Sugar workers who were arrested on Monday after they allegedly attempted to block the Canje Turn with wooden poles and structures to stop the free flow of traffic maintain that they were stripped down, photographed, and placed into lock-ups by police in Region Six.
Roopnarine Sukhu, 45, of Susannah Village; Fizal Kowlessar, 29, of Canefield; Satish Sanichar, 43, of Betsy Ground Village; Mohan Premchand, 40, of Betsy Ground Village; Keeron Bissondyal, 35, of Betsy Ground Village; Boojnarine Ramkisson; Doman Jagnarine, 55, of Canefield; Narinedatt Khemraj, 55, of Canefield; Waqueer Baskh, 30, of Reliance Village; Kemraj Balkarran, 27, of Canefield; Shawn Best, 30, of Adelphi Village; Joseph McPherson, 48, Goed Bananen Land; Raton Singh, 24, of Goed Bananen Land; George Southwell, 32, of Betsy Ground; Totaram Sanichar, 47, of Betsy Ground; Lance Boswin, 34, of Betsy Ground; Marlon Durant, 50, of Adelphi Village; Denis Kippy, 40, of Stanleytown; Satesh Jagnarine, 50, of Canefield, and Nigel Ghangadin, 27, of Betsy Ground Village, all appeared before Magistrate Renita Singh.
The men were each placed on a total of $60,000 bail and will return to court on October, 16.
Hours after the court case Commander Shivpersaud Bacchus released the men’s pictures – eighteen of whom were shirtless in the mugshots. Immediately questioned by Stabroek News as to why the men’s pictures were taken without their shirts, Bacchus said, “It’s called profiling.”
Additionally, the names of the men were inaccurate on some of the pictures released leaving the impression that the matter was being handled haphazardly with a rush to release the images.
Initially, some of the workers were reluctant to go on record however yesterday Denis Kippy who has been on the twenty-day protest since day one, broke his silence. Others have affirmed his account.
In an interview with the Sunday Stabroek, Kippy said emphatically, “They strip us to our buckta (underwear) and put us in on the cold, cold ground whole night… Na only without shirt them man strip us to our buckta, who had on underpants had to take it out all.”
Kippy said, that they requested to put on back their shirts for the mug-shots but were denied this adding that they repeatedly questioned why they had to strip and remain in their underwear. Additionally, he said that some ranks at the New Amsterdam Police Station where they were being held also questioned the reasoning behind this as they too could not understand why the men were being held in such a condition.
Reluctant
Touching on what transpired on Monday morning, Kippy said that he remembered being reluctant to block the road however other protesters present said that they were frustrated and that it might be the only way to have a meeting with those in government as such they went ahead. He added, that the matter quickly escalated with the police advancing. “Them police push some of them man down in the drain, buss up one boy head all.”
Detailing his time in the lockups, Kippy, a father of seven, said that he never envisioned being treated that way. “Even if them been lock we up and carry we, them man treat we like criminals, bangle we hand and we foot, strip out we clothes and lef we.”
According to Kippy, after he was unable to pay the $50,000 station bail on Monday evening he had to spend the entire night in the lockup. He said, that after passing through court and being placed on $60,000 bail he borrowed money to pay.
The men were all arrested just around 8 am, and Kippy said that when he got home on Tuesday his wife told him that she took food for him to the station around 4.30 pm Monday, however according to him he was given the food after midnight. “Some of them man na even get to eat. We get lock up in the morning, spend whole day and whole night and go court… Some a them man na get none food, it was real bad.”
On Thursday in a letter to Stabroek News, Robin Singh stated that the Guyana Police Force arrested the striking sugar workers in Canje, stripped the clothes from the workers’ backs (down to underwear), and took photographs.
“This lawless attempt to humiliate citizens is one step away from some of the worst excesses of the police. Guyanese have been down this road before and we know where and how it ends. The Irfaan Ali administration needs to nip this lawless behaviour in the bud; no excuses from Acting Commissioner Hickens should be tolerated, only corrective action”, he said.
The Guyana Police Force in response to this letter said that “Relative to an article (letter) that appeared in the Stabroek News today (September 8, 2023), under the caption: ‘Striking sugar workers were stripped to their underwear’ and authored by one Robin Singh, the Guyana Police Force would like to categorically dismiss the insinuations contained therein as totally untrue, and with the seeming aim to create public mischief.”
However, in a follow-up letter on Saturday, Singh stated that he wrote a factual account about the sugar workers for the public good stressing that “I reiterate there is/was no reason to strip the sugar workers to take their photographs and would contrast the treatment with that of other recent protestors in Cotton Tree who were not arrested despite causing severe chaos and those who rampaged in Mon Repos while the GPF played spectators. We cannot have different rules for different groups, it is contrary to principles of natural justice and the idea of ‘One Guyana’.”
He pointed out, that there were photos and video statements available to back his words, and “I expect the GPF to do a thorough investigation.”
