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IN recent days, several correspondences appeared in the media about torture. Freddie Kissoon, for example, insinuated there wasn’t much torture during the dictatorship while others gave examples with names of political opponents (from the WPA and PPP) being tortured – lit cigarettes being placed on their sex organs, etc. I too know of and witnessed examples of torture. There was pervasive and widespread torture during the dictatorship. Roy Nancoo of Canada, a brave freedom fighter, was picked up and savagely beaten by the intelligence police during a visit to Guyana in the late 1980s. After he came out of the dungeons of Camp Street, he could not be recognised. His face was bloodied and swollen taking the appearance of two heads. This torture occurred during the Hoyte dictatorship. Roy was kept in the lock up for years on sedition charges when his only crime was to advocate for the restoration of democracy and an end to election rigging. Doodnauth Singh was his lawyer in court. There was no evidence to keep him in jail. Charges against him were dropped after democracy was restored. I saw and experienced beating of students at the hands of police on the Corentyne in February and March 1977. I saw the military police pointing guns at students with school books in their hands. Also, police came to the homes of students who were leading non-violent protests calling for religious freedom and arrested them on charges against the state. Students were terrorised and had to run into peoples’ homes and buses for shelter. Ravi Dev was picked up by the intelligence police in 1989 for questioning after he attended a protest against the budget. He was beaten with a rubber hose and quizzed about his presence in Guyana and his association with opposition political parties and harassed over several weeks. He was told to stay away from the opposition. There are numerous other cases of torture that Freddie needs to be informed about. He should consult Moses Bhagwan, Doonauth Singh and other lawyers who donated their time to represent those who were branded enemies of the state.
VISHNU BISRAM
Torture was pervasive and widespread during the dictatorship
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