Extrajudicial killings’ Inquiry
Relatives of the victims of unsolved murders are up in arms over President David Granger’s recent announcement that he would open an inquiry into extrajudicial killings that occurred from 2000 onwards.
Granger’s announcement has been met with disbelief in sections of society, since murder—the premeditated killing of a human being by another human being—does not have a statute of limitations.
Political pundits have even called the move an effective “diss” of the relatives of the victims, many of whom are still grieving for their respective losses.
Guyana Times caught up with the relatives of the victim of one such murder, which occurred more than 20 years ago but is still fresh in the memory of loved ones.
One of the most egregious high-profile cases to date sees the implicated murderer not only walking about scot free, but openly abusing the freedoms and rights of others. According to media reports at the time, on January 20, 1994, on the Mc Doom Public Road, East Bank Demerara, Mohan ‘Glen’ Lall, owner of the Kaieteur News, shot and killed 30-year-old resident Kevin France. He was never arrested, nor was any charge brought against him for the vigilante-style killing. Thus it is strange that Granger’s recent call for an inquiry into extrajudicial killings is being limited to between 2000 and 2009.
Lall, at the time a popular Stabroek Market stall-holder and rural constable, shot France in the chest at close range with a .38 revolver.
On the day of the killing, Lall had allegedly gone to France’s McDoom residence and a confrontation with the young man’s relatives ensued.
“We have information to suggest that the two were engaged in a scuffle before the shot was fired,” the police source had said in the February 2, 1994 report.
There has never been an inquest into the circumstances of France’s killing – an action that had left his relatives dissatisfied over the years.
Before jet setting off to the Middle East this past week, the Head of State had disclosed on his “Public Interest” television programme that the matter of investigating unsolved murders was still a priority. He said, “We are working on the evidence,” and reminded that “it is still a commitment to the mothers of the children who either disappeared or died.”
Granger disclosed that the administration had already begun collecting the evidence, although not in a formal way. He said some information has to be collected from various sources because “many of the actual eyewitnesses have been killed during the troubles.”
Granger had, in 2014, attempted to get a formal investigation kick started by the National Assembly when he tabled a motion calling for a Commission of Inquiry (COI) to investigate the incidence of criminal violence in Guyana from 2004 to 2010.
That motion had spoken specifically to the unlawful killings of Guyanese citizens, including those assassinated or executed and those who had been victims of extra-judicial killings at the hands of the ranks of the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Defence Force.
Political pundits have now sought to weigh in on the President’s statement in light of his commitment to all the mothers of the victims of murders, and juxtaposed against his selective decision to exclude cases such as the Glen Lall killing.
Additionally, one observer willing to speak on record told Guyana Times, that the inquiry into killings should date back to 1994. The observer noted that starting the inquiry from that year would give the families of a number of businessmen, who were cold bloodedly murdered by so called freedom fighters, the peace of mind that they have been seeking all these years. Such an investigation, the observer added, will give those families the answers as to why their love ones were killed and who killed them.
