Special Report on the Rodney Commission of Inquiry by Shaun Michael Samaroo

McLean and Lewis instructed Smith to kill Rodney

– Says Gates

DEEPER, darker details of why Guyana’s development nosedived under the Government of the People’s National Congress (PNC) emerged yesterday at the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry.

The Inquiry heard of sinister plans of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) to execute a coup against the dictatorship government of the PNC, and the draconian response of the authoritarian State to assassinate the leaders

of the WPA.
Deep, dark undercurrents of political intrigue, deception and lies, betrayals and double agent espionage unfolded as controversial witness, Robert Allan Gates, wrapped up four days of testimony before the Commission.
Even as the country struggles today to overcome those decades of political strangulation of its development, Gates told the Commission how Guyana was caught in a vicious political drama back then, when leaders of the opposition party, the WPA, mobilised arms and ammunition, and planned to topple the dictatorship PNC Government through an armed political coup, and arrest Head of State Forbes Burnham.
Gates told the Commission that co-leader of the WPA, Dr. Rupert Roopnarine, spoke to him of the WPA’s plan to seize Army headquarters at Camp Ayangana in Georgetown, commandeer all communication centres in the country, and arrest then-Prime Minister Burnham.

‘In its effort to stop the WPA from executing its own dark political coup to rid Guyana of the PNC dictatorship, the State used the Guyana Police Force, Guyana Defence Force, Gates, Smith and even a mystery foreign espionage agent from the Russian KGB secret service, to plan and assassinate Dr Rodney. Guyana’s development suffered grave damage as this political drama played out, and Guyanese suffer from the impact to this day, with Gates noting that he is in poverty and destitution, even after operating two businesses and playing a key top role in security and law enforcement in this country’

The WPA,with Dr. Walter Rodney, Eusi Kwayana and Roopnarine as leaders, planned to topple the PNC Government, which had rigged national elections since 1964, through the political coup, for which the WPA was accumulating arms and ammunition, Gates said. In earlier testimony, Kwayana denied personal knowledge of plans for violence within the WPA.

The Commission is probing why Dr Walter Rodney was assassinated in Georgetown on June 13, 1980, which event ranks as the worst political assassination in the history of the English-speaking Caribbean. The world-famous scholar died when a bomb exploded in his lap as he sat in his car.
Under hostile cross-examination from Counsel for the PNC, Basil Williams, Gates detailed how the WPA and Roopnarine were training and planning to topple the PNC dictatorship.
Gates told Williams that he trained Roopnarine to use a sub-machine gun, firing live rounds at training sessions on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean in Corentyne, Berbice. Gates said he and Roopnarine travelled to the house of Arnold Rampersaud in Berbice when those training sessions happened.
He also accompanied Roopnarine to “several” places in Georgetown to collect ammunition, Gates said, noting that the source of arms and ammunition was the Guyana Defence Force (GDF).
Gates said the dictatorship PNC Government was wary and scared of the WPA and Dr Rodney, because of Rodney’s immense national popularity, and because the WPA had infiltrated and recruited sympathisers and members among top Army and Police ranks.
The sympathising soldiers supplied the WPA with guns and ammunition, Gates said.
Under cross-examination from Williams, Gates said the State “had a right” to defend itself, after the burning of a key PNC building and the Ministry of National Development. WPA leaders, including Rodney and Roopnarine, were charged with arson for those acts, but the case was dismissed for lack of evidence, Gates said.
In response to the grave WPA threat, Gates said the State of the PNC dictatorship conspired with the top brass of the Guyana Police Force, through Cecil ‘Skip’ Roberts and Laurie Lewis, and the Army through Major General (ret’d) Norman McLean, to assassinate the WPA leaders.

‘Even as the country struggles today to overcome those decades of political strangulation of its development, Gates told the Commission how Guyana was caught in a vicious political drama then, when leaders of the opposition party, the WPA, mobilized arms and ammunition and planned to topple the dictatorship PNC Government through the armed political coup, and arrest Head of State Forbes Burnham’

“Dr Rodney was the prime target,” Gates said. The target list also included Roopnarine.
Gates detailed how McLean and Roberts spearheaded an Intelligence team that recruited himself and his “countryman”, Gregory Smith, a notorious Army officer, to assassinate Dr Rodney and Dr Roopnarine.
Smith and Gates grew up together in the idyllic Sand Hills community along the Berbice River, and agreed to exchange intelligence, once they recognised that they were working on the WPA project as undercover double agents for the PNC dictatorship Government.
Gates told the Commission how he himself worked as Police intelligence, and infiltrated the WPA as bodyguard and spy for Dr Roopnarine. He spied on Roopnarine, supplying information to his handler at Police headquarters and Laurie Lewis, who was head of a Joint Forces Intelligence secret unit that gathered information for the PNC dictatorship. The Intelligence Unit gathered information on perceived enemies of the State.
On the other hand, Smith worked as double agent for the Army, tasked with shadowing Dr Rodney, and also as undercover double agent for Rodney, trading information back and forth between the Army, reporting to McLean, and Rodney.
Gates said, “Smith told me that McLean instructed him to kill Rodney.” He said the KGB agent supplied him and Smith with electronic communication devices packed with explosives. Upon the devices exploding, the targets would be instantly killed. Both he and Smith were promised they would be paid $1 million, and be assured safe passage for themselves and family out of the country.
Gates said he refused to execute orders from his Police handler to assassinate Roopnarine, and instead escaped to his home village, Sand Hills. However, Smith carried out his mission, resulting in the brutal death of Dr Rodney.
The Commission, comprising Barbadian Sir Richard Cheltenham as Chairman, and Trinidadian Seenath Jairam and Jamaican Jacqueline Samuel-Brown, yesterday engaged in verbal exchanges with Counsel Williams, who, in his cross-examination of Gates, sought to show that Gates lacks credibility.
Williams suggested to Gates that “someone” had cajoled and enticed him to testify at the Commission, and put to him that his testimony amounted to lies and untruths. But Gates stood his ground and denied Williams’ suggestion.
At one point, Commissioner Samuel-Brown had to interject over Williams’ harsh tone to state that the Commission is professional and credible, and would not entertain the cajoling or enticing of witnesses. He made it clear that the Commission’s integrity should not be in question.
Williams said to Gates that he was set up to testify at the Commission to “finger” current Opposition leaders in a political plot to discredit those leaders.
Williams was referring to the fact that many of the names that come up before the Commission are members of the Opposition in Parliament, including Opposition Leader David Granger and Members of Parliament Winston Felix, a former Police Commissioner, and Dr Roopnarine. Williams himself heard his name mentioned in Gates’ testimony, and he referred to this yesterday, suggesting to Gates that he just wanted to discredit these members of the Parliamentary Opposition. Gates denied this.
The PNC has distanced itself from the work of the Commission, alleging that it’s a political ploy to discredit PNC Opposition leaders.
But President Donald Ramotar convened the Commission as a Presidential Commission to probe into the cause of Dr Rodney’s death. The Commission results from a process that took 34 years to come to fruition. Dr Rodney’s widow, Patricia, and his three children, have welcomed the Commission’s probe. Academics and scholars around the world also welcomed the convening of the Commission.
Williams acts as Counsel for the PNC, and serves as Opposition Member of Parliament alongside WPA co-leader, Dr Roopnarine, and former Army Chief, Brigadier David Granger.
Gates named these personalities in his testimony at the Commission, painting a picture of Guyana during the period under probe, 1978 – 1980, as a place of dictatorial disregard for due process and law and order, including the State.
Williams noted that the Guyana Police Force had to set up the Special Branch to handle an escalation in crime then, “including kick-down-the-door bandits” who ravaged the homes of Guyanese citizens. Gates had said that the Special Branch operated an Execution Branch that assassinated “25 to 30 citizens”.
Commissioner Jairam, who asked Gates if “Guyana had no law and order in those days,” noted that Gates’ details of the period in his testimony showed a disregard for judicial process. But Gates said the dictatorship PNC Government deeply feared the WPA and Dr Rodney, and so Police and Army intelligence revealed the WPA leaders had to be assassinated. “It was kill or be killed,” Gates said.
Currently serving a four-year jail term at the Camp Street jail for financial crimes which he has appealed at the High Court, Gates denied that he “cut a deal” with the Commission to testify, noting that he goes straight to his jail cell after his testimony, and denying Williams’ suggestion that he was released from jail surreptitiously because he came forward as a witness.
The Commission has so far heard of the dark era of Guyana’s history, comprising rigged elections, political harassment and assassinations, banned food and clandestine PNC Government liaison with a notorious religious cult.
Gates’ testimony painted a vivid, clear picture of why the Guyana national economy, along with the democratic organs and State institutions collapsed under the weight of the PNC’s autocratic Government.
In its effort to stop the WPA from executing its own dark political coup to rid Guyana of the PNC dictatorship, the State used the Guyana Police Force, Guyana Defence Force, Gates, Smith and even a mystery foreign espionage agent from the Russian KGB secret service to plan and assassinate Dr Rodney.
Guyana’s development suffered grave damage as this political drama played out, and Guyanese suffer from the impact to this day, with Gates noting that he is in poverty and destitution, even after operating two businesses and playing a key top role in security and law enforcement in this country.
Gates told Williams during cross-examination that he now lives “as a Christian” and wants to cleanse his soul and be free. “The truth shall set you free,” he said.
Through the Commission’s probe of why this country suffered so much that its citizens, including brilliant scholar and historian Dr Rodney, were assassinated by the dictatorship PNC State, Guyana hopes its own soul would be cleansed, and the truth of its sordid history would set it free to build its future.