Dear Editor,
The Dossier is a testament to the death toll of over four hundred citizens, men and women and children, not all who died are included, whose lives were cut short by a system of lawlessness and a callous disregard for human life and rights by above-the-law ‘friends’ of a specific leadership of the PPP. Friends that enveloped a sinister nouveau riche who were aware that they were immune in the pursuit of illegal gain.
No conduct was established by enforcement where the basic character of the state was intact enough to demand explanations and redress on any issue bordering on the violations of civil rights and behavioural conduct. This was the PPP state that Jagdeo presided over and had existed before I presented ACDA’s contribution to the Disciplined Forces COI in 2003, and contributed to the Dossier compiled and presented in 2009. Though the majority of persons executed and classified as disappeared were Afro-Guyanese, the document did not fail to include all other Guyanese who were victims of factors that represented the criminalisation of the state. That also included the compromising of the Police Force, Judiciary, the Georgetown Hospital, public procurement, the Tender Board, Housing and all institutions that presented services and employment and were micro-managed by the PPP not as managers but as political overseers with impositions to determine the right to survive and exist, to empower those they claimed, and to marginalize who refused to conform as pawns or exhibit any air of independence. Race became the first assessment marker. The mismanagement of the state was enforced by repression, first was used the PPP-stacked Policing groups who were responsible for several killings, and the ‘Black Clothes police’ who were above the law. It must be noted that a large percentage of these extrajudicial killings were committed before the 2002 jail break.
From 2000 to 2015 Guyana was plagued by youth unemployment of 40% cited by the CDB. By 2003 the World Bank had declared that Guyana was suffering a ‘crisis’ of governance. The influx of drugs dominated accountants, lawyers, bribed public servants and bankers.
By 2005 protest letters: ‘Marjuana infiltrating secondary schools’ by Mark Nigel James B.Sc., Dip Ed were common and by 2011 ‘Drugs have ravaged this 14 year old and other teens of No. 78 village’ by Eric Khadaroo – among dozens of others in Stabroek News. A contractor was gunned down because from a source he would not make his business available for money laundering, Chowmein, a mechanic [not a drug dealer or criminal] of Barr Street, Albouystown was killed along with his client – whose scooter he was fixing – by gunmen in a car targeting a third person [the pillion rider on the scooter] who escaped. Two of the Phantom gunmen working for the state, came out and riddled the bodies which were on fire from exposed gasoline, Feb 22,2003. Max Pereira, an architect and Malis Archer his reputed wife were gunned down in front of his home [Max was a leading influence in cycling, a source indicated that he was against drug dealers trying to use travelling cyclists as couriers, this was not confirmed Oct 3, 2006]. Dorothy Williams was leaving a friend’s home when Phantom gunmen in pursuit of someone fired, wounding her. The police prevented anyone from offering her assistance. She bled to death, Nov 5, 2002. Thus, the Dossier envelopes the working of a malevolent philosophy of lawlessness and racial repression. There were proposals to build an access road for the Diamond Scheme, the rejection of it was based on the fact that the most obvious path of that road would have to pass through Mocha village, an Afro Guyanese village which would be enhanced by such a road. The best location for the Berbice Bridge was not its present location, but because the best suited areas were Afro-Guyanese villages they were ignored and the ferry service that served New Amsterdam was terminated to punish that town, which is not a PPP enclave.
The Dossier must be viewed as a template but must never be presented as a conclusion onto itself. I commend Ruel Johnson’s letter ‘There is no spin to be placed on reign of terror under Mr. Jagdeo’s regime’ Stabroek News January 25,2019. I do hope this letter adds to the perspective.
Yours faithfully,
Barry Braithwaite
