PPP never gave operational instructions to Police – Teixeira

…former Police Commissioner Winston Felix refuses to comment

‘Mo fyaah killing wave’

By Michael Younge

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration has never given operational instructions to the Guyana Police Force, during the politically and ethnically motivated crime spree of the 2000s, which saw scores of persons losing their lives as the security forces faced off with criminal elements in a bid to restore law and order throughout the country.

This is the position of former Home Affairs Minister Gail Teixeira, who on Friday denied accusations and insinuations made by Head of State David Granger at a recent event where he confirmed that a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) is to be held into the crime wave which occurred during the 2000 and 2008 period.
President Granger had said that there were some eight massacres that occurred during the period of the “troubles” as he vowed that the inquiry could expose the authors behind that criminal enterprise that caused havoc throughout the country. He is even quoted as saying that “we feel that the way in which the investigation was handled indicated that there was a high level of collusion between the Governments of the day…”
That is the statement that the former Home Affairs Minister has out rightly rejected as it suggested that those, who held ministerial responsibility between 2000 and 2008, were somehow either colluding with criminal elements or giving political directives to the Police in order to achieve some desired outcome.
“That is not true. I have never given any directive outside of my remit and I certainly have never given any operational instructions to the Police during my tenure in office,” Teixeira said when asked for an invited comment.
She served as Guyana’s Home Affairs Minister from May 31, 2005 to September 8, 2006. The veteran politician insisted that none of her colleagues would have ventured outside of their core responsibilities which are clearly outlined to meddle in the work of the Police or lend support to anyone who breached the laws.

When contacted too, former Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee asked for a response to the statements, noting that it was nothing new or surprising as this has been the position of the People’s National Congress (PNC) and its sympathisers for a long time.
“That’s an allegation he is making there… nothing more and nothing new… I share the positions expressed by the PPP on the inquiry. Whatever we decide as a party is what I support. If I have any personal opinions, I will a medium to share them at the right time,” he related.
Rohee served as Home Affairs Minister from 2006 to 2015 while his colleague Ronald Gajraj served in the same post from 2001 to 2005. Gajraj could not be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud, who was Crime Chief during a significant portion of the time span covered by the CoI declined to adopt a position on the Government’s decision to investigate the actions of the Security Forces during that time and the crimes committed.
“Any of the actions that we take in relation to our duties will be tested at some time… the public will want to know… the authorities will want to know,” he said on Saturday, as he refused to say definitively if he supported the CoI.
But former Police Commissioner Winston Felix outright refused to comment in any definitive way on the quality and type of engagements he had with the two PPP Government Ministers under which he served between 2006 and 2008, thereby refusing to add credence to the seemingly declarative statements by President Granger who now heads the PNC/APNU coalition of which Felix is an executive.
Felix appeared to have found himself in a bind as he also currently serves as the Citizenship Minister within the Cabinet of President David Granger.
“For me, once this process has commenced, it has certain judicial characteristics and I don’t want to be answering any questions in the media and I don’t want to preempt the inquiry in any manner or form. I would keep my big mouth shut on any questions coming from anybody. I will answer no questions from anyone in the media during the inquiry,” he said in response to a direct question posed by Guyana Times on the matter.
“I don’t want to be talking on the one side and people going to testify on the other part. Even though it’s just a relationship question, I don’t want to talk about that because with Winston Felix there were two different sets of relationships between two different Ministers of Home Affairs… so I don’t want to touch that,” he continued.
Felix said if Guyana Times had posed that questions about whether he had ever been given political directives or operational directives by a sitting Home Affairs Minister while he was at the helm of the Police Force before the President’s statement, he may have cooperated and responded.
“I would have been inclined to make a few comments but now that the inquiry is constituted, my mouth is zipped,” Felix argued. He also said if he is properly summoned before the inquiry, he will attend even if he had not been a Minister of Government.Felix said he welcomes the inquiry as lots of families have suffered and need answers, so they can have closure.
On Thursday, former President and Prime Minister Samuel Hinds had cause to upbraid President Granger for some of his callous remarks regarding the inquiry and crime waves of the 2000s.
Hinds said that it was regrettable that the President sought to describe the killings by using the name of former President Bharrat Jagdeo. He also reminded that those killings were never supported or encouraged by the PPP but it was the then Opposition that labelled a parallel group of people who clashed with this country’s Security Forces as “freedom fighters”.
He even highlighted the role played by Winston Felix and Basil Williams – who is Guyana’s current Attorney General – in the ‘Mo fyaah killings’ after a recording surfaced where Williams was thanking Felix for distracting the Police from the Agricola killings.
Hinds, like Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, called for the inquiry to take on a more comprehensive and independent flavour that would date back to 1998 and the violence which ensued after the PPP won the 1997 elections. They both feel that the President’s PNC party, headed by Desmond Hoyte and Robert Corbin, played a major role in encouraging the lawlessness and killing which took place as they were pushing a secret ethnic agenda and warfare aimed at ousting the democratically elected PPP from office.