OF course Ms. Ann Wagner, as the sister of main suspect in the bomb-blast assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney, would refute everyone else’s account of the events prior to, and the actual occurrence of Walter Rodney’s assassination, which she did as she took to the witness stand in the inquiry commission’s endeavour to exorcise, once and for all, the tragedy of Walter Rodney’s death and to give his family and the nation a semblance of closure of that tragic event.In her attempts to clear her brother’s name in a book and at the Commission, she refuted the account of Donald Rodney about the events of Friday June 13, 1980, that simultaneously killed what Burnham perceived as a threat to his seat of power – Walter Rodney, and the relationship between Dr. Cheddi Jagan and the young and charismatic pan-Africanist, both of whom were militating for a restoration of a democratic culture in the nation after decades under an oppressive, suppressive dictatorial regime.

Dr. Rodney’s brother, Donald Rodney, was the only eyewitness to Walter’s murder by bomb blast, and he related, as he concluded his testimony as star witness at the Commission on Monday, that he had to flee Guyana after he escaped the assassination, because he “feared death by the dictatorship”.

Certainly he and his famous brother were not the only victim of the PNC’s atrocities, as has been documented in this nation’s history; and it was only his good fortune that saved his life that fateful June morning.

He listened stoically as Wagner’s testimony sought to establish her brother as a victim of the Rodneys and circumstances rather than the infamous assassin of the budding hope of a beleaguered and oppressed nation, but cross-examination and prior testimonies of credible witnesses gainsay her second-hand account of Gregory Smith’s involvement in Rodney’s death and lay the blame squarely at his feet; or rather, in his allegedly blood-stained hands.

The Rodney Commission of Inquiry is probing the death of the famous, accomplished and charismatic historian and human rights activist, Dr. Walter Rodney, and the revelations emerging as to the events that transpired during the regime of the dictatorship is informing the world of the darkest period in Guyana’s history.
Smith never attempted to clear his name through the justice system, except through his sister’s account of his version of the tragedy in a book she wrote from conversations they had; and it is understandable that Wagner would today attempt to clear his name to the Commission and the world by relating what her brother told her.

The only problem is that Walter Rodney’s brother was there and Gregory Smith’s sister was not there. So Donald Rodney is providing a first-hand account of the event while Wagner is testifying on hearsay from an account given to her by the person with vested interests – the alleged perpetrator of the most famous political assassination in the Caribbean.