‘No unlawful march, procession or meeting will be tolerated’
– rubber pellets, tear gas used to disperse APNU supporters on illegal protest march
THE Guyana Police Force yesterday sounded a strict warning that no unlawful march, procession or meeting will be tolerated and that it will deal firmly with any person or persons wishing to breach the peace and disobey law and order in Guyana. This firm declaration by the GPF came in the wake of what it insisted was an “illegal” protest march in the city yesterday morning by a group of  APNU (A Partnership for National Unity) supporters, several of whom were injured when it was reportedly forced to use rubber pellets and tear gas to disperse the crowd.
The APNU supporters were said to be marching in protest against the results of the just concluded November 28 general and regional elections, which the incumbent PPP/C won and which was widely hailed by a number of international and local observers, including the entire diplomatic community in Guyana, and the private sector, as a ‘free, fair and transparent election’.

POLICE RESPONSE
At  around 09:00 hrs yesterday  morning, a crowd of persons gathered at Square of the Revolution purportedly to be part of a march organised by the Youth Coalition For Transformation, an organisation headed by Attorney-at-Law James Bond and is reportedly the youth arm of APNU (the opposition coalition – A Partnership For National Unity).
According to the police, in a statement following the incident, this group had previously applied for permission to use a noisy instrument at the Square of the Revolution on 4th  and 5th December, 2011, with timings.
And on  Monday, December 5, 2011, at about 14:50 hrs, the police said the group applied for a ‘Youth March for Change’ around the city. No date or time was stated.
The group later informed the police that they wanted to march from Tuesday instead. The GPF said this was in breach of the statutory 48 hours notice and, as such,  no permission was granted to the organisation. “This was communicated to Mr. James Bond,” the Police stated.
It noted that persons, nevertheless, gathered at Square of the Revolution and were warned that they should disperse as no permission had been granted for any march.
“Subsequently, a group of persons headed by retired (Army) Brigadier Edward Collins was seen formed up on Brickdam facing west and, despite being warned, about 300 persons marched off west along Brickdam,” the police stated.
The police said it then engaged them and they turned south into Winter Place and then west along Hadfield Street and continued despite being warned again, and the police fired rubber bullets at them.
It said another section of the crowd turned north into Winter Place and several persons were arrested.

THE INJURED:
A number of persons sustained minor cuts and bruises.
Shortly after, at about 10:55 hrs; another crowd was seen heading east along Duncan Street headed by retired Brigadier Edward Collins and James Bond. The police engaged the crowd and arrested Edward Collins and James Bond. “It appeared that they had injuries from an earlier engagement with the police,” the GPF stated.
It said all the arrested persons were taken to the Brickdam Police Station from where those persons who were injured were escorted for medical treatment.
Both Collins and Bond were reportedly among those injured by the ‘rubber bullets’ during yesterday’s standoff  between the lawmen and the protesters. Before 15:30 hrs yesterday, both men were released and reportedly were very vocal on Facebook, a social networking site where they said their spirit was not crushed by rubber pellets.
One can easily recall that, shortly before his retirement from the army,  Collins’s tenure as Chief of Staff was marred by the fact that a number of  high-powered weapons, including AK-47s,had mysteriously disappeared during his watch, some of which have still not been recovered.
Meanwhile, a 10-year-old school boy was also injured yesterday, when police fired the rubber bullets just outside the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) headquarters on Brickdam and Winter Place, Georgetown.
Among the others injured were APNU Executive Lurlene Nestor and former PNCR Parliamentarian Joan Beveghems, both of whom were subsequently treated at the Georgetown Public Hospital and sent away.
Others injured and treated at the hospital were  Joel Hill Mathis 10; Brentnol Holder, 61; Sarah Johnson, 75; Lurlene Mingo, 58; Gary Morris, 35; Celeste Mc Rae, 35; Kathy Nurse, 35; and Alana George, 32, a mother of three.
Some of the injured persons claimed they were walking peacefully down the road, holding hands in solidarity, when they were confronted by police ranks who ordered them to get off the road, or they (the police) would “do what they have to do.”
The  protesters said that the next thing they knew is that the police had begun ‘spraying them with (rubber) pellets’.
Mayor of Georgetown, Hamilton Green, on learning of this development, hurried down to the hospital.
Moments later, on leaving the hospital compound, Mayor Green appeared on CNS Television Channel Six, where he condemned the police action.

KIDS TRAUMATISED:
After the police managed to disperse the crowd yesterday morning, several vehicles parked on the tarmac of Square of the Revolution were towed away. A few vendors in the area at the time  were also asked to pack-up and leave as the police maintained their presence, urging persons in the vicinity to go about their normal business.
At St. Sidwell’s Primary School, teachers desperately tried to calm scores of frightened children, whose parents were yet to collect them from the school.
Classes were disrupted as the police fired tear gas into the crowd in an effort to break it up yesterday morning and it affected some of the children, including a teacher.
Head Teacher of the school, Donna Morgan, said the children were vomiting, obviously ill from the tear gas, while others were crying and afraid and traumatised.
Meanwhile, next door, Agape Academy for Little learners, which houses children between the ages of three months to three years were also affected by the tear gas; some were loudly crying while others were taken away by their parents.
Lots of abandoned food was evident in the building as the teachers there tried to cope with the distressed children.
Up to yesterday afternoon, the police maintained their presence at the Square of the Revolution and prevented persons from assembling there.

GHRA
Meanwhile, the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA), has issued a statement denouncing what it termed the “use of excessive force” by the police on a crowd of APNU supporters, saying peaceful protest is a right and not a priviledge.
Providing its own version of what happened yesterday, the GHRA stated that, shortly after the marchers headed down Brickdam, they were diverted into Hadfield Street “where a Tactical Service platoon fired pellet-filled cartridges to stop them.”
It claimed that while the volley of shots was pointed at the roadway, a large number of persons, among whom were children and elderly women, were taken to hospital for treatment from pellet wounds to all parts of their bodies, but predominantly legs and feet.  The human rights body said the shooting caused the marchers to scatter back in the direction of Cuffy Square, from where a large number of police officers then dispersed them.
According to GHRA, there are conflicting versions as to whether permission for the march had been granted, but said that regardless of the legality, “the march was peaceful” and could have been contained by a lesser use of force.
“There is no evidence or allegation that the Tactical Service was attacked by the marchers and its deployment in this instance must be condemned,” GHRA said.
GHRA said the seeming “intolerance for protest” which culminated in yesterday morning’s events is an extension of the fixation on peace rather than fairness which had characterised  elections-related activities.
“This attitude evolved into undisguised impatience with all protest action which might interfere with business, regardless of its validity (and) this posture, notably encouraged by the leadership of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), risks culminating in criminalising all public protest,” the GHRA posited.