The refusal of the APNU+AFC government to accept defeat in the March 2, 2020 elections, the arrest of Opposition Chief Whip Christopher Jones and the killing of a man by the police last year were some of the issues highlighted in the US State Department’s 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices here.
In looking at the country’s elections and political participation, the report pointed to the December 2018 successful no-confidence motion against the coalition government which mandated that national elections be held by March of the following year.
“Several rounds of litigation initiated by the coalition government and opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) delayed the elections until March 2, 2020,” the report said.
The report then referenced APNU+AFC’s refusal to accept the elections result that showed their loss and which created a five-month post-elections impasse, and included a national recount, refusal to accept the results of the recount, and litigation at the Caribbean Court of Justice – the country’s court of final instance.
“The PPP/C won by a margin of 15,000 votes against the APNU+AFC coalition, and Mohamed Irfaan Ali of the PPP/C was installed as president on August 2. The general elections resulted in the return of the PPP/C to government after a five-year hiatus from a previous 23-year administration. International observers concluded the March 2 national and regional elections were free and fair,” the report declared.
Meantime, last August’s arrest of Jones by the police was referred to under the arbitrary arrests section of the report.
“In August police arrested Christopher Jones, a senior member of the opposition, and searched his home, although Jones had a court-issued injunction preventing the search,” the report said.
Following his controversial arrest in the wee hours after police stormed into his home, the Opposition Chief Whip, who is also the former Director of Sports, condemned the operation as a coordinated political attack which he believed was aimed at embarrassing and intimidating, not just him, but the main opposition.
Jones was subsequently released on $100,000 station bail by police, who seized equipment from his property as part of an investigation into the alleged simple larceny of barbershop equipment purchased under a government-funded project.
The manner in which the police carried out the operation, including the deployment of dozens of ranks, an attempt to execute a search without a warrant, and their alleged disregard for a court order barring them from proceeding, sparked public outrage and condemnation, became a stain on the new Irfaan Ali-led PPP/C administration.
Jones is yet to be charged over the incident and has since filed a matter in the High Court in an effort to recover the barber ship chairs.
Cecil Sampat
And the July 2020 killing of John Fernandes Limited worker Cecil Sampat was also mentioned in the report under arbitrary or unlawful killing.
“There were reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killing. In July police shot and killed Cecil Sampat, an unarmed civilian. According to police, Sampat was one of three passengers in a car who opened fire on the police. No gun was found in Sampat’s vehicle, however, nor was there gunshot residue on Sampat or the other passengers. In August the government charged the police officers who allegedly shot and killed Sampat,” the report said.
While two police officers, Police Constable Troy Munroe, and Police Corporal Godwin Thomas, were initially charged with murder in December last year, the Director of Public Prosecutions withdrew those charges. The DDP then advised that Munroe be charged with the lesser offence of manslaughter. Additionally, the police were advised to conduct investigations in relation to the ballistic evidence. The findings will be returned to the DPP for further advice on Thomas and another police rank.
Also referenced in the US report were the May 2020 arrest of anti-government political protesters which officials stated were because of the protesters’ violation of supplemental legislation that prohibited public gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report noted that while the law provides for freedom of internal movement, foreign travel, emigration, and repatriation, and the government generally respected these rights in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government put in place a curfew from 6 pm to 6 am from April to September and 9 pm to 4 am from October to protect public health and announced that violators would be fined. Police, it said, have arrested and fined more than 2,000 persons for curfew violations as of October.
According to the 2020 report, significant human rights issues included: unlawful or arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings; harsh prison conditions; and laws that criminalise consensual same-sex sexual conduct between adult men.
It said that prison and jail conditions, particularly in police holding cells, were reportedly harsh and potentially life-threatening due to overcrowding, physical abuse, and inadequate sanitary conditions.
According to the report, in October, the Guyana Prison Service reported there were 1,761 prisoners in seven facilities with a combined design capacity of 1,505. Overcrowding was in large part due to a backlog of pre-trial detainees, who constituted approximately 30 per cent of the total prison population.
And in Guyana, the report added, domestic violence and violence against women, including spousal abuse, was widespread during the period of the report.
The Department of State will release an addendum to the report in mid-2021 that expands the subsection on Women to include a broader range of issues related to reproductive rights.
