ON January 15, 2008 and February 7, 2008 my premises, occupied by my parents, one of whom is infirm, was bombarded by Molotov cocktails. The police at the Anna Regina Police Station describe the incident as attempted felony, since purportedly there was no incendiary evidence.

According to the investigators at the Anna Regina Police Station, one of two files is lodged there while another – the analyst’s report on the evidence collected- is yet to be returned from Georgetown. This report is necessary for continued investigations on the Essequibo Coast. Hypothetically, evidence collected may have taken, no more than a week following the respective incidents, to be dispatched to the analyst in Georgetown. Such evidence, therefore, has been in Georgetown presumably for more than a year to date, still awaiting a report.

My matter, compared to an actual malicious fire is criminally – inferior, but apparently not insignificant, since according to the Criminal Law Offences Act:

“Everyone who unlawfully and maliciously places or throws in, into, upon, under, against, or near  any building, any explosive substance, with intent to destroy or damage any building… whether or not any explosion takes place, and whether or not any damage is actually caused, be  guilty of felony and liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.”

There is a certain trauma which has accompanied these criminal acts, so as long as the investigations remain suspended and the felonies unsolved, the victims justifiably dread a repeat of such villainy.

I am not undiscerning of the slothfulness which characterizes some investigations, but I believe for a report to be a year overdue is less than desirable.

Hooligans who sought to torch my property, mindful of lives within, are still roaming free. Stalled investigations will empower anyone but the victims. The Guyana Police Force owes me better.
ROMAIN KHAN