SPEAKING on Monday prior to the appearance of Kwame McCoy, Jason Abdulla and Sean Hinds in the Georgetown Magistrates Court to answer a charge of unlawful assault committed on him back in 2010, newspaper columnist, activist, and fierce critic of the former PPP government, Freddie Kissoon, told journalists that politically sanctioned violence and murders threaten the civilization of a society.Kissoon called on the Guyana Police Force to reopen investigations into cases in which activists and other persons were either assaulted or murdered under the previous government.

He said the appearance of the trio in court on Monday for throwing faeces on him could not be compared to injustices against persons like Mark Benschop (who was charged for treason and later freed), Ronald Waddell, Courtney Crum-Ewing (both political activists who were killed) and the Munroes (the Army major and his wife, who were charged with treason).

Kissoon said that the relatives and children of those persons suffered tremendously as a result of the assaults and injustices meted out to them; and he considers himself fortunate, since he is around today to see justice being served in his favour.

He said that the charges of the three go beyond him, but should be seen as a step towards justice for Crum-Ewing and the other persons he identified.

“Political violence threatens civilization, and political violence and murders ordered by politicians and violence perpetrated by ruling political parties are the biggest problems facing society and (have) always been facing society,” Kissoon said.

He said he is of the view that in the countries where those things occur, historic justice needs to be served not only to the immediate victims, but also to their children and families.
Freddie Kissoon also called for the police to reopen the probe into the assault that he suffered back in 2012, when the person who attacked him ran away and boarded a black SUV which was later found to be registered to a serving Assistant Commissioner of Police back then.

McCoy was once Information Officer for Presidents Donald Ramotar and Bharrat Jagdeo; Abdulla was once McCoy’s personal Assistant at the then Office of the President; while Hinds, a self-confessed death squad member, is perceived to be a PPP supporter.