Four days before the Commis-sion of Inquiry (COI) into the death of political activist Dr Walter Rodney is due to begin, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) has announced that it will not be a participant in the proceedings.
In a brief statement last Friday, the party said that it has “taken a decision not to participate in the Commission of Inquiry into the death of Walter Rodney.
“This decision was arrived at after a meeting of the Central Executive Committee of the Party.” No reason was given as to why this position has been adopted.
The PNCR is seen as key to the success of the inquiry as it was under the then PNC government that Rodney was killed when a walkie-talkie given to him by now deceased army officer Gregory Smith exploded. Rodney died on June 13, 1980.
The then PNC government had been accused of engineering his assassination and then trying to cover its tracks.
Following the announcement of the inquiry and the swearing in of the three commissioners, APNU of which the PNCR is a major component along with the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) of which Rodney was a co-leader, had signalled its discomfort with the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the COI. Both parties also had an issue