Mark “Smallie” Williams’ wasn’t an ordinary prisoner and his escape from the Mazaruni Jail CERTAINLY wasn’t ordinary. The most extraordinary fact about him is that he was a member of the most vicious criminal gang in the history of Guyana. The escape was meticulously planned and executed clearly by individuals from outside the Jail. One prison guard was murdered and a Prison Officer injured for life as the escape unfolded. They’d gathered around the five prisoners who violently escaped from the Camp Street Jail in 2002 and who’d holed up in Buxton to unleash a reign of terroristic violence on the country that lasted almost a decade.
They hoped to stimulate an insurgency against the Government. From the onset they announced a POLITICAL program by declaring war against the state as “Freedom Fighters” on behalf of African Guyanese. They not only took on the Police force directly and murdered more policemen than in the entire history of the force since 1839 – but went after innocent civilians who were adjudged to be supporters merely because they were ethnically Indian Guyanese. They made Buxton the epicenter of their criminal reign because the Police had killed an individual they insisted wasn’t a criminal as the police asserted. However, even before that there were individuals in Buxton who’d been militarily trained by an ex-GDN Officer for an insurgency. They’d murdered a father and a son from Lusignan who’d stumbled over their camp in the backdams of Buxton.
The insurgency was based on claims about oppression against African Guyanese which they hoped would mobilize wide support in that community. They killed Buxtonians who didn’t see eye to eye on their modus operandi – even as they committed several massacres in neighbouring Indian Guyanese villages. The most gruesome was the Massacre of Lusignan in which five children and 33 women and men – all Indian Guyanese – were killed in their beds as they slept. Smallie was involved with a massacre at Bartica in which the police station was attacked and eight were killed there and in a boat at the wharf.
But even after the gang was decimated and individuals like Smallie were convicted and jailed…this mass murderer was one of the persons who broke out of the Camp St jail by burning it to the ground!! He was later recaptured and sent to Mazaruni. So shouldn’t his history have alerted the Mazaruni Prison officials to keep him under constant surveillance?? Especially when individuals are claiming African Guyanese are now in a PPP constructed “emerging apartheid state” that must be confronted by any means necessary??
This alone demands an enquiry as to who sprung Smallie while the NSA beat the bushes to determine who was behind the military-type operation. Beware the repetition of history!!
…from obsolete institutions
The UN Secretary General just declared it’s past time to reform the Security Council and the Breton Woods institutions – the World Bank (WP) and the IMF. Now, these demands have been made for decades by the developing world – without success. Those institutions had been formed at the end of WWII in 1945 and gave the western powers – especially the US and Europe – extraordinary powers to dominate the world.
For instance, the Security Council – dominated by the West – can veto any proposal by the other almost 200 other countries! That’s especially important now that the UN can decide when to get involved in crises in its member states. The WB and the IMF, in the meantime, can control countries financially by deciding whether to offer loans for development while the IMM sets conditions when they can’t repay!!
The question, of course, is how the UN Chief’s desire gonna be fulfilled?? Will the BRICS meeting in August pick up his suggestion for a brave new world??
…for self-constructed prisons
Your Eyewitness’ heart bleeds at the tragedy of the Mahdia Secondary School. But let’s take note that it’s mainly because the windows were grilled that the victims couldn’t escape??
Don’t we have building codes??
