Dear Editor,

THE Guyana Rice Producers Association (RPA) is outraged at the wave of attacks targeting the farming community generally, and the rice farmers specifically.The first assault on rice farmers was the reneging by the government of a multiplicity of pre-election promises, which are now perceived as a ploy to win the votes of the farming community. This was followed by the scandalous imbroglio of sole-sourcing of fertilizer using the farmers’ own money as a payoff for political favours.

Then, seemingly in efforts to decelerate the unprecedented strides the industry has made during the last administration, the government rescinded the former government’s waiver of VAT for heavy-duty capital equipment and imposed on the millers increased licensing fees for mills, costs which redounded to the beleaguered rice farmers.

Rice farmers are a hard-working and hardy lot, and they have sustained Guyana’s food security for generations. The Munirs were no exception. Like most members of the farming community, they worked since their childhood to better their circumstances, and today, when they should be enjoying the fruits of their laborious life and great sacrifices, they have been deprived of their lives in the most brutal fashion – being burnt alive, with no hope of help, in their own home by psychopathic predators who feel entitled to wrest by force the fruits of the hard work of others.

The RPA family is mourning this great and tragic loss in the rice-farming community, and is especially outraged at the most brutal manner in which this helpless elderly couple, who had barricaded themselves in a strong room for protection, were set ablaze by the beasts who were intent on murder.

It is public knowledge that the Munirs had never kept money or any valuables in their home, and conjecture is that some motivation other than robbery is driving the crime wave that is targeting this particular community across the country.

The RPA demands that the Security Minister take urgent and committed steps to find the perpetrators and protect the farming community and general populace from such murderous attacks in their own homes and in the society at large.
On behalf of the RPA family, and on my own behalf, condolences are being extended to the surviving relatives and friends of the Munirs, even as outrage is expressed at this heinous act perpetrated against the Munir family.

DHARAMKUMAR SEERAJ
General Secretary, RPA