LEADER of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton, has remained “mum” on the Opposition’s position as regards the recent call made by Rickford Burke’s organisation, Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) for Afro-Guyanese to renounce their right to defend their country’s territorial sovereignty and boycott the Guyana Defence Force (GDF).

On Tuesday, the Guyana Chronicle contacted the Leader of the Opposition for a comment on the CGID release; however, Norton said he was unaware of the statement, but when it was read to him, he immediately shut down the reporter and said he would call back. He never did.

The statement emerging from the CGID told Guyanese to denounce their country’s sovereignty and refuse to serve the GDF because the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government was in power.

“The Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) is calling on the African-Guyanese population in Guyana, and other groups, which face racial and political discrimination by the PPP government, to withhold their relatives from joining the GDF or deployment to the Guyana Venezuela border…,” the statement read.
The organisation then based its argument on the false claim that the current PPP/C is racist.

Burke recently organised a “Washington Conference on Guyana” for opposition members, including Leader of the Opposition Aubrey Norton and nine Opposition Members of Parliament from the APNU and AFC, to engage with so-called high-level officials from the Biden administration. There have since been reports that it was an exercise in futility, because no one from the Biden administration was available to meet with Norton and company.

Although Burke has been at the forefront of many of the opposition’s activities in the US, he remains wanted by the Guyana Police Force (GPF).
The GPF last year issued a wanted bulletin for Burke, in relation to a case of extortion in which two reporters have already been charged.
According to the bulletin, Burke is wanted for “conspiracy to commit a felony, to wit, the publication of a defamatory libel in order to extort money.”
Burke was implicated by the two reporters – Gary Eleazar and Alex Wayne – who were released on bail following their court appearance.

He is also wanted for incitement of hostility or ill will on the grounds of race in violation of the Racial Hostility Act, sedition, use of a computer system to intimidate in violation of the Cyber Crime Act, seditious libel, inciting the provocation of the breach of peace and inciting public terror.
Burke’s last known addresses according to the bulletin are Brooklyn, New York and Bartica.