Dear Editor,
I am the man Vice President Jagdeo refers to as “Raphael Trotman father” whenever he speaks of the Lindo Creek Commission of Inquiry, as he once again did in his Press Conference on Thursday September 26 2024.
President Granger’s long experience as a scholarly historian and familiarity with persons who have knowledge of human rights, allowed him to recognise the need for appointing a fit and proper person to conduct the inquiry into the heinous massacre of nine miners which occurred at Lindo Creek during the tenure of his predecessors. It was one of the worst violations of human rights ever committed in the history of our Republic, and one of the worst cases of cruel Governmental disregard for the lives of our citizens. So, President Granger had to do something about it.
Editor, every human being has the inalienable right to believe that he/she is able to do anything, except those extraordinary things which only Mr Jagdeo is capable of doing. That is why Mr Jagdeo has every right to vex; and he can froth at the mouth with vexation as much as he likes without fear of going to jail if President Granger returns to power; since neither frothing nor vexation are criminal offences or justiciable civil causes of action – even though they might have serious consequences for pollution of the environment – a subject on which Mr Jagdeo considers himself one of the world’s leading experts.
As for President Granger, he couldn’t care less: who vex, vex. But why he did not select Mr Jagdeo to head the Com-mission, only Heaven knows; and Mr Jagdeo may well have good reason to feel annoyed for being overlooked; and why Mr Jagdeo did not establish such a Commission during his own Presidency, only he and his colleagues know.
President Granger appointed someone who has traversed the human rights field for decades across Guyana, the Caribbean, North, Central and South America; Europe, Africa and the Middle East: broadcasting, lecturing, publishing, defending victims of human rights violations in and out of court; actively engaged in work with national and international human rights institutions and conferences.
In Guyana: with the Freedom of Expression Committee, the Legal Aid Clinic, the Treatment of Offenders Com-mittee, the Probation Committee, the History and Arts Council, the UN Asso-ciation Peace Councils, Community Policing; the University of Guyana, UNDP, UNICEF, the EU, CIDA, USAID, the National Commission for the Elderly, the National Arts Gallery.
In the Caribbean and South America: with the Council of Legal Education, OCCBA, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Grenada, UNESCO, the Centre for Multiracial Studies, the Carib-bean Human Rights Institute, the Univer-sity of the West Indies, the UN Associa-tions in Jamaica and Suriname; in Grena-da and Nicaragua for the Bustamante Institute of Jamaica.
Internationally: with the UN General Assembly Human Rights Committee, assignments in Canada and Nigeria for the UN Human Rights Division; the European Union, the Human Rights Section of the World Peace Through Law Center, the Carter Center, the Centre for Arab Gulf Studies, the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights, CIDA, the European Commission on Human Rights, the Hague Centre for International Law at the International Court of Justice; Amnesty International, the International Commis-sion of Jurists.
Recently, Mr Jagdeo has been talking about some sort of Commission being set up to investigate all the bad things that happened during the past years. It sounds like it will be the father of all investigations and might include sons as well; but if Mr Jagdeo can show that he has a better track record on the human rights field than the Lindo Creek Commissioner he keeps talking about, then he himself should be the sole person to conduct those investigations.
Meanwhile, Editor, Mr Jagdeo should be encouraged to continue exercising his right to freedom of expression, which seems to be the human right with which he is most familiar. But he must be cautious how to use it, lest he lose it and falls into a deep pit of trouble – a deep, deep pit, from which he might not be easily excavated.
Respectfully,
Donald Trotman
