CONFRONTED with tales of his legacy, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has said that he is supportive of a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into “troubled times” which unfolded during his presidency (1999-2011).
“…we are opened to it. The President can name whatever CoI he wants to. He has been doing this liberally. I don’t know what’s preventing him from doing this, because he has full discretion,” Jagdeo said at a Wednesday afternoon press conference.
The Opposition Leader reminded reporters of a promised CoI into what President David Granger described as “troubled times,” and shared that it would be “interesting” if the President actually pursues this promise.
“We’ve heard him promise the CoI and it would interesting because, maybe he should pursue it if he really wants to know the truth,” the Opposition Leader charged.
During his address to Parliament in October of last year, the President told Members of Parliament (MPs) of the descent of this country during the Bharrat Jagdeo era, describing it as the “darkest hour” that was characterised by drug-driven chaos and bloodshed.
During Jagdeo’s 12-year rule, there were three bloody massacres: at Lusignan where 11 people were killed; Bartica, where another 12 were killed; and Lindo Creek where seven miners were ruthlessly slaughtered. In addition to that, there were countless extra-judicial killings – with some activists estimating that around 400 Afro Guyanese males were gunned down and many still missing.

Between 2003 and 2006, it is believed that convicted drug-trafficker, Shaheed Roger Khan, had set up a criminal network which included active policemen and a number of former ranks, ostensibly to go after criminals, while protecting his narco-trafficking interests.
He was nabbed in neighbouring Suriname in 2006 while fleeing local police, and was later handed over to U.S. authorities. Although the PPP government had sought to distance itself from Khan, the drug-trafficker had stated publicly in an advertisement in local newspapers that he had been fighting crime on behalf of the Jagdeo-led government.
And according to the President in his October address: “The most unforgettable experiences and most frightening evidence of our descent into chaos were the bloody, drug-driven, decade-long ‘troubles’.”
He offered that “the troubles” will be remembered as the “darkest hour in our history”. He told the MPs that during the first “deadly decade,” there were 1,317 murders and 7, 865 armed robberies.
A few months after assuming office in May 2015, President Granger shared his government’s intention to probe the large number of persons who died during that period. In 2012, as the then Leader of the Opposition, Granger drafted a motion which sought to investigate, among other things, the killing of Agriculture Minister Satyadeow Sawh and the massacres at Lusignan, Bartica and Lindo Creek. The PPP and the other opposition party, the Alliance for Change (AFC) had called for an extension of the time period referenced in the motion which caused it to be deferred.
But the President has said that he remains committed to pursuing a thorough probe of the activities during those years. Earlier this year, the Head of State noted that government was in the process of gathering evidence to conduct the probe, but that there was some amount of difficulty in that area.

“We are working on the evidence…It is still a commitment to the mothers of the children who either disappeared or died. We are collecting information, not in a formal way but some information has to be collected from various sources because many of the actual eyewitnesses have been killed during the troubles.”
And while Jagdeo welcomes the move, he hopes that it would not be “shut down” as was the case with the CoI into the death of Dr. Walter Rodney.
“We’ve heard him [the President] promise the CoI and it would interesting because, maybe he should pursue it if he really wants to know the truth; and that it would not be shut down like the Walter Rodney one when there’s an adverse findings about the role of many people in Parliament now; many of our current leaders in government played in the troubled times,” the Opposition Leader said.