Under growing accusations that key leaders stoked unrest on the West Coast Berbice over the horrific murders of teenaged cousins Joel and Isaiah Henry, the PNCR yesterday denied this and implored all to remain calm.
“The PNC implores all Guyanese to remain calm. The Party asks its members, supporters and friends to continue to conduct themselves in a lawful and peaceful manner for the safety of our sons and daughters”, the party said in a statement.
Is said that over the past five years the party has worked towards promoting social cohesion across the country and as such it does not support violence of any form.
The People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) made this statement yesterday in response to Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn, who on Wednesday blamed Leader of the Opposition Joseph Harmon and former President David Granger for the escalation of protest actions by residents across the country over the death of the cousins.
“The People’s National Congress has not advocated violence. The Party has worked strenuously, especially over the last five years, to eradicate all forms of interpersonal and criminal violence. The Party is proud of having appointed a Cabinet Minister with responsibility for Social Cohesion and is pleased with the efforts of the Department of Social Cohesion to promote national unity and to foster greater religious and racial respect and cooperation among all Guyanese,” the statement said.
Benn’s statement came after Harmon and Granger visited the relatives of the dead teenagers on Monday.
He had said that they both “created an atmosphere engendering un-founded suspicions leading to racial polarization and attacks”.
“This escalation in violence rest squarely at the doors of these two gentlemen and specific known political agitators of their ilk! Granger and Harmon bear the prime responsibility for the escalation in violence, injuries and death,” Benn contended in the statement.
The PNCR yesterday described Benn’s statement on the security situation in the country as a “provocative prevarication” in its entirety. The added that Benn’s “dangerous” and “dishonest” allegations are “untruthful” and “harmful”.
According to the PNCR, Harmon and Granger did visit the family of the dead teen but at that time the roads were already blocked and protests had already erupted. As such, the statement said that Granger and Harmon had to be escorted to the parents’ homes.
“The People’s National Congress makes it clear that the purpose of the visit was to extend sympathy to the bereaved parents on the murder of their sons, Isaiah and Joel Henry. Their expressions of comfort and condolences were made privately, indoors, to the boys’ parents and relatives and, in no way, could be interpreted as `racial polarization and attacks’. It is a malicious lie to claim that `Granger and Harmon bear the prime responsibility for the escalation in violence, injuries and death’”, the statement argued.
The PNCR further said in the statement that while its party fought for social cohesion over the past five years, the People’s Pro-gressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C), on the other hand fought “strenuously” against both “the precept and practice of social cohesion”.
“The People’s Progres-sive Party has deliberately damaged social cohesion and national unity over the years …,” the statement said.
The PNCR also charged that Benn had started his career as the Minister of Home Affairs on the “wrong foot’. “He is pursuing wrong policies and elevating the wrong people to prominent positions in the security sector……..The PPP’s leadership has conscientiously eroded efforts at social cohesion and encouraged hooliganism both inside and outside the Parliament,” the party said.
The PNCR “pledges to continue to act only in the interest of the nation and, with “a view to maintaining peace, stability and order, has acted responsibly throughout the recent political crisis”.
Granger has been criticized for several of the statements he made on Monday on the West Coast of Berbice.
He said: “Whatever happens on this day, we have to establish some self defence society to protect our children, protect our women and our young people because unless we protect ourselves nobody is going to protect us”. .
He also said: “What you all are doing here is the correct response to a crime and the government must protect all citizens, who-ever they are, wherever they are, day and night, and it is not happening and that is not happening and if the government does not do its duty to protect our citizens, we must protect ourselves,” he said.
Granger’s and Harmon’s statements on Monday were different in tenor from those of PNCR Chair Volda Lawrence when she visited the West Berbice on Wednesday.
“What I have seen I cannot as a leader condone…We are hurting each other as a people, we are hurting each other as neighbours and friends and we are turning on each other as though we don’t know each other and as a Leader, we have to call a spade a spade,” Lawrence said while visiting Hopetown.
Noting that she had just learnt of the death of 17 year old Haresh Singh, the party leader offered condolences to the his family while lamenting that Guyanese do not kill children.
“We’re not a people who kill our children, we’re not a people who maim each other, we’re not barbarians, we’re Guyanese,” Lawrence stressed, adding that as she is calling on supporters of the PNCR to desist from violence so too must President Irfaan Ali call on supporters of his party to “pull back”.
“We’re asking for justice, we’re also asking for peace, pull away the things from in the middle of the road, we can do things differently, we can send our message differently…it doesn’t mean we are weak…We certainly can display our grief in a different manner…Stop, stop, this is hurting us…this will not solve our problems, our problems will get deeper; it will get wider and we still will not solve it,” she begged.
