THE Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the July 18, 2012 events at Linden has exculpated Home Affairs Minister  Clement Rohee of any wrongdoing.

In its report handed over to President Donald Ramotar on Thursday, the Commissioners said: “There was no evidence given, at the hearings before the Commission, to support the assertion that the minister gave instructions to the Guyana Police Force (GPF) in relation to the incident in Linden on July 18, other than testimony from the minister, that he gave a general direction, on July 17, 2012 to the Commissioner, that he should take all lawful steps to maintain law and order in Linden.”
The Commission, headed by former Jamaica Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe, also found that, from all accounts, the acts of violence and destruction that immediately followed the shootings were committed by unidentified protestors and that, while the police action may be questionable, it was justified.
The CoI has recommended several millions of dollars in damages to the families of the dead and injured, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), as well as persons who lost properties in the ensuing mayhem.
No compensation was recommended for the destroyed LINMINE Secretariat, owned by National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) on behalf of the Government of Guyana.
The Commissioners said, while Lindeners had applied to the appropriate regional police authority for permission to stage a five-day protest against the electricity tariff adjustment, “the evidence revealed that the conditions were breached and therein was the birth of the ensuing problems.”

CLEARLY ESTABLISHED
“It has been clearly established that the Wismar/Mackenzie Bridge was blocked at several points both by persons and foreign materials such as logs and that persons going about their lawful business were unlawfully denied access to the bridge and some were set upon and beaten,” the compilation said.
The CoI said the police, in the prevailing circumstances, “had the obligation imposed, by law, to prevent that unlawful action from taking place and/or continuing.”
In reference to A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Desmond Trotman’s stubborn refusal to accept that the protesters had resorted to unlawful means to carry out what would otherwise have been a lawful endeavour, the Commissioners declared: “The justice of a cause seldom, if ever, justifies a breach of the Constitution and, certainly, in this situation, we are of the view that, whilst we empathise with the citizens, resorting to unlawful means could not have been condoned by the police.”

REAL NEED
Stating that the police shooting, in those conditions, was justified, the commissioners lamented what they said “appears to be a real need for training in crisis management…things were allowed to happen rather than preventing things from happening…There is a need for better coordinated planning of operations of this nature.”
The report said attacks on the police ranks by unidentified protestors did not involve firearms “although there is evidence of (Assistant Superintendent Patrick) Todd hearing what sounded like gunshots.
“These sounds did not come from the crowd in the immediate vicinity of the bridge,” the compendium said.
The Commissioners said that, had the police been provided with riot shields, there would have been no need to discharge shotguns.
Todd had testified that he discharged several shotgun rounds in an attempt to ward off the crowd and the report said, even though using the shotgun, he discharged a round into the ground to take off the velocity to scare and chase the protesters who were gathered, this was fraught with danger.”
The Commissioners maintained that discharging a shotgun is hardly the way to “scare” persons and ought never to have been used in the circumstances.
They said, as it transpired, several persons were shot, some multiple times resulting in various degrees of injury as shown from the medical certificates which were tendered in evidence.
The commissioners have said “there is no evidence that one shot was discharged at a specific human target who was pelting the police with an object capable of causing death or serious injury…The shots were fired randomly causing injury to whoever was in the path.”
The Commissioners concluded that “even if the use of the shotgun was reasonable and we do not conclude that it was, it cannot be that it is used negligently or recklessly.”

WAS JUSTIFIED
“Nonetheless, the discharge of ammunition itself by the police in the circumstances described by ASP Todd, was justified having regard to the fact that the police were confronted by a very hostile crowd and there was no clear intention on the part of the police to kill or cause injury to anyone…The apparent intention was to scare the protestors into removing from the bridge,” the CoI reported.
The Commissioners stated, definitively however, that, “we believe that the police were responsible for the shooting to death of the three persons as well as the injuries caused to several other persons at Linden on July 18, 2012, as there is no evidence that anyone else had a firearm which was discharged.”
They added: “It seems to us that ASP Todd was somewhat reckless when he discharged four rounds of ammunition in the direction of the Mackenzie/Wismar Bridge when there were hundreds of persons on the bridge and in the vicinity thereof.”
Also addressing what is a perceived political stranglehold on the GPF by the ruling Administration, the Commissioners said: “There was no concrete evidence before us to substantiate that view.”
Other members of the Commission were another Jamaican, Mr. K.D. Knight, Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal of Trinidad and Tobago and Justices Cecil Kennard and Claudette Singh of Guyana.