Guyana is willing to approach the United States government to facilitate access to convicted drug lord Roger Khan if local investigations provide sufficient cause, President David Granger says.
Asked by Stabroek News on last week’s edition of “The Public Interest” whether his government is willing to pursue the willingness by the US to provide assistance in gaining access to Khan, the President noted that his government is currently conducting investigations into the recent allegations against the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) and plans exist to probe extra-judicial killings that occurred.
The President stressed that if these investigations reveal connections to Khan, then his administration will seek to engage him.
“Wherever those leads take us, we will follow… We need to have a lawful and orderly society and whoever is accused of committing murders will have to be punished… I’m not accusing anybody but wherever those leads take us, we will follow to make sure justice is done and Guyanese can live in a country where they can be assured of being safe,” he said.
Holloway had told reporters in October of last year that the US government is willing to facilitate any request from the Guyana government for access to Khan, for the purposes of conducting an inquiry into the operations of a death squad that he is reported to have headed, but stressed that the requirements for such are quite high and there had to be some substantial case.
“Like I have said before we don’t expect fishing expeditions…There are a number of mechanisms via the UN (United Nations) process and the OAS (Organisation of American States) for countries to exchange legal information but there is a way you have to request it. It has to be based on certain things in your country… generally you have to have had charges in your country. It depends, it doesn’t necessarily have to be an indictment but probably very close to an indictment,” Holloway said.
Khan is currently serving a 15-year sentence in a US jail after pleading guilty to trafficking cocaine, witness tampering and gun-running.
The PPP/C government, under the leadership of then president Bharrat Jagdeo had long been believed to have allowed Khan a free rein to operate in the name of crime fighting after the country experienced an unprecedented crime wave that was triggered by the February 23, 2002 Camp Street prison break.
The David Granger-led coalition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) then in opposition, had been very vocal about Khan’s dealings here and the fact that he was linked to numerous killings. It was Granger who led the charge in calling for a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the death squad killings and had promised that under his administration the CoI would become a reality.
Khan, before he was held in neighbouring Suriname in 2006 and then handed over to US authorities, had stated in a public advertisement that he had been fighting crime at the behest of the government. “During the crime spree in 2002, I worked closely with the crime-fighting sections of the Guyana Police Force and provided them with assistance and information at my own expense. My participation was instrumental in curbing crime during this period,” the ad, published in May, 2006 had stated.
At a domestic violence seminar on January 22 this year, President Granger alluded to Khan when discussing the period 2000 to 2009, which he described as the `Troubles’ where there was unprecedented criminal violence.
Noting that then Chairman of the Central Intelligence Committee, Dr Roger Luncheon had referred to a “phantom force” being responsible for `drug-gang warfare’, the President said “The Force, of course, was no ‘phantom.’ It was real. Any mystery about its origins and operations evaporated in October 2003 when a repentant gangster made the startling decision to confess his transgressions and to expose the Force’s links to a government minister.”
Holloway had stressed that until his government obtains a formal request from the government there is nothing that the US would do and even after a request, it would take a while since there has to be the meeting of certain criteria.
