Dow, Father Rodrigues take Commission platform to tell Dr Rodney’s sad story

– Father Rodrigues, Dow testify on Guyana’s lack of free press, atmosphere of fear under PNC Government

CATHOLIC Priest Father Malcolm Rodrigues and social activist Joycelyn Dow lived full and active lives in Guyana fighting for social justice, free and fair elections, human rights and freedom of the press.

They both dedicated their lives to serving this nation, spending decades in the quest for Guyanese to be free, to be able to elect the Government of their choice, and to live without fear of a paramount political force dictating their movements and placing them under clandestine surveillance. They fought the policies of the Government of the People’s National Congress (PNC) for over a decade.
Both Father Rodrigues and Dow experienced the decades of economic strangulation, social stagnation, and political tyranny that destroyed this great nation’s potential during the 1970s and 1980s. They fought against the forces that dragged Guyana to become so poor and disabled, that the country once ranked with Haiti as the poorest country in the Americas.
Now they have the opportunity to tell their story.

During her testimony, Dow outlined an atmosphere of fear and paranoia. Testimony at the Commission show that the PNC Government employed mass surveillance of Guyanese, a militarized State machinery and grotesque political conspiracy involving Officers of the Guyana Defence Force, the Guyana Police Force and the Ministry of National Development, along with the Joint Armed Forces Intelligence Command to quell popular protests against the dictatorship.

They never got a national platform to express their feelings and give evidence of the atrocities that happened to their beloved nation.
Today, the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry provides the Guyanese populace with an international forum and legal platform to introspect, analyse and consider what went wrong in this country, what caused political leaders to be killed, and, in reporting on the findings, cause that sordid history never to repeat itself again in this land.

Father Rodrigues and Dow fought against the Government of the PNC. They marched, protested, wrote and campaigned with vigorous energy to end the reign of dictatorship under the PNC Government. They fought in the political trenches with Dr Walter Rodney, Guyana’s foremost historian and brilliant global scholar. They campaigned against the PNC’s politics of party paramountcy, when citizens had to have a PNC Party membership card to get jobs and State service.
Today, Father Rodrigues and Dow stand in the witness box at the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry to finally, after 34 years, vent their feelings, frustrations and thoughts on what transpired in Guyana in the 1978 to 1980 period that caused the bomb blast assassination of the populist leader of the Working People’ Alliance (WPA), Dr walter Rodney.
Dr Rodney was engaged in a nationwide mass protest at the time of his assassination.
Yesterday the two freedom fighters and social justice stalwarts outlined the national atmosphere of fear and trauma that descended on Guyana in 1980 following the political assassination of Dr Rodney.
Both outstanding Guyanese citizens appeared yesterday at the Presidential Commission and gave testimony about the conditions that caused Dr Rodney’s tragic end.
During her testimony, Dow outlined an atmosphere of fear and paranoia. Testimony at the Commission shows that the PNC Government employed mass surveillance of Guyanese, a militarised State machinery and grotesque political conspiracy involving Officers of the Guyana Defence Force, the Guyana Police Force and the Ministry of National Development, along with the Joint Armed Forces Intelligence Command to quell popular protests against the dictatorship.
Dow said her home was a popular place, but she always felt unsafe and that she was being watched, along with visitors to her house. She said it was impossible for her to travel freely, as the PNC State would not issue her with a passport and other travel documents.
She told the Commission that Guyana suffered then from a stifling media landscape, lacking freedom of opinion and freedom of expression, with the single State newspaper in the entire country refusing to carry “bad news” about the PNC Government.
Dow said that after Dr Rodney died in the bomb blast, news of what happened to him came from overseas media operations, like the BBC and CANA News. The soft spoken elderly woman, standing with strength and determination in the witness box, told Commission Counsel Glen Hanoman as he questioned her that immediately after the deadly bomb blast on June 13, 1980, calls were coming in to anyone in the WPA for information as the world news media tried to ascertain the truth of what went wrong in Guyana, and why Dr Rodney was assassinated.
She said the PNC Government stifled all news about the event, and concocted a different version than what the WPA was unearthing as the assassination week unfolded.
The WPA learned from the brother of Dr Rodney, Donald Rodney, that a military officer of the GDF, Sergeant Gregory Smith, had handed a communication device to Dr Rodney and it blew up in his lap. Donald was with his brother at the time, and remains the only eyewitness to the dreaded events of that day in this nation’s history.
Donald miraculously survived, and the WPA spirited him away from police and hospital, despite being injured, as the WPA suspected that he could be harmed or even killed, testimony at the Commission revealed. Dow’s testimony yesterday corroborated this evidence.
The WPA took Donald to a safe-house, and got a statement from him, and for the first time learned of Smith’s existence.
However, Dow said the GDF, the PNC Government, the Police Force and the State media in Guyana then all refused to acknowledge the existence of GDF Sergeant Gregory Smith, even though a GDF plane flew him and his family to Kwakwani and despite him being issued with passports to travel out of Guyana.
Smith lived in French Guiana, and refused to return to testify into allegations that he handed the bomb that blew up in Dr Rodney’s car. Smith died in French Guiana a few years ago.
Dow said days after Dr Rodney’s death had shocked the world, and plunged Guyana into a deep political turmoil and crisis, someone named Pamela Beharry revealed that a Gregory Smith of the GDF did indeed exist, and this woman gave full details of Smith’s domestic life, including the information that he lived in Georgetown, not far from where the bomb killed Dr Rodney.
For 34 years all these details were mere allegations and speculation. Today, the Commission has handed Dow, Father Rodrigues and a host of other witnesses the opportunity to reveal what really happened in Guyana to cause the country to descend to the worst status in the Anglo-Caribbean region.
Dow made reference to the lack of official records on Gregory Smith to support her contention that the State of the PNC Government conspired to execute Dr Rodney. The GDF, Police Force and other PNC State agencies all deny Smith’s official existence, with even the GDF personal file on him missing.
Yesterday, Lieutenant Colonel James apologised to the Commission for the sloppy situation at the GDF, where files, combat weapons and submachine guns are missing. Colonel James’ testified that 155 military weapons, including grenade launchers, issued to the PNC Government’s Ministry of National Development, R. Corbin and a Wilfred Skeete, remain missing.
Guns from this list showed up in 2008 in Mahaicony in the possession of criminals, and the Police seized them and handed them back to the GDF.
Dow and Father Rodrigues’s testimony about the days immediately following Dr Rodney’s assassination reveal how devastated Guyana became under the PNC Government, which today would be unimaginable, Commission testimony has shown.
The hearing resumes this morning, with Dow yet to be cross-examined by the battery of counsels appearing at the Commission at the High Court in Georgetown.