Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee has rapped the police for the long list of serious unsolved crimes including execution-style killings.
Failure of the police to solve these crimes has long been commented on by the media and the rest of civil society.
In his address to the police officers conference on Thursday, a copy of which was released today, Rohee said:
“I have noted, with dismay, the long list of unsolved serious crimes particularly execution type murders that remain on the records of the Guyana Police Force.
“We have reached a stage where some members of the public and the press have tended to insinuate that the Force lacks the ability or will to solve these high profile cases.
“The Ministry of Home Affairs is far from happy with this state of affairs. The Force would have to review its current investigative capacity and take corrective action.
“One such step recommended is the intensification of the training of detectives of the Guyana Police Force, CID, but that would have long term benefits.
“Because of the immediacy of this problem, more dedication must be shown by the investigators of the Force in bringing perpetrators to justice.
“The inability of the CID to solve this large number of serious crimes is affecting public confidence in the Force. This negative trend must be reversed”.
It was probably Rohee’s bluntest statement on the matter to the police during his tenure as Home Affairs Minister and comes amid a raft of programmes announced to revamp the police force and its image. An overseas consultancy has been retained for this.
A number of high-profile execution-style killings occurred last year including those of Ricardo Rodrigues and Marlon Osborne. No one has been held for these two even though at least four or five men with high-powered guns were involved in the attacks.
This year, two miners were gunned down and there are reports that these were contract killings. Dave Wills and Gavin McNeil were both targeted by gunmen who appeared intent on killing them. Another man, Imtiaz Roopnarine, was killed earlier this year in similar fashion after leaving a guest house. There has been no charge in any of these cases.
