A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) yesterday promised that if elected to govern it will hold independent inquiries into the killings of former Minister of Agriculture Satyadeow ‘Sash’ Sawh and activist Courtney Crum Ewing.
The APNU is contesting the elections in a coalition with the Alliance For Change under the APNU+AFC banner.
“I can assure you we will have a thorough investigation after,” APNU member Annette Ferguson told reporters yesterday, at APNU’s weekly press briefing.
This was echoed by member Basil Williams, who pointed out that APNU had consistently been requesting a Commission of Inquiry into Sawh’s death among others.
He pointed out that during the 10th Parliament, APNU had brought a motion seeking inquiries into extra-judicial killings from as early as 2006 but saw the disapproval of the current government. He said APNU remained committed to having the investigations.
He characterised the PPP/C’s tenure as one overshadowed by several extra-judicial killings.
The opposition has long called for a Commission of Inquiry (COI) to probe the criminal violence which gripped the country during the post-2002 jailbreak crime spree but the then Jagdeo-led administration did not appear too keen on going this route.
Last year January, Opposition Leader David Granger brought a motion before the National Assembly calling on the government to appoint a COI to probe criminal violence from 2004 to 2010, ranging from Sawh’s killing to the massacres at Lusignan, Bartica and Lindo Creek in 2006.
Around 12:15 AM on April 22, 2006, seven masked gunmen dressed in military fatigues invaded Sawh’s LBI home and riddled him, his two siblings and his security guard Curtis Robertson with bullets. Reports were that the minister’s wife, Sattie, and his brother, Omprakash, were in the kitchen when they saw a masked gunman outside. The minister, who was in his hammock on the veranda, was alerted but before he could escape to safety he was riddled with bullets. He collapsed just inside his front door.
His murder remains unsolved.
Crum-Ewing, 40, was shot around 8 PM on March 10, 2015, as he was urging persons in the Diamond, East Bank Demerara community to vote at the upcoming May 11 elections to oust the incumbent PPP/C government. A post-mortem examination revealed that he was shot a total of five times, including three times to the head.
Amnesty International has begun a campaign to pressure government to carry out a thorough, independent investigation into the killing of Crum-Ewing and bring those responsible to justice.
“The killing of a political activist in Guyana during the pre-electoral period fuels fear that further violence and limitations to freedom of expression may occur,” the international human rights non-governmental organisation said in a statement.
It urged persons to immediately write to Prime Minister Samuel Hinds or Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud and send copies to Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall calling on the authorities to carry out a thorough, independent, impartial and timely investigation into the killing and bring those responsible to justice.
Amnesty International also urged that the persons call on the government officials to guarantee a favourable context and peaceful atmosphere for the exercise of freedom of expression, association and assembly and other civil and political rights; and to urge the authorities to provide adequate protection to political activists, journalists and human rights defenders who might be at risk as a result of the exercise of their right to freedom of expression. The NGO urged that the appeals be sent before April 28.
Police say that their investigations are continuing.
Meanwhile, a police official disputed reports that Commander of ‘A’ Division Clifton Hicken is on record as saying that the Brickdam Police never received a complaint from the dead activist. “That is just totally untrue and I don’t know where that came from…,” the official told this newspaper.
The slain man’s mother, Donna Harcourt, has expressed fear of a “cover-up,” saying that police are not treating seriously the death threat reports made by her son against two prominent members of government when he was alive. The threats were linked to his protest outside the Attorney General’s Chambers.
