HEAD of State David Granger has described the final report on the findings of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the death of Dr Walter Rodney as “deeply flawed,” pointing out that Guyanese have been starved of the truth and closure.

A release from the Ministry of the Presidency noted that even though almost $500 million had been expended in the past two years on the Commission, the President said that the report does not address its mandate. The President expressed his views on the report yesterday following the accreditation ceremonies for the Ambassadors of Israel and Japan to Guyana, when he indicated it is obvious that the commissioners depended on hearsay and gossip instead of pursuing means through which the truth could have been found out.

The CoI was established in 2014 by then President Donald Ramotar to determine as far as possible who or what was responsible for the explosion that killed Rodney on June 13, 1980.

The commissioners, in the final report, concluded that Rodney was the victim of a State-organised assassination and this could only have been possible with the knowledge of then People’s National Congress (PNC) Prime Minister Forbes Burnham.

EVIDENCE OF A CONVICT
“I would like to say that the report is very badly flawed in many respects. From the start we realised that the commission was paying a lot of attention to hearsay evidence and the most glaring example of the flaw in the commission’s report is the fact that they decided to accept the evidence of a convict. They brought a convict, who at the time was a constable in the Guyana Police Force. He reports verbatim on a conversation between the President of Guyana, the Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force and two assistant commissioners of police and he was not present. How does he know what was going on? And why should the commission believe that he knew what was going on?” the President said.

According to the release, President Granger noted that a key witness, who was available to the commission and had knowledge of what would have possibly transpired, was not allowed to testify. The President noted that he plans to challenge the findings of the report.

CHALLENGE TO FINDINGS
“The commission brought one of the persons who was present at that meeting into this country for 10 days, kept him at a hotel and then sent him back to the United States without asking him a single question. Why should the commission accept the word of a convict and refuse to bring onto the stand, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, who in fact was supposed to be at that meeting with former President Burnham and was also the chief investigator into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr. Rodney? So when you look at details of the evidence provided it is clear that the report itself is very badly flawed and we intend to challenge the findings of the report and the circumstances under which that report was conducted,” the President told reporters.

He added that while government had expended large sums of money on the commission and its work, in the pursuit of truth and closure, none of these has been achieved despite the handing over of the report.

“It has cost the Guyanese taxpayers a tremendous amount of money. We could have built 10 schools with the money that was spent on that commission… They are just gobbling up money and at the same time they are not providing the Guyanese people with the truth. We supported the commission’s pursuit of truth, but the commission has varied from its mandate and has accepted a lot of hearsay evidence and not given the Guyanese people what they deserve. That is to say, what were the circumstances under which Dr. Rodney acquired a certain device and how that device came to be detonated. That is what we want to know,” the President expressed.

The CoI also concluded that Burnham’s grip and absolute control over the Guyanese society was so firm and extensive, that he de-humanised and belittled many Guyanese by compelling them to clean trenches, canals or drains.

The commissioners also found that the late soldier Gregory Smith, carried out the killing and he was then spirited out of the country to French Guiana in an elaborate operation spearheaded by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Guyana Defence Force (GDF).