The government has for a second time extended the life of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) set up to probe the death of political activist Dr. Walter Rodney, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon announced yesterday.
At a post cabinet press briefing, Luncheon said that on Tuesday government made a decision to extend the life of the commission to January 31, 2015.
He said too that the commission’s public hearings, which will recommence on Monday, October 20, will now last for a period of two weeks instead of three weeks.
Government earlier this year took the decision to establish the COI after decades of calls for closure. Rodney, a renowned academic and co-founder of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), was killed in a bomb explosion on June 13, 1980 after a walkie-talkie that was handed to him.
In June, the life of the commission was extended until September.
Sir Richard Cheltenham is Chairman of the Commission, which also counts Jamaican Queen’s Counsel (QC) Jacqueline Samuels-Brown and Trinidad and Tobago Senior Counsel (SC) Seenath Jairam as members.
According to the Terms of Reference (TOR), the commissioners are to examine the facts and circumstances immediately prior, at the time of and subsequent to the death of Rodney in order to determine as far as possible who or what was responsible for the explosion resulting in his death.
The commissioners are to enquire into the cause of the explosion in which Rodney died, including whether it was an act of terrorism and if so who were the perpetrators.
Further, the commissioners are to “specifically examine” the role, if any, which now deceased army officer Gregory Smith played in Rodney’s death and if so to inquire into who may have “counselled, procured, aided and or abetted” him to do so, including facilitating his departure from Guyana after Rodney’s death.
The commissioners are to also examine and report on the actions and activities of state organisations, such as the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Defence Force, the Guyana National Service, the Guyana People’s Militia and those who were in command and superintendence of these agencies, to determine whether they were tasked with surveillance of and the carrying out of actions and whether they did execute those tasks and carried out those actions against the political opposition for the period January 1, 1978 to December 31, 1980.
All persons shall be granted absolute pardon in respect of or incidental to all acts or things done, including offences committed in connection with or in relation to the death of Dr Rodney.
The PNCR, which is seen as key to the success of the inquiry since it was under the then PNC government that Rodney was killed, has decided not to take part.
The then PNC government has been accused of engineering his assassination and then trying to cover its tracks, although the party has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Human rights activist Karen De Souza, Eusi Kwayana and former army chief Norman McLean are among the persons who have so far testified.
