Gregory Smith, the man long implicated in the murder of Dr Walter Rodney, was not an agent of the then PNC government or then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham, according to his sister, Anne Wagner.
Wagner, who was facing cross-examination at the ongoing Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the death of Working People’s Alliance (WPA) founder Rodney, yesterday maintained that her brother did not kill Rodney and said that his death was an accident. “My brother told me he did not kill Dr Rodney. He don’t have a bone in his body to kill somebody,” she said.
Answering questions posed by PNCR lawyer Basil Williams, Wagner agreed that her brother was never an agent of the then government of the day, nor of the state, nor of Burnham, who have long been accused of orchestrating Rodney’s death.
When asked if it was clear to her and her brother that the PNC government never killed Dr Rodney, Wagner said it was.
She also told Williams when asked, that based on what her brother had told her, it is her position that Dr Rodney died because of an accident.
Wagner had testified that her brother was asked to make a bomb but he refused because he did not want to be part of any violence. But because of his respect for Dr Rodney and what he believed in, he agreed to assemble the “triggering device,” she said, while adding that Dr Rodney was killed after he or someone else attached an explosive to the “triggering device.”
Rodney perished on the night of June 13th, 1980 after an apparent walkie-talkie given to him exploded.
Wagner said that her brother was “in shock” after learning of Rodney’s death and noted that it was on the very night that he knew that he was being blamed by the WPA for it.
According to her, her brother was met by three men who roughed him up, at which point he knew that he was being blamed for the death.
Wagner yesterday also faced cross-examination by the WPA’s lawyer Christopher Ram, who asked directly whether she had asked her brother if he had killed Dr Rodney. The witness answered in the affirmative. “He kept saying he did not kill Dr Rodney,” she added.
Asked if her brother would have told her if he killed Dr Rodney, the woman confidently said, “yes.”
‘Inconsistencies’
Wagner is Smith’s oldest sister and co-authored a book—Assassination Cry of a Failed Revolution: The Truth About Dr Walter Rodney’s Death—with him after his death, based on an unsigned manuscript she credited to him and statements he purportedly made during their daily chats while he lived in Cayenne.
She said she published the book because it was her dying brother’s wish and its purpose was to document and reveal the truth about “Dr Rodney and the worldwide betrayal of Gregory as the killer.” The book was released five years after Smith’s 2002 loss of his battle to cancer.
Quizzed
Ram lengthily quizzed Wagner on various aspects of the book and it was during the questioning that she revealed that the manuscript from which she said the book was compiled and which she had presented to the commission, was in fact not the manuscript in totality.
Wagner had testified that the manuscript was her brother’s original work which he had compiled into a typed document, to which she made no alterations. She had also said that it was that said manuscript that she would later use to produce the book which she co-authored.
She had noted that the unaltered manuscript substantiates the authenticity of the book.
After being read a sentence from a chapter of the book but which was not in the original manuscript, Wagner revealed to the commission that the manuscript was not the “entire” document. It was at this point that the woman apologised for not having the entire manuscript, before stating that was an “honest” oversight on her part. She quickly added that she can make the rest of the document available to the commission.
Wagner disagreed with a suggestion from Ram that she was being untruthful to the commission and that there were inconsistencies between the book and the manuscript.
In response to the part from the book read by Ram, Wagner said that it was recorded in the other part of the manuscript which she did not take to the commission.
Referring to a number of other aspects of the book which were not reflected in the manuscript, Ram suggested to Wagner that she was not being honest in the narrative. She initially responded that she did not understand the question but later said that she took an oath to tell the truth and that was what she was doing—“telling the truth.”
The woman said that she has no reason to “lie” and nothing to “hide.”
Having stated that there were a number of contributors to the production of book, Ram asked Wagner for the names of those persons but she was unable to provide any. She rifled through the book for some time, prompting the Inquiry’s Chairman, Sir Richard Cheltenham, to ask: “If you co-authored the book, why are you finding it so difficult to tell us who the contributors are?”
When asked, Wagner also said that it is true that her brother had sat down for an interview with the Stabroek News sometime after Dr Rodney’s death but the woman charged that there were several inconsistencies in the articles. Asked whether her brother had challenged those inconsistencies, Wagner answered in the affirmative, while stating that both she and her brother had spoken about those “inconsistencies” and that they both knew that such “inconsistencies” existed in the publication.
It was at this point that both Ram and Sir Richard sought to clarify from Wagner whether her brother had openly challenged the inconsistencies in the article, asking whether he or she had called the Stabroek News or spoke with the editor to challenge what was published as being inaccurate.
The woman, who answered in the negative, said shortly after that she was having mental blocks. “Right now, I’m having a mental block,” she said.
It was at this point that Williams exclaimed that Wagner had been on the stand for three days. “She’s not 13,” he added,
Upon Williams’ request, Sir Cheltenham then granted a five-minute recess.
‘Big Names’
After resumption, Ram asked the witness to reveal whom her brother was referring to when he spoke of some “big names” in his manuscript. She answered by saying that she did not have the names before her and that she could not remember the names of the persons. She went on to say that she may remember one name, but added that it would not be “fair” to the other named persons to list only one name.
This was even after the Chairman had invited her to say the name of whomever she could have recalled, even though it may just be one person.
With still no revelation from Wagner, Sir Richard then suggested to the woman that, through consulting with her lawyer, an in camera (private) session could be facilitated at which she could disclose the names.
The Chairman told Wagner that her non-disclosure was being of no assistance to the commission and pointed out that it was in those circumstances that the private session could be held in a bid to get the “big names.”
From the manuscript which she said her brother wrote, the Chairman told Wagner that he wanted to know what Smith meant when he said that he was “reserving” some of the names for himself.
In response, the witness said that her brother had told her that he would have called some of the names at the appropriate time.
Ram failed after repeated attempts to have Wagner reveal at least one of the “big names.”
It was at this point that the Chairman pointed out that Wagner’s entire testimony had not been based on any knowledge of her own, but rather on what she said her brother would have told her, and that her testimony must be viewed in that framework.
The Chairman said, “She is just here to present her brother in a particular light,” and he urged Ram to move on, noting that too much time was being spent on one issue with only circular results.
In her testimony on Tuesday, Wagner had said that her main aim in testifying was to clear her brother’s name as the murderer of Dr Rodney.
Accepting yesterday that her brother knowingly used a passport in which false information regarding his name, date of birth and occupation had been provided, Wagner said that those things were given to him and that he was scared and forced to leave the country.
The Chairman asked Wagner whether she had ever enquired from her brother, why he left and changed his name and the like, since he said he was innocent.
She, however, maintained that the man was fearful for his life and forced to leave Guyana, adding, “He did not have the moral support in Guyana, I guess.”
Wagner had said on Tuesday, that after Rodney’s death, Smith was the target of members of the WPA who wanted him dead. However, she also claimed that it was members of the WPA who had also arranged his departure from Guyana under a different name.
