The Commission of Inquiry into the shooting to death of three Linden protesters last year has exonerated Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee on the issuing of any instructions to the police during the events of July 18th.
This was one of the questions that stakeholders in Linden and members of the opposition had wanted clarified during the inquiry and Rohee was called to give evidence. Part of the mandate of the COI was to “inquire what if any, general or specific instructions did the Minister of Home Affairs give to the Guyana Police Force to maintain law and order in Linden immediately before, during and immediately after the events on Wednesday 18th July 2012.”
“There was no evidence given at the hearings before the Commission to support the assertion that the Minister gave instructions to the GPF in relation to the incident in Linden on July 18th other than testimony from the Minister that he gave a general direction on July 17th 2012 to the Commissioner that he should take all lawful steps to maintain law and order in Linden,” the commission concluded.
The report said that before the event, Rohee admitted to giving a general direction to the Commissioner that he should take all lawful steps to maintain law and order. During the event on July 18, there is no evidence that the Minister gave instructions to anyone, the report added. “All that the Minister and the parties who testified on interaction with the Minister admitted was that the Minister was trying to obtain information as to what was happening in Linden on July 18th in his telephone conversations with the police during that day,” the report said. “In summary, therefore no evidence emerged that the Minister gave any instructions or directions to the police during the events of July 18th 2012 at Linden,” it further noted.
In relation to after the event, the report noted that the minister testified that on or around July 19th, he asked the Police Commissioner for a full report on the use of lethal force at Linden on July 18th. He subsequently received an Interim Report from the Commissioner but never a full report, the report said.
In terms of the removal of Commander of the E&F Division, Senior Superintendent Hicken, the top officer in Linden at the time, the report revealed that at a meeting with government officials, including the President, Leader of the Opposition David Granger had requested Hicken’s immediate removal and “this was apparently agreed and the Minister then spoke to the Commissioner and it was decided to repost Mr. Hicken to Force Headquarters.”
The reported noted that Police Commissioner Leroy Brumell testified that he was instructed by Rohee to move the Commander from Linden and send somebody else. “The Minister he said indicated that Mr. Hicken’s name was being called a lot.
The Commissioner agreed as he had formed the opinion that Hicken was hot tempered. He also was not happy with Mr. Hicken whom he felt as the senior man on the ground should have been able to provide him with more information as to what transpired yet after the shooting he was ‘hardly getting anything out of him,’” the report said.
“It was accepted by the Minister that he had the ministerial responsibility to issue such orders and directions for the command and superintendence of the GPF to the Commissioner of Police. In keeping with that responsibility he directed the Commissioner to effect immediate change at the command level at the E&F Police Division to replace the Commander SS Hicken on July 19th 2012. This was after the incidents at Linden on July 18th and following the meeting between Govern-ment and Opposition,” the report also said.
