Working People’s Alliance (WPA) member Dr Omawale Omawale yesterday said he was unaware of the party seeking arms and ammunition to contend with the “harassment and dictatorship” of the then PNC-led government, while emphasising that party leader Dr Walter Rodney would not have encouraged personal violence.
Omawale made the statement yesterday when he took the stand for the first time before the members of the Commission of Inquiry into Rodney’s death. Omawale was not only a WPA member but a schoolmate of Rodney’s at Queen’s College.
According to Omawale, Rodney and other WPA members had been the subjects of extreme state-sanctioned harassment, including assassination attempts and the destruction of communication equipment.
The latter, Omawale said, would be a reason for any possible interest Walter Rodney may have had in walkie-talkies; not violence. Rodney, co-leader of the WPA, was killed after a decoy walkie-talkie given to him exploded in his lap as he sat in his brother’s car, near John and Bent streets on June 13, 1980.
“One of the aspects under the dictatorship was that our equipment were constantly being broken up or stolen and we needed a way to communicate with each other,” Omawale said. The man stated that communication between members to “secure the situation” would have been helped with the use of walkie-talkies. He went on, “So if Walter was trying to acquire walkie-talkies, that to me would be rational; it was in that context.”
Omawale further said that he was not aware of Rodney “as a violent person” and though the man would advocate for the people to take action and overthrow the government, he would not have encouraged personal violence.
Omawale’s testimony in this area echoed that of Patricia Rodney, the widow of Walter Rodney, who testified last week that her husband was never driven to violence despite the ceaseless harassment he faced.
According to Omawale, at the time there were stringent importation laws and, in the face of destroyed or stolen equipment, alternate means would have to be employed. “It would not surprise me that Walter might have been seeking to get walkie-talkies,” Omawale said. He added, “It’s something I probably would have done myself if I were a leader in his position.”
However, he said, he was unaware of whether Rodney had indeed been setting up communications.
He deemed Rodney’s death an “assassination” as he believed at the time of the historian’s death he had been doing nothing illegal and was instead a victim of the terror of the state at the time. He later added that he believed that the state was responsible for the explosion which resulted in Rodney’s death and he believed the man’s killing was an act of terrorism. “There was a certain climate in which we were living, that was pervasive, that would lead one to understand that the state would have been responsible for killing Dr Walter Rodney,” he said.
Omawale said that he was not aware of the WPA seeking arms and ammunition for protection in retaliation to the “harassment and dictatorship” and when questioned by commission counsel Latchmie Rahamat if he had ever owned arms or ammunition Omawale raised his arms and said, “Just these arms.”
According to Omawale, the ruling party, the People’s National Congress (PNC) had operated as though in a dictatorship, a move he believes was made to make the lives of WPA members “as miserable as possible.”
Omawale also deemed the arrest of Donald Rodney for possession of explosives after his brother’s death as “a travesty.” According to Omawale, it was highly unfair that Donald was charged in relation to the same act that he was a victim of. “He was implicated in a situation he was a part of,” Omawale noted. He believed that Donald’s arrest was also a manner of dictatorship.
‘Targeted by the state’
Omawale explained that he, like many WPA members, had been the target of the state; he said that on one occasion his wife and children were refused entry into Guyana, while he was also not allowed to leave the country.
His relationship with his family also suffered. He said, “It created a lot of tension in my house because my father was a big supporter of the PNC.” He went on that his cousin, Hamilton Green, was a key PNC figure who reportedly bashed him publicly for his allegiance to the WPA.
Omawale also outlined threats he received following an assassination attempt on WPA member Josh Ramsammy in October, 1971. He said that he was called at his home soon after and was told that he “would be next.” Any attempts to bring people to justice brought backlash against the families, he added. He went on that no one was ever brought to justice for the attempt against Ramsammy’s life.
Omawale further said that the state victimised WPA members with the wrongful imprisonment of persons following the fire which destroyed the Ministry of National Development. He explained that the day after the fire he was approached at his home by plain clothes police officers and was asked to accompany them to the Eve Leary Police Station. There, he saw a number of WPA members sitting on a bench, including the five-year-old son of two friends of his. “There was paramountcy of the party over the state,” Omawale said.
Some of the officers were friendly to him, he added, and he expressed the belief that they “were simply carrying out their orders” which came from the highest places of authority.
He once again maintained that the PNC rule had been a dictatorship. “The normal avenues people have in a society for seeking justice through police protection, being able to travel, being able to express oneself, for example, by holding public meetings…I believed that we were living in a state where there was an individual and a party that controlled all aspects of life and the only avenue there had was to have a public uprising against that,” Omawale said.
However, Omawale said, he did not know of any threats against the lives of any PNC members.
According to Omawale, he resorted to sleeping at different homes every few days out of fear. He stated that there were about four places he rotated sleeping at, including a rented home and the homes of Karen deSouza and Jocelyn Dow. In fact, he said, one of the homes was in Croal Street and it was there that Donald Rodney sought refuge after Walter was killed. On the night of Rodney’s death, he was at Dow’s home on Robb Street, he added.
He went on to say that he would drive different vehicles and the WPA had access to a pool of cars to be used by its members.
“There were threats; we were told on occasion to get our wills – prepare your wills – and statements such as that,” he said. All of these attacks were unreported and Omawale said that persons believed that there was no point in complaining.
“The atmosphere at the time was such that I focused primarily on survival from day to day and doing the work that the Working People’s Alliance required me to do and assuming that they’d be no justice from the police or anyone of the state,” he explained.
When questioned why he had never partaken in any previous inquests into Rodney’s death, Omawale stated a few reasons then noted that he did not previously have the confidence that he has today that any inquest would lead to justice.
The man will continue his testimony today, when he will be further cross-examined by attorneys, including PNC representative Basil Williams.
