IN the wake of the violence and mayhem unleashed on innocent Guyanese during the October 11 and 15, 2012 opposition-orchestrated Agricola unrest, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) said it is “alarmed at the silence” of the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) and its failure to condemn the organisers and their protesters for the denial of persons’ human rights.

“Hundreds of Guyanese citizens were attacked, robbed, beaten and suffered damage to their properties and, perhaps most importantly, denied / said in a statement on Thursday.
The governing party is calling on the GHRA to “remove its muzzle” where the Agricola unrest victims are concerned and condemn the actions of the protestors and those who had instigated and organised them.
According to the PPP/C, the public records easily identify the instigators, Alliance For Change (AFC) Chairman Mr. Nigel Hughes and its Vice Chairman, Mr. Moses Nagamootoo who, in their reckless utterances, alerted the nation to their intention to create mayhem.
The PPP/C is also calling on the GHRA to establish an ‘Agricola Victims’ desk where it can document the attacks on citizens by those protestors and their instigators.
Meanwhile, hours after the PPP issued its statement chiding the GHRA on its ‘alarming silence’, the human rights body issued a response in which it said Guyana needs a politics of mutual confidence and not one driven by distrust.
“The ruling party’s criticism of the GHRA silence on Agricola is puzzling since the media outlets it controls, namely the Guyana Chronicle and NCN TV  have not published any GHRA press releases for several years. Indeed, the PPP could not even take the trouble to send a copy of its release to the GHRA,” it countered.
The GHRA said condemning the violence by the lawless elements who took over the Agricola protest can be done readily, as is  commending the police for the manner in which they handled intense provocation.  “The GHRA does both without reservation. How to characterise the behaviour of the political parties most involved in the Agricola events, however, is what contributed to a delayed response on the part of the GHRA,” it stated.
“Our political culture is dominated by political parties to a degree unprecedented in the English-speaking Caribbean in that individual politicians are accountable to no one except their leaders and the leaders are accountable only to themselves,” the GHRA posited.
It argues that, at no point are politicians constrained in their speech or their actions by the knowledge that at some point they must personally account to electors. According to the GHRA, one is constantly shocked by the energy devoted by Guyanese politicians to contaminating, in various despicable ways, all the relationships within communities by exploiting vulnerabilities, particularly manipulating ethnicity.
The GHRA also suggested that “the most effective form of satisfaction of both victims and citizens, in general, would be for the government to bring charges against  at least  some perpetrators of the assaults in Agricola”.