The Ministry of Home Affairs says it is convinced that Leader of the Opposition David Granger’s recent claim that there were 288 police killings over the past 17 years is politically-motivated and part of an ongoing political campaign against Minister Clement Rohee.
“This campaign has since been widened to include ‘a pattern of behaviour’ and ‘failure in portfolio responsibility’ as excuses to justify the on-going campaign of non-cooperation with and vilification of the Minister of Home Affairs,” the Ministry said in a statement yesterday, noting that the campaign against the minister started out with the allegation that the Minister of Home Affairs was responsible for the deaths of three Lindeners during the protests in Linden in July.
The Police in a letter on November 11, 2012 had said that it was 255 persons killed by police and not 288 as Granger stated. “The Guyana Police Force record shows that between January 1997 to October 18, 2012, 255 persons were fatally shot by the police. Some of the circumstances under which these shootings occurred range from: (a) Gang members exchanging gunfire with the police (Buxton/Agricola, drug trafficking and firearm gang): 43 persons; (b) During the commission of a serious crime: 49 persons; (c) Shot in gunfire exchange with the police in pursuit after the commission of a serious crime: 73 persons; and (d) Berbice bank robbery: 8 persons,” the letter stated.
According to the ministry, the disaggregation of the 255 deaths showing the category of persons killed in exchanges of gunfire, the circumstances under which they were killed and the factual explanation offered by the police relative to those occurrences exposes the political spin “conjured” up by Granger on the situation.
The statement said the ministry recalled that Granger’s predecessor, Robert Corbin, had submitted to the police a list of 455 names covering the period 1993-2009. “It is interesting to note that the 455 names have now been reduced by Mr. Granger to 288 covering the period 1993-2012. Mr. Granger should submit his list of the 288 names to the Police. It is apposite to remind that Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan had submitted a list which had 435 names covering the period 1993-2009 while Mr. Heston Bostwick had submitted a list which had 170 names covering the period 1993-2002,” the ministry said.
The statement said it is anyone’s guess which of the numbers floated by the opposition is their real number.
Granger, speaking at a rally organised by the Guyana Youth and Students Move-ment (GYSM) at the Stabroek Market square, condemned the PPP/C administration, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Guyana Police for the deaths of over 288 persons in the past 17 years.
Granger said this number meant that the police had been killing men consistently at a rate of more than one person per month through most of the PPP/C’s term in office.
He also urged citizens to speak out against police killings and to apply pressure on the government to bring such acts to a halt. The GYSM rally was part of a week of peaceful protests by the PNCR against the killing by the Police of Shaquille Grant in Agricola and Dameon Belgrave in Georgetown, in particular.
