Dear Editor,
THE issue of extra-judicial killings, and calls for their investigation, especially their intellectual authors to be brought to account and eventual justice, is back in the news. In fact, it is a subject that has ever so often been mentioned over the last two decades, because of the many lives that have been lost during a period of this nation’s existence that is still painful to the families of the numerous victims murdered, and the collective memory of the nation.

One must commend the Guyana Chronicle for its week-end pages highlighting these tragedies that have left much blood on our land.

Also, the group led by Sister Penda Guyan, Friends and Families in White in Mourning is deserving of praise for reminding the public of this ghastly outrage, the ghosts of which are themselves still restive because justice has not yet been served on their behalf.
But Editor, the most recent account, as highlighted in your pages, though not in the category of an extra-judicial death, but one brought about by what seemed to have been related forces, details all the reasons as to why this country became the country it did prior to 2015. The brilliant political scientist/analyst Aubrey Norton’s insightful analysis, along with Penda Guyan’s thoughtful delivery on this issue on a recent newscast, has further illuminated the confluences of evil that were at play throughout the nation at that specific time.

Without a doubt, the murder of the former top CANU officer, based on the accounts carried in your paper, sheds further light on the kind of country that Guyana had become during those unfortunate 23 yearsas a criminalised state. And reading the stressful accounts of the sister of the late top ‘narco’ sleuth who, it is said, worked closely with the DEA, and had both their trust and respect, underlined a very frightening aspect of the Guyana of the ‘Troubles’ era that not even such a senior law enforcement officer was safe from those with powerful State connections who were being pursued. The fact that such an officer was eliminated with extreme prejudice, and that it was done with the perpetrator(s) being very much aware that they would be safe from investigation and prosecution says much for the impunity that featured in such a dangerous milieu. **This much can be gathered from the still grieving sister of the slain officer.

Extra judicial killings are blight on whatever nation in which they have taken place, for they hang like a mill stone around its spiritual neck. Moreover, they are a further source of division, particularly in a country so politically demarcated as Guyana. And for those with a blinkered perception that has branded the major vehicle as a hero for such atrocities, should emphatically be told that such deaths are unlawful, and a sickening violation of the human rights of those who were murdered/disappeared. In fact, human rights transcend race and ethnicity; they are about every human whose person and well-being suffer any form of indignity as citizens of their respective jurisdiction, under its laws.

With the continuing revelations of this dark murderous midnight of Guyana’s past, the nation will continue to be more informed of the grisly details of such a murderous reign. They will serve as a reminder, why those responsible must be brought to justice, as any other citizen investigated and charged for such a grave criminality.

Regards,
Earl Hamilton