Witnesses testify to brutality of dictatorial PNC regime

THE Commission of Inquiry into the death of Dr. Walter Rodney continues today at the Supreme Court in Georgetown.The COI began sitting on Monday and since then witnesses have testified to the dictatorial People’s National Congress regime which former Working People’s Alliance member, Karen DeSouza said was responsible for Dr. Rodney’s death.
At later sittings, other persons testified to the brutalising of persons whose politics were not PNC-oriented.
Reverend Reuben Gilbert told the COI that he was physically brutalised because of his politics, and that former President Forbes Burnham had seen to it that he was not employed at any state agency in the country.
Earlier, Karen deSouza testified that on hearing that Dr. Rodney had been killed, her initial reaction was that he had finally been killed by the PNC.
And the eldest Rodney sibling, Lawrence Rodney, 73, told the COI that members of the House of Israel were used by the PNC to break up WPA and PPP meetings, while the police just stood by and looked on, never lifting a finger to stop this outrage. The House of Israel acolytes would beat up WPA and PPP supporters, throw bricks at the speakers and cut wires.
Dr. Rodney was assassinated in the city in a car on Friday, June 13, 1980, when a device held in his lap exploded.