The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) yesterday condemned the police over the stripping to their underwear and photographing of 20 protesting sugar workers.
In a statement, the GHRA noted that some 20 protesting workers were detained, stripped to their underwear and photographed in the police station without their shirts.
“This degrading treatment was then compounded by the photos being released to the media. The workers were eventually released on bail in the excessive sum of $60,000 and charged – among other things – with ‘terrorism’ and disrupting traffic on the roadway”, the GHRA said.
Stabroek News has reported extensively on this matter and to date, the police force is still to explain why the strikers were stripped and photographed in their underwear.
“The fact that sugar workers, considered among the most privileged in the labour force, feel forced to block public roads in order to get attention to their grievances should be seen as ominous. The cost of living rises almost on a weekly basis, fostering indignation among the employed, and even reasonably well-off. Tomatoes in city markets last weekend, for example, cost $1000 per pound. Forewarning that the story of prosperity President (Irfaan) Ali never tires of boasting about is enjoyed by a privileged minority”, the statement said.
While attention over this incident is focused on the behaviour of local Police officials, the GHRA said that it reinforces the growing suspicion that the GPF as a national institution is sliding into administrative turmoil.
“The Criminal branch is tainted by too many unresolved situations: Traffic seems overwhelmed by the sheer volume of vehicles, widespread tinting, abandonment of fitness testing and unlicensed use of sirens. The Police Service Commission remains in limbo and both the Police Complaints Authority and the Office of Professional Responsibility are unfit for purpose. Additionally, the demise of the Police Association adds to this institutional breakdown. The likelihood of any of these issues being resolved is remote as long as the office of the Police Commissioner remains dependent on political support rather than the solidarity of colleagues”, the GHRA declared.
The human rights body pointed out that the Constitution of Guyana states “No person shall be subject to torture or inhuman and degrading punishment or other treatment” (art.141). Further, the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement defines in Article 5 that “No law enforcement official may inflict, instigate or tolerate any (emphasis added) act of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”
The GHRA warned that ‘tolerating’ degrading treatment by ‘enforcement officials’ implicates a wider range of people, other than police officers being held directly or indirectly responsible for such events as occurred in Berbice with the sugar workers.
Unlike the GDF which is a military body responsible to the President, the GHRA pointed out that the police are a civil body with the civic Minister of Home Affairs responsible for policy-making. Getting this message across to both politicians and the police – to say nothing of the general public – has been contentious since Guyana became independent, it said.
“Among those who tolerate unacceptable policing must also be counted prominent and influential citizens who pander to, rather than call out, our self-absorbed politicians. Until this privileged group begin to demonstrate greater integrity with respect to public affairs the transformation of Guyana into a lawless, oil-driven sink-hole cannot be dismissed”, the GHRA added.
