Special Report on the Rodney Commission of Inquiry by Shaun Michael Samaroo

Critical records about PNC’s violence while in Government, that saw Dr Walter Rodney die in bomb blast challenging Commission probe…

Army files missing

MILITARY files with critical information concerning an intelligence army officer involved in the violence that erupted under the rule of the People’s National Congress (PNC) Government, when Guyana’s intellectual political leader Dr Walter Rodney died in a bomb blast assassination, are “missing”.

In fact, seeking dark shadowy secrets hiding in Army files is proving to be an elusive exercise today for the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry.
Army Lieutenant Colonel Patrick West yesterday told the Presidential Commission probing the suspected PNC political assassination of Dr Rodney that crucial files at the headquarters of the Guyana Defense Force (GDF) at Camp Ayanganna are “missing”.

The Commission resumed yesterday with West in the witness box. In full Army uniform, West told the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry that GDF Chief of Staff Gary Best passed a written order to his officers that the Commission must receive full Army cooperation.
Despite this, soldiers failed to find the personal file of its high-profile officer, Sergeant Gregory Smith, who for three decades stood implicated in Dr Rodney’s conspiratorial assassination. Dr Rodney died in a bomb blast explosion as he sat in his car outside the Camp Street jail on June 13, 1980. He was a key political leader of a popular national protest against the dictatorial, raucous PNC regime, which commandeered the notorious religion cult, House of Israel, to violently suppress street protests and violently harass political activists.
Ex-Army chief, Major-General (retired) Norman McLean, appeared at the Commission last month, and also denied knowledge of shadowy Army conspiracies to harass, harm and silence leaders of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA).

The GDF comes up repeatedly at the Commission, and Commission Chairman Sir Richard Cheltenham yesterday noted that the Commission would seriously seek answers to those allegations and implications.

Dr Rodney led a vibrant WPA into a national peaceful uprising against the PNC Government’s diktat of the Judicial and Government systems. The WPA fought against widespread State corruption, Government banning and tight control of essential food, and massive rigging of national and local government elections.
President Ramotar signed the Presidential order mandating that the Commission find the facts about how and why Guyana had plunged to such a socio-political crisis that Dr Rodney suffered the Caribbean’s worst political assassination. For 34 years his death remained shrouded in mystery, speculation, and national suspicion that the PNC Government had conspired to cause his grave silence.
But Army officers appearing at the Commission insist they either do not recollect the events surrounding Dr Rodney, or cannot find crucial records and files.
The GDF comes up repeatedly at the Commission, and Commission Chairman Sir Richard Cheltenham yesterday noted that the Commission would seriously seek answers to those allegations and implications.

Ex-Army chief, Major-General (retired) Norman McLean, appeared at the Commission last month, and also denied knowledge of shadowy Army conspiracies to harass, harm and silence leaders of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA).

Sergeant Gregory Smith, a notorious GDF soldier, stood accused of orchestrating the bomb blast that killed Dr Rodney, and for years lived in exile in French Guiana, refusing to return to Guyana to face questions. He died there a few years ago, after publishing a book on his role in the sordid affair of the Rodney assassination.
Dr Rodney’s widow, Dr Patricia Rodney, and her three children sought President Ramotar’s office to make sure the Commission was convened, after two previous efforts, one in 1996 and the other in 2005, collapsed unsuccessfully.

The PNC, however, objects to the Commission’s convening, and adamantly refuses to participate or cooperate. Instead, its Member of Parliament and executive member, Basil Williams, appears as the Party’s defense attorney.
Yesterday during testimony, Lieutenant Colonel West, who is now in charge of record keeping for the GDF, revealed a shocking state of affairs regarding GDF record-keeping.
The Army officer said the GDF stored files on the “ground”, and files suffered damage, including from the massive 2005 national flood that affected Georgetown. Army headquarters, where files are stored, is at Camp Ayanganna, just across a road from the Altantic Ocean.
West claimed that, while it’s “rare” for personal files on soldiers to go missing, instances do occur where files cannot be located.
One such file is that of Gregory Smith. In fact, West said, the GDF cannot locate any file or record about a Gregory Smith. Some records exist showing a “William Smith, number 4141”, he said, and the Commission believes, based on evidence from previous witnesses, that this is the same Gregory Smith implicated in the Rodney assassination. Smith’s name came up several times as William Gregory Smith, but West insists that there’s no record of a Gregory Smith within the GDF today.
Yesterday hearings ended on an even more interesting note regarding records and files, with PNC Defense Counsel Williams claiming that a document that Commissioner Seenath Jairam put to the witness was a “forgery”. Williams claimed that since Major General (retired) McLean had deemed the Army document a fake, it should not be used.
Even as the Commission seeks to determine the conspiracies and plans and political intrigue that led to the brutally violent slaying of Dr Rodney, this question of documents, records and files is proving to be of particular challenge.
The GDF’s filing system sees several references to Smith’s role as an Army Intelligence Officer failing to be verified, as the files and related information are all missing, West said.
Even information about a Police probe into Dr Rodney’s assassination, when Police officers requested file records of Smith from the DGF, are missing, West said under cross examination.
Army pilot, Captain Gerry Gouveia, had appeared as a witness at the Commission last month, and also denied awareness and knowledge of the events he himself was involved in during the period 1978 to 1980. Gouveia said he suspects he piloted the military aircraft that transported Smith from Timehri airport to Kwakwani the day after Dr Rodney’s assassination shocked the Guyanese people, but claimed he could not recall key details, and in fact did not even know who Dr Rodney was, until underground and overseas news reports reported on his death.
Gouveia said he was not aware he was transporting a potential political assassinator, as he was following military orders.
But this challenge of records and files could soon dissipate, as a foreign Government has supplied a massive amount of information related to the Dr Rodney assassination, and that violent period of Guyana’s history under the PNC Government, when freedom of the press was banned, when the Government controlled basic food to the Guyanese people and when the PNC rigged national and local Government elections, denying democracy and freedom of public assembly to Guyana.
The Commission resumes today with WPA executive member Tacuma Ogunseye set to resume his interrupted testimony.