The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in East Africa. Over the course of approximately 100 days, from April 6 through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate. Estimates of the death toll have ranged from 500,000–1,000,000, or as much as 20% of the country’s total population.
The primary responsibility for the killings themselves rests with two Hutu militias that had been organised for this purpose by political parties: the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi, although once the genocide was underway a great number of Hutu civilians took part in the murders.
The Rwandan radio station, which broadcast from July 8, 1993 to July 31, 1994, played a significant role during the April–July 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Widely listened to by the general population, it projected racist propaganda against Tutsis, moderate Hutus, Belgians, and the United Nations mission UNAMIR. It is widely regarded as having played a crucial role in creating the atmosphere of charged racial hostility that allowed the genocide to occur.
Does the above ring a bell?
A press statement from the Guyana Press Association, issued by President of the GPA, Mr. Gordon Moseley, seeks to invest into the contents of a press release issued by the People’s Progressive Party non-existent ‘threats.’
This individual would do well to articulate how highlighting instances where individuals, inclusive of members of the media, engage in behaviour which serves to divide our people could be construed as attempts to intimidate persons. It would appear that he has now adopted an anti-journalist stance and is advocating that such transgressions be swept under the carpet and should never be highlighted.
By extension, he is apparently advocating that such unbecoming behaviour must be allowed to continue, as it is interesting that taking into consideration the concerns expressed by the People’s Progressive Party in its release, not one section of the Guyana Press Association’s statement by Mr. Moseley was dedicated towards reassuring Guyanese of the GPA’s and Mr. Moseley’s commitment to play their part in promoting racial unity in Guyana. It is also hoped that all stakeholders, including the regional and international community, take cognisance of the fact that the GPA has termed statements by the PPP as ‘baseless accusations against members of the Private Media’ and attempts to intimidate private and independent journalists, yet Demerara Waves, which is operated by a former President of the Guyana Press Association has stated that ‘it shall not be responding to those accusations at this time’, in relation to the fact that it allowed someone in the comments section of one of its story to make a post calling for attacks against a particular ethnic group in Guyana.
Sadly, this did not appear serious enough to warrant the concern of the Guyana Press Association and its President Gordon Moseley, whose Facebook posts on July 19 and 20, at the height of the protests and ensuing chaos in Linden, where he was providing constant updates and during which he is reported to have made the racially insensitive posts, have now miraculously disappeared from his account following the PPP Press Release. In light of this fact, it appears that Mr. Moseley is now denying that following the unfortunate deaths of three protestors in Linden,he, as GPA President on July 19 2012, fully aware of the racially charged environment at the time, and as was highlighted in the party’s release, shockingly decided to make a comparison between the Linden situation and the way the police dealt with protestors in Albion a few years ago, during which he stated that the area is a PPP stronghold and claimed that protestors there had burned a police station and then he incorrectly stated that no one was killed at Albion, as opposed to what transpired in Linden.
Although he was wrong on both fronts in his allegations of the Albion protest, it is interesting that Mr. Moseley only now chose to attack the PPP, despite mention being made of the very incident involving him in the Guyana Chronicle close to two weeks ago.
Based on these glaring revelations, it is now clear that Mr. Moseley is not interested in pursuing the facts and transgressions of certain individuals in the society, who were and are directly responsible for the many incidents in Guyana where opposition-led ‘peaceful protests’, through incendiary agitation of their supporters using various ploys, degenerated into wanton destruction of private and public properties, loss of lives, and a derailment of national development. It is worthy of note that a responsible press association would have ascertained the facts before rushing to issue such a brash, illogical and insensitive response as characterised by that of Mr. Moseley.
It is time that responsible journalists stand up and take back their profession in Guyana, knowing that while they must hold the ruling party and government accountable, this also should apply to all others in society, including themselves and their colleagues.
It is this simple message of responsibility by the leadership in the government that the GPA President Gordon Moseley is trying to maliciously and erroneously construe as an attack on private media.
The opposition, in collaboration with private media practitioners, riled up the Lindeners to begin a protest that they were aware, as the Chronicle warned, would escalate into criminal actions, which was their intent, as always – and there is great suspicion as to who really caused the deaths of the three Linden protesters, because these deaths suit the time and history-proven agenda of the opposition. Certainly, the government could and would not wish such an eventuality for fear of consequencing just such actions as precipitated by these deaths.
What is happening in Linden is to be blamed squarely on the AFC and PNCR/APNU leadership, and on their satellites in the NGOs and private media, which displayed absolutely no sense of responsibility nor remorse over what they had foreknowledge would occur subsequent to their inflammatory rhetoric as they, as one AFC leader put it, continued to “rile up” the members of that community.
There are many villages in rural areas that have many pressing needs in various areas that they consider of vital importance, where in some instances roads are impassable and youths have no recreational facilities and so get into bad practices; as well as a security dilemma that causes sleepless nights as people have to stay awake in turns, fearful of the predatory armed bandits rampaging all over the country, with no one knowing when again they will strike or who will be their next victim, as in the case that caused the protest in Albion.
Yet, Lindeners whose roads are paved, drainage and irrigation concerns addressed to the optimum, whose needs the government has been continually trying to meet in various ways and forms since 1992, subsidising practically everything in that community, especially with the provision of free electricity that provides them with no motivation to conserve, resulting in that tiny community consuming in excess of three times the amount of electricity used by the entire rest of the country, can destroy all the facilities, private and public property, rob, assault and victimise law-abiding citizens and attack ranks of the police force; and at the end be rewarded with even more goodies.
After years of a large chunk of the national budget going to subsidise free electricity for Lindeners, which started when that community was really depressed, and much infusion of resources in other ways to upgrade the lives and living conditions of the residents of that town, the government felt it was time to regularise the electricity rates and gradually bring it in line with those being paid throughout the rest of the country.
The rates proposed was no real increase up to a usage of 50 kilowatts; and many persons in the rest of the country use less than that on a monthly basis. Any usage additional to that would incur a rate of $50 per kilowatt, which is still much less that the rate paid by the average consumer. This, as a start was basically a mechanism to encourage conservation, because if there was no wastage then their bill would still have been negligible; but their protest was to ensure that there are no limitations placed on their consumption, which is unsustainable for a country such as Guyana. No country in the world, not even the most developed countries, provides free electricity to its citizens, because there are tremendous cost factors that no economy can absorb and sustain.
The shooting incident that followed is highly suspect, given the PNC’s history of strategising violence in this country, with destroyed lives of supporters being considered by all opposition leaders as “collateral damage”.
Yet, in spite of the government’s many concessions, among which is the restoration of free and unlimited use of electricity to Linden, along with other goodies, the atrocities being committed by the Linden ‘protesters’ continue unabated, and have even escalated, as have the demands being made on government.  The rules of engagement are changed daily by the joint opposition.
The actions of the opposition protesters, which destroyed private and public properties, are causing much suffering and loss to hinterland communities and the business community, driving the national economy into a downward spiral, and great trauma to Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese supporters of the PPP/C who live in that community; and Phillip Bynoe has now become the latest victim, like Buxtonian Idris Chester was, as voices of reason and conscience are being silenced.
It is against this backdrop that the PPP calls on all Guyanese to condemn the actions of these individuals who are seeking to destroy all our hard work as a people, all our achievements to bridge what has served to divide us in the past, every single perception which we have worked to dispel and all the gains we have made in racial harmony are now at stake, because of the misguided and reckless actions of a few.
The party wishes to state that much has been made by these elements, especially racial connotations about the fact that senior officials of the PPP/C Government has not visited the scene of the protests.
The public, however, needs to be reminded that not one of these individuals condemned their colleagues in the AFC and APNU for encouraging the protestors in the early stages of threatening to kill the Prime Minister of Guyana, Hon. Samuel Hinds, as was clearly spelt out on one of their placards during a demonstration.
Despite this fact, Prime Minister Hinds, who is responsible for the electricity sector, journeyed to Linden where his visit was rebuffed at the instigation of the opposition through the protestors.
It is most surprising that even the opposition has now turned around and is questioning government for not visiting the scene of the protests and, at the same time, they are supporting the continuation of the actions of the extremist fringe who are blocking the various access roads to Linden and also vital roadways inside the community itself, the digging up of roads and placing of logs across roads to halt any traffic, the attacks and robbery of persons attempting to navigate their way either to the capital city or back to the hinterland or the extortion of some for safe passage through the township.
The PPP has however noted that the large majority of Lindeners do not support the actions of the protestors led by the APNU Regional Chairman Sharma Solomon, and against this backdrop fully supports the growing calls, the latest being from the Private Sector Commission for the Joint Services, to clear all obstacles hindering the smooth and safe passage of persons and vehicles inside the community as the current situation is not in keeping with a ‘peaceful demonstration.’ The party also supports the decision of President Donald Ramotar to visit and engage with Lindeners when these blockades would have been removed.
This is not the first occasion Lindeners have voiced concerns over various issues and Guyanese would recall in the past, that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic Government has been more than willing to interact and work along meaningfully with the mining town to address their concerns.
The party reaffirms its commitment to the people of Linden through its policies and programmes at the level of central government as with every other community in Guyana to constantly and consistently work to improve the standard of living of all our people.”