…first round of inquiry to deal with specific issues

BY February 1, the first of a series of inquiries into the extra-judicial killings that occurred during 2002-2009, will commence, according to Minister of State Joseph Harmon.
Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle on Monday on the sideline of the swearing-in-ceremony of Land Surveyors, Minister Harmon confirmed that a Commission of Inquiry will be launched this week, focusing on a particular incident or period within the period of the crime wave. “We cannot of course do one inquiry to cover all of them at the same time, so we might very well be dealing with individual issues as we go along. So during the course of this week, [or] by the end of this week, we will launch an inquiry into one period of the killings and you can rest assured that by the 1st of February that work will commence on this inquiry,” Minister Harmon explained.

He emphasised that it is important that there be closure. Last week, President David Granger had reassured the nation that full investigations will be done into the deaths of the hundreds of Guyanese, including the former Minister of Agriculture, Satyadeow Sawh.
Under the presidency of Bharrat Jagdeo (August 11, 1999 to December 3, 2011) there were three massacres: Lusignan where 11 people were killed; Bartica where another 12 were killed; and Lindo Creek, where seven miners were slaughtered. Besides, there were countless extra-judicial killings, with some activists estimating that around 400 Afro-Guyanese males were gunned down.

Barrington Braithwaite, who had designed the Buxton Monument that carries the names of over 450 murdered Guyanese, had long championed the cause for justice to be served.
On Monday he told Guyana Chronicle that he is pleased that the Government will be addressing the crimes committed against humanity, positing that the period of investigation should be from 2000- 2009 and beyond. “That was the period that

criminalised this country,” Braithwaite stated while noting that for too long persons have been of the opinion that those who ought to be held accountable are walking free. “I am happy about it and so do the families of Ronald Waddell and Satyadeow Sawh,” Braithwaite said. Jagdeo, now Leader of the Opposition, said he welcomes the President’s announcement as he offers the full support of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP).
“If there is something we know specifically then yes, we would… for instance, during my tenure as president, a confession statement was shown to me by a police [officer] who had received it from the girlfriend of one of the criminals who went to Sat Sawh’s place,” said Jagdeo.

He said there were lots of reports from soldiers and the police that reached his office when he was president. He believes that there were political hands behind some of the extra-judicial killings; so the CoI would shed light on those issues. “We should have it by all means but again, there should be proper terms of reference and credible commissioners,” said Jagdeo.

Back in 2003-2006, convicted drug-trafficker Shaheed Roger Khan had set up a criminal network here, including active policemen and a number of former ranks, ostensibly to go after criminals, but at the same time 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 was fighting crime on behalf of the Jagdeo-led government.
Khan had also implicated Dr. Leslie Ramsammy in his escapades, and documents bearing the then minister’s signature authorising the purchase of a sophisticated wire-tapping device were produced in U.S. courts during Khan’s trial.