–PPP General Secretary says

THE Government of Guyana will pursue a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into what is commonly described as a crime wave during the early 2000s.

The Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, on Thursday told reporters that the government will forge ahead with the CoI as recommended by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR).
“This matter was debated over the years, so my position in the public domain is that any such CoI is to establish what is already known in the police records,” the General Secretary said.
The government will be going ahead with this CoI, and I hope there will be no prefabrication anymore. There shall be a CoI,” he added.

On Thursday, the UNCHR, in its concluding observations on the third periodic report of Guyana, raised concerns that “alleged extrajudicial killings that occurred between 2002 and 2006” were not adequately investigated.
In 2018, the coalition administration under Former President David Granger promised that a CoI would be appointed to investigate the circumstances of the crime wave.
“Society has been scarred by violence, which left a lingering legacy of distrust with the potential of fresh disorder. Monuments at Bartica, Buxton and Eve Leary have been erected for the victims of violence during ‘The Troubles’ between 2002 and 2009. We still have an obligation to investigate those troubles, and ensure that the culprits are brought to justice,” Granger was quoted as saying while noting that there were allegedly1,431 murders in that period.

Granger had said, too, that his administration would have ensured that the perpetrators are brought to justice.
Further, former APNU/AFC Minister of State Joseph Harmon had said after this that the CoI Granger spoke about would start working “before the end of the week,” in 2018.
While he did not give a definitive makeup of the Commission, he did say that it would comprise as many as three persons and a judge, among other members.
“When the president says something, he means it,” Harmon stressed, while boldly noting that getting information is not an issue.

However, this did not happen, and he did nothing.
Following the February 23, 2002 Camp Street jailbreak, there was an unprecedented crime wave, with armed robberies and murders, including hits on the police, reaching unprecedented levels across the country.

According to Dr. Jagdeo, he believes that it was discarded for several reasons.
“They knew: One, it would show that no 400 young Afro-Guyanese kids were killed; and two, that they were complacent…that promise was made in one of their submissions to the UN in 2018. We now ask, where this inquiry is?” he questioned.

The General Secretary noted that the CoI will only establish what has been in the police records: “That APNU was complacent, first of all, the lies that they talked about 1,400 people killed, then they got it reduced to 400.”

Moreover, Dr Jagdeo noted that the CoI will also link prominent figures from the PNC-led opposition, who were allegedly supplying materials and equipment to the gangs responsible for the crime wave.