SELECTIVE calls by the political Opposition for probes into various incidents were countered by former president, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, who proposed the “mother of all inquiries” into everything from murders to missing weapons.He said, “Some people want to pick and choose, a little bit here and a little bit there. Let us do one thing. We can propose that to President Ramotar too when he gets re-elected.
“…I would say to people that anytime we want a comprehensive inquiry into what happened, we should do it, once and for all…we should have an inquiry into everything, maybe the mother of all inquiries.”
To start the ball rolling, the former president suggested that questions be asked about the 155 missing Guyana Defence Force (GDF) weapons.
Last August, Lieutenant Colonel Sydney James, who spent three days at the CoI on the witness stand, testified and submitted documentation that the GDF loaned high-powered military weapons to the PNC’s Ministry of National Development. The records that Lieutenant Colonel James tendered as evidence to the Commission show that the GDF loaned 200-odd weapons to the Ministry, as well as paramilitary organisations and other agencies. Of those 200-odd weapons, 155 are still missing today. Even as calls have been made for answers to be given regarding missing weapons the current Administration insists that the Army is actively engaged in trying to locate them.
“Let’s start with how the guns were given to the PNC and how they ended up in the hands of criminals in 2004. Granger (Brigadier (ret’d) David Granger) still doesn’t want to help us get back those guns,” Dr Jagdeo charged.
He added that the smuggling of guns from Suriname to Buxton during the 2002-2008 crime wave, the murders of police officers, the massacres in Lusignan and Bartica in January and February 2008 and “every single” charge of extra-judicial killings by the ‘phantom’ squads, among other issues are areas that need to be looked into.
The murder of his colleague, former Agriculture Minister Satyadeow ‘Sash’ Sawh was another area of inquiry that Dr Jagdeo highlighted.
“Let’s look at any case of violence in an inquiry, let’s bring in some foreigners…let us do everything,” the former president stressed. (Vanessa Narine)
