Reluctant witnesses hampering gov’t crime fight – Lawrence

Chairperson of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Volda Lawrence says that her government has “shown that it will walk the walk” when it comes to addressing crime but has been hampered from achieving big successes because “people are still afraid to testify.”

Lawrence was speaking at a PNCR press conference at its headquarters, Congress Place, yesterday. The PNCR is the largest constituent of the APNU+AFC coalition government. Asked how her government would be able to convince the electorate to trust them when they have failed to convict any members of the previous government for alleged corruption as well as any of the alleged members of the death squads which terrorised the country for half a decade, Lawrence res-onded that they have tried. She expressed confidence that this effort would be enough.

“Once assuming government, we ensured that we had those investigations done. We are at a junction where we are unable, because of fear, to get persons to bear witness on the stand. We believe that as we continue to work with these people, they will be more comfortable,” she said.