…Opposition urged to accept PNC’s role in assassination
After a marathon session that ran into the night, the National Assembly on Monday adopted the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) report into the 1980 assassination of political activist and Working People’s Alliance (WPA) founder Dr Walter Rodney.
The CoI report into the 1980 assassination of Dr Rodney was handed over since 2016 to then Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Barton Scotland. However, the report was only adopted on Monday, as per a motion moved by Governance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Gail Teixeira.
Governance Minister Gail Teixeira
Teixeira urged the main opposition A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) to come to terms with the facts in the report. This is especially so since the report implicated the then People’s National Congress (PNC) led Government in Rodney’s death.
“Here is one moment where this House can say that we adopt the report. Adopting the report doesn’t mean you like it, but you recognise what it stands for in terms of the evidence and record and who gave evidence.”
“If you didn’t like the evidence, why didn’t you bring your people to bring evidence at the CoI? If you had a different narrative, a different story. You had the opportunity. But also, you had the opportunity to stand by the recommendations. We believe that the time for healing and whether (the Opposition) comes to term with the past and you step on the road to national unity.”
Teixeira also outlined all the steps the PPP Government took to ensure that Walter Rodney’s killer could be brought to justice. This included the then Dr Cheddi Jagan-led People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government seeking the extradition of Gregory Smith, the alleged perpetrator who had fled to French Guiana and is reported to have subsequently died in 2002.
APNU/AFC
The main Opposition APNU/AFC meanwhile contended that they have always supported an inquiry into Dr Rodney’s death. According to APNU MP Ganesh Mahipaul, back in 2005 during the 8th Parliament there was bipartisan support for such an inquiry.
“At the 68th sitting of the 8th Parliament, the honourable Gail Teixeira at the time Minister of Home Affairs and acting Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, moved a motion titled enquiry into the death of Dr Walter Rodney.”
WPA founder Dr Walter Rodney
“That was the motion in 2005 moved by a sitting member of Government, the honourable Teixeira. In the presentations made at the sitting of the National Assembly, all the Members of Parliament supported the call for the inquiry,” Mahipaul said.
In fact, Mahipaul went on to reference an amended motion brought by late MP and AFC co-founder Sheila Holder, for an international inquiry. According to Mahipaul, this motion resulted in 17 MPs from the then Opposition voting for this amended motion.
Meanwhile, there were members of the APNU/AFC who felt that the motion should not be before the National Assembly at this time. As APNU MP and Public Accounts Committee Chairman Jermaine Figueira put it during his presentation, “we need to use this Parliament as an instrument to better people’s lives, not to debate the dead over and over. Those who continuously want to do such, should join the dead.”
Assassination
Dr Walter Rodney, scholar, political activist and staunch critic of then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham, was assassinated on June 13, 1980, by a bomb disguised as a walkie talkie which had exploded in his lap as he sat in his car at the corner of John and Hadfield Streets.
He was in a car with his brother, Donald Rodney, when they were testing of the device which was built by electronics expert and Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Marine Corps Sergeant, Gregory Smith.
The CoI found that Smith gave Donald Rodney an anti-personnel device namely, a remotely controlled explosive in what appeared to be a walkie-talkie, a communications device. Smith was encouraged in providing that device by prominent members of State agencies.
The CoI findings read that:
“We find on the balance of probabilities that Walter Rodney had intended the walkie-talkie to be a communications device which would have permitted him to be in relatively easy contact with fellow WPA activists and for no sinister purpose. The point must be made at this stage that telephones were not easily available and there was discrimination in the distribution which was controlled by a State agency and which, in all likelihood, would have been denied the WPA.”
“We find, further that Donald Rodney, whose testimony we accept, was on the night of 13th June, 1980, doing no more than accompanying his brother, Walter, to collect what they thought would have been a walkie-talkie. There is no evidence before us to suggest that the reason for collecting the device was other than indicated by Donald. Further, we are satisfied on the evidence presented that Smith was protected by the State and this inference is strengthened when it is borne in mind: That within a matter of hours after the explosion and resultant death of Walter Rodney, Smith was taken to Kwakwani in a Defense Force aircraft; he was given a passport, not in the name of Gregory Smith which name he carried as a member of the Defense Force, but in the name of Cyril Milton Johnson.”
The CoI also explicitly stated that Rodney was executed by the State and the Commissioners have “no hesitation in holding that Gregory Smith was responsible for Dr Walter Rodney’s death on 13 June, 1980 and that in so doing he was acting as an agent of the State having been aided and abetted so to do, by individuals holding positions of leadership in State agencies and committed to carrying out the wishes of the PNC administration.”
Meanwhile, the CoI’s recommendations were for the improvement of the professionalism, speed and efficiency of the operations of the Guyana Coroner’s Department. It was also recommended that the operations of the Guyana Police Force, and Guyana Defence Force be improved. (G3)
