Commissioner of Information Charles Rishi Ramson yesterday stated that he had sent a statement to the French Guiana government requesting to have Gregory Smith, the man fingered in the killing of Dr Walter Rodney, extradited to stand a possible trial in Guyana.
Under cross-examination by the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) attorney Christopher Ram, Ramson indicated that more than one attempt was made by the PPP government to have Smith extradited.
He made this declaration at yesterday’s hearing of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the death of former WPA leader, who was killed in a car along John and Bent streets in 1980 after a walkie-talkie given to him exploded in his lap.
Ramson, a former attorney general, stated that they had received information that Smith was living in that country and, acting on the orders of former president Cheddi Jagan, he formulated a statement to have Smith extradited. Though the extradition request included that he would not be executed if found guilty,
Ramson said French Guiana did not agree to the extradition because Guyana still imposed the death penalty.
He stated that it was the responsibility of the Attorney General to make recommendations to the President
on whether someone should be executed. He stated that the President would then make his own recommendations.
He said there were further attempts to bring Smith back to Guyana in 1999. But he did not elaborate.
Ramson stated that the PNC government would not have looked in the direction to have Smith sent back here.
Ram asked him if he had ever requested a status report on the investigation into Rodney’s death but he responded that it was never his responsibility in the first place.
He stated that he had uplifted a file on Rodney from the Police Special Branch Unit as a means to formulate his statement. He stated all the while when he was in possession of the document a police officer was waiting for it. He said he returned the file to that officer and it was not until the CoI started that he was informed that files on the WPA leader were missing.
He stated that he did not know if the Defence Board, a body of which he was a member, had made a request between 1992 and 1996 for Rodney’s files.
Ramson, who described himself as a “legal observer” of that time, also indicated that there was interference in the judiciary system during that time. He mentioned several court cases that were flawed in some way, one in particular being a lawsuit he had filed against policemen who assaulted him during a WPA public meeting.
He explained that on August 22, 1979, he went to a WPA public meeting. He said he and the current acting Chief Justice Ian Chang stood about five yards away from where the meeting was held. Ramson said he went because he liked to listen to Rodney speak and with “political temperatures” rising he wanted to see what was going on.
Ramson said things were “bursting at the seams” with policemen and House of Israel members breaking up opposition parties’ public meetings.
He observed a team of policemen, who he described as the “riot squad,” breaking up the WPA meeting that afternoon. He described the policemen as “big monkey…, six foot seven, people,” adding that their mere presence was intimidating.
Ramson said the police officer in charge that day approached him and told him that they had just beaten another lawyer. “I would assume that they were talking about Moses Bhagwan.”
They then started to beat him in the abdomen and shouted at him to: “Move on man! Get out from here!” but he refused to move because he knew his rights.
He said he was surprised that they did not harm Chang, who was also an attorney at the time, and so he believed that he was personally targeted.
Ramson said he went away later and a lawsuit was filed against the police by his lawyer Ashton Chase, but it was dismissed and Chang was “chastised” for being involved in that “type of activity.” Yet, Ramson stated that he did not drop the matter.
His case was appealed in 1982 in the Court of Appeal.
He said the interference continued and magistrates used to attack counsel in the courts. He said once someone entered a judge’s chambers without his authorisation and “stole newspapers” which were vital to a court case.
He said there was no sign of a break in. He stated that only the judge and the registrar had access to the chambers and anyone else would have had to have been invited before they could enter.
There was intense surveillance of the opposition parties and a special police unit was formed in the mid to late 1970s to ensure that all government offices and ministers were secured. He said this body comprised 30 to 40 senior policemen and was headed by Laurie Lewis.
He said he found it ironic that the headquarters of this squad—the National Guard Service—was located next door to the ministry which Dr Rodney was accused of burning down. He questioned its peculiarity. He noted that the existence of the squad was not publicised and that it stopped functioning after Rodney’s death.
He said that after Rodney was tried for the burning the ministry building, the political climate worsened and the WPA started mocking Burnham’s administration. WPA supporters used to march down streets shouting: “People’s power! No dictator!” and he anyone could have seen that the WPA genuinely wanted political change.
He stated that the police and the House of Israel would openly break up public WPA meetings and he was confident that it was not the PPP that used to break up the meetings because they would usually have joint meetings with the WPA. The two parties had a “common enemy,” he said; they believed that the election process was rigged.
Ramson said most of the times when the meetings were dispersed and rioters would steal loud speaker equipment and he was once instructed by the PPP to sit in a tree and see who were breaking up meetings.
Ramson further said he had a “paradoxical” relationship with the PNC since his father was a Member of Parliament and a “right-hand man” to Burnham. He said he was informed about things happening at that time because of this fact and also because he was familiar with some WPA members.
On the night Rodney was killed, he was drinking with friends at a spot when an acquaintance showed up and gave them the news. He said they all left the place quickly and went home because of security reasons; people were fearful during that time.
Ramson declared that Burnham had two American Ambassadors sent back to their country because he feared that they wanted him out of office. He said the two ambassadors were “disenchanted” with the Burnham regime.
Ramson will continue to be cross-examined today.
