Former President Donald Ramotar has roasted the APNU+AFC government over the manner in which it treated the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the death of historian Dr Walter Rodney and the three Caribbean commissioners.
Ramotar who had appointed the CoI in 2015 and lost office before it concluded its deliberations said it was another shameful page in the conduct of the nation’s affairs by this government.
“I am extremely disturbed and disappointed at the way the APNU+AFC regime has treated the Commission of Inquiry into the circumstances that led to the assassination of Walter Rodney”, Ramotar said in a statement yesterday. The statement comes amid major controversy last week around the handing over of the report by Chairman of the Commission, Sir Richard Cheltenham and Commissioners Seenath Jairam and Jacqueline Samuels. They had been unable to meet a deadline for the handing over of the report to President David Granger and a subsequent attempt to do so at the Ministry of the Presidency saw them being told to leave it at the Attorney General’s Chambers.
The Commissioners issued a statement on Saturday setting out in detail what steps they had taken to ensure that the report was presented to Granger. This was done in particular as it was being said in government circles that the commissioners had disrespected the President by leaving the report at the AG’s Chambers. The Commissioners’ statement resulted in the Ministry of the Presidency issuing its own version of the events later on Saturday.
Ramotar yesterday said that the circumstances surrounding Rodney’s death have left a gaping wound in the conscience of the society.
“When I established the Commission of Inquiry I had hoped that its work would bring closure to this horrible episode in our country and heal the wound to this nation’s conscience.
“It was also aimed at bringing closure to the family, whose sufferings over the years can only be imagined”, he said.
Ramotar however lamented that from the beginning the APNU+AFC government showed great hostility to the Rodney CoI.
“They brought the enquiry to (a) premature end after millions were already spent on this project. They seem uninterested in getting to the truth or afraid to have the truth exposed. Many important persons were still to be heard from while others’ testimonies were incomplete”, Ramotar said.
He added: “The regime not only denied the Commissioners the time to allow the Commission to enquire from many of the players of that time but their treatment of the Commissioners when they came here to present their report from the work done, is unpardonable”.
He said that the treatment of the commissioners by the APNU+AFC government is an insult to Caribbean legal professionals.
Ramotar stated that it seems that the “PNC-led APNU+AFC regime is preparing to reject this report and to continue to dishonour the memory of Walter Rodney”.
There has been no word yet from the Ministry of the Presidency on when the report will be released or how its findings will be addressed.
