– says killings started from opposition to PPP’s 1997 elections win
There continues to be public criticism over the coalition Government’s move to establish a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the 2008 Lindo Creek Massacre, with many questioning Government’s motive to probe that particular mass killing, while calling for the inquiry to be extended to cover earlier years.
This most recent call was made by former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who in a letter on Thursday expressed suspicions over Government’s move. He noted, however, if Government wants to uncover the real truth behind the killings of that
Former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds
period then it needs to first get the name correct.
“There is a lot in a name and we need to get names right… The term ‘Jagdeo era killings’, which has even been repeated by President Granger, is to be regretted, as it is misleading,” Hinds stated.
The former Prime Minister posited that the ‘submerged subterranean killing wave’ originated from rejection of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C’s) 1997 election win by an opposing and extreme criminal fringe with ethno-political pretensions and links, which, when the national security forces were not having any success in apprehending them, evoked a similar irregular counter-force.
“The period from1998 to 2008 should be enquired into as a whole and that would naturally be in chronological sequence. One cannot help but be suspicious of the coalition Government’s move in embarking on enquires into spliced-out pieces, starting near the end and proceeding in an order known only to themselves,” he noted.
According to Hinds, who is also a former Guyanese President, the move to start at the end indicates an attempt to negate and escape the logical deductions, which would be inherent in a chronological review of events over that period.
“The period from 1998 to 2008 was one of great testing of our peoples and our country. Rather than make it appear our (PPP/C) handling of that period, though
Former Minister Norman Whittaker
criticised from many directions, saw our nation through as a whole avoiding the intensified polarisation, which was intended by the opposing and extreme criminal fringe with ethno-political pretensions and links,” he asserted.
The former PM recalled that the uproar following the PPP’s win in 1957 was repeated after the party victory in the 1997 Elections when “all hell break loose”, giving birth to the ‘slow fyah, mo fyah’ campaign, marches, lootings, burnings and beatings.
He went on to highlight that the 2001 jailbreak and the projection of inmates by key political factions as ‘freedom fighters’ resulted in attacks on assumed supporters of the PPP/C, which were taken to a higher level.
Furthermore, Hinds reminded the coalition Government that while it has been preaching of a PPP Cabinet Minister obtaining and providing high-tech equipment to the phantom force, it should not forget the involvement of its own current Cabinet Members in questionable activities during that period. He specially referred to the taped conversation, though illegal, between the then Vice Chairman of the People’s National Congress (PNC), Basil Williams, and then Commissioner of Police, Winston Felix, in which Williams thanked the latter for a number of things, including misleading his Police team on the killings at Agricola.
Then Home Affairs Minister, Gail Teixeira, had reported to Cabinet that Felix did not refute that the voice was his but claimed that he was playing along with the VC to learn what the PNC knew and was thinking.
Moreover, Hinds explained that the PPP/C stayed away from holding a Commission of Inquiry, waiting on a time when it could have been healing.
“We would have expected that such a CoI would have been structured similarly to the one established by our Government in consultation with the then Opposition, to enquire into the 2012 disturbances in Linden, with international Commissioners and nominees of various national stakeholders,” he noted.
Meanwhile, former Local Government Minister under the PPP regime, Norman Whittaker, in a penned letter published on Thursday called out the coalition Government for its double standards in establishing the Lindo Creek CoI. He too called for the probe to be extended to cover the 1970s to 2010, which he described as the country’s most troubling and frightening periods of mayhem and violent actions from racially charged criminal activities.
Positing that serious crimes in Guyana were being committed before 2002, Whittaker said this move by the David Granger-led Administration is a crude attempt to exclude a very important period in the country’s history.
“We cannot have double standards. If we are seeking the truth, we cannot bury the atrocities and the angst and the sufferings. We cannot hide this dark period of our country’s history. Neither must we conceal the perpetrators and the participants; the ringleaders behind the sinister sinful activities of that period… The Government has an obligation to the Guyanese people, and more specifically, those who would have suffered physically, mentally, materially and who are alive and still bear the scars, to the surviving relations of those who would have gone to the great beyond, to elicit the truth,” the former Minister and parliamentarian stated.
On this note, Whittaker challenged the Government and, by extension, the Commission of Inquiry to get to the proximate cause of the political, racial and accompanying criminal activities of the 1970s to 2010 with a view to uprooting and treating its innate causes.
He added that the role of the PNC, the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and the Guyana Police Force must be honestly highlighted in the violent activities of the period including the weapons which the GDF loaned to the PNC which are yet to be accounted for; the murder of then Education Minister Vincent Teekah, the 1973 Ballot Box Martyrs, the murder of Father Darke, the miscreant behaviour of members of the House of Israel and the inconclusive inquiry into the assassination of Walter Rodney; as well as the defence of criminals such as Andrew Douglas as freedom fighters, the notorious “Blackie” and the Guyana Flag and the criminal activities.
