man come and fall in front of me. He was picked up and put in a minibus. A man that is work at the hospital come and say ‘Aye, this is a dead man here’ and the minibus man say ‘tek this man out meh bus.’ That is after 6 o’clock on the Wismar shore. That was Bouyea. We left he on the grass corner and them boys pick he up and I keep walking and go long my way,” Callendar recalled.
Attorney Peter Hugh, who is representing the Guyana Police Force, suggested to the witness that as the police were advancing to the bridge, the only thing they discharged was teargas.
“No sir, persons get knock right by the bridge with pellet and gunshot,” Callendar responded.
Callendar had earlier on claimed that he received a threatening phone call from Hicken the previous day and he was subsequently advised to get out of Linden. He said he remained out of the area for three days because he was fearful for his life.
He is also seeking compensation for a laptop and a digital camera, which he claimed were thrown overboard by policemen at the bridge. Callendar, under questioning by Hugh, said he was not on the bridge when the items went overboard but this was the information he was given.
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COI Hearing 22/10/12 – English & Solomon Jr
Also taking the stand later yesterday afternoon were Major Warren English, Station Officer of the Linden Fire Station Orwin Brutus, Businessman/Entertainer Winston Caesar and Deejay Hector Solomon Jr.
Hector Solomon Jr told the commission that he was shot to his left shoulder and indicated that after extracting the bullet, he gave it to his father who may still have it. He was asked to produce the bullet to the commission at a later date.
