Former President Donald Ramotar says that freedoms enjoyed by Guyanese are being curtailed under the David Granger administration and he is questioning the role of the army in several operations.
“The circumstances surrounding the death of a sergeant of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), Robert Pyle and his wife have once again raised grave concern at the direction in which our country is going,” Ramotar wrote in the latest edition of the PPP-aligned newspaper, the Weekend Mirror.
President David Granger last week stated that he sees no need for a full probe of the operation, which resulted in the deaths of Pyle, his wife Stacy Pyle and truck driver Linden Eastman, along Carifesta Avenue on December 30, 2015. The accident occurred while Pyle, who had been part of an operation being conducted by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), was mistakenly pursuing Alana Seebarran and her brother, Raymond Seebarran, whom he thought were the children of the Head of NICIL Winston Brassington.
The Guyana Bar Association has called on the government to mount an independent inquiry into the bungled surveillance operation and has said that an explanation is needed for the use of military officers in such activities.
“This most recent incident adds to the general feeling that the freedoms enjoyed during the past twenty three years of the PPP/C administration are now being curtailed and contracted,” Ramotar wrote in the Mirror.
“The question that must be asked is: why was Mr Brassington’s home under surveillance? What did he do to deserve this kind of treatment? What act did he commit to entail national security being endangered,” Ramotar questioned. NICIL has been under the spotlight in recent times and a forensic audit has recommended criminal and/or disciplinary proceedings for officials implicated in wrongdoings.
“We know that the government has been spending millions on audits of many government institutions. However, they have not found anything of significance to substantiate their charges of corruption and wrongdoings by the PPP/C administration,” Ramotar wrote.
According to the former president, the APNU+AFC government continues to distort facts and spew rumours of secret bank accounts, among other false charges. He questioned how the bank accounts could be secret when the accounts were audited by the Auditor General or the company he contracted to do the job.
“The auditors had access to all the records and documents of NICIL. They never complained of information being withheld from them. They never reported that they requested documents and access was denied. Why then the seizure of documents from the CEO’s office in his absence? Why the warrants and searching of homes,” he questioned.
“Clearly, this regime is a military government in civilian garb. We are returning to the worst times of the PNC regime,” Ramotar asserted.
According to the former president, already, people, including some government officials are afraid to speak on their phones and fear that their conversations are being listened to. Fear is gradually beginning to grip the land, he said.
“It is now obvious that failing to find any significant wrongdoing, the regime is now planning to frame people on trumped up charges. How else can we explain the seizure of documents in the absence of officials? How else do you explain the searching of homes,” Ramotar said.
He also questioned the involvement of the army and police as well as the military operation. He recalled the role of army intelligence in the assassination of Walter Rodney decades ago and questioned why was the entity involved in such types of operations against civilians?
