Dear Editor,
The Commissioners at the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry, and Counsel Pilgrim are arguing from the position that Sgt Gregory Smith was a “murderer,” meaning the assassin of Dr Walter Rodney. I, myself, had so thought prior to the convening of the inquiry, and in particular, the testimony of Mr Robert Gates.
However, in view of Mr Gates’s testimony that the murder weapon which killed Dr Rodney was designed by the Russians (KGB), it occurred to me that if the murder device (allegedly a walkie-talkie) was self-detonating, Gregory Smith’s denial of the assassin mantle might be technically justifiable.
Unless it is demonstrated that the detonation of the ‘walkie-talkie’ was not automatic, and hence had to be exploded by the activation of a remote control switch, and that Mr Smith was the activator of said switch, Mr Smith could only be accused of being the ‘courier’ of the murder weapon. The option to use or not to use lay with Dr Rodney. A self-detonating device made by the Russians would absolve Smith of direct responsibility for causing the explosion, or for forcing the explosion on, and assassinating Dr Rodney.
As per the testimony of Capt Gerald Gouveia before the commission on Thursday, June 26, as reported the following day in the Guyana Chronicle by Mr Shaun Michael Samaroo, the murder weapon “had a red light,” and this sounded more like a remote electronic device than a walkie-talkie.
If Capt Gouveia is right, then the onus lies on the Commission to determine who activated the remote control switch which caused the detonation – Smith, or some yet to be determined third party.
Clearly the Commission will have to consider these technical issues if it is to arrive at an accurate and impartial assessment.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
