The Government is all set to establish yet another Commission of Inquiry (CoI), this time to probe killings during the period 2002 to 2008.
Minister of State, Joseph Harmon on Monday disclosed that the Commissioners were slated to be appointed during this week and work was expected to commence on or before February 1.
Harmon, during a brief interview with reporters, noted that there would be a series of CoIs to probe specific killings, especially the Lusignan and Bartica massacres, along with the numerous murders in Buxton.
Minister of State, Joseph Harmon
He noted that every year commemoration ceremonies were held to mark the anniversaries of the killings and Government took the decision to get to the bottom of the issue. “So, during the course of this week, we will launch an inquiry into one period of the killings and you can rest assured that by the 1st of February that will commence on this inquiry,” he added.
At his post-Cabinet press briefing on Friday, Harmon explained that the Coroner’s Inquest Act requires that an inquest be held into any unnatural death, and that was not done for those persons killed during that “troubled” period.
Additionally, President David Granger has long been calling for a CoI into extra-judicial killings in Guyana. As a matter of fact, while in Opposition, the President in 2014 had tabled a motion in the National Assembly for the establishment of a CoI to investigate the incidence of criminal violence in Guyana from 2004 to 2010.
During a televised programme in 2016, the Head of State had disclosed that in keeping with the promise he made as Opposition Leader, steps were being taken to compile the information needed for the probe to be held.
Meanwhile, even as the coalition is adamant about probing the killings during the 2002 to 2008 era, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Opposition had raised concerns, noting that Government should launch investigations dating back to the 1970s and not only the 2000s.
In fact, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo had accused the coalition Government of being selective in its calls for investigations and suggested instead that the probe be done into all the murders and all the missing weaponry.
Since coming into office in 2017, the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Administration has spent $175 million on 11 CoIs. In the case of the 2015 CoI into the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), it was disclosed that $51.8 million was expended. The CoI into the public service cost taxpayers $40.1 million while the 2016 CoI into the education sector cost $26.7 million. The inquiry into the 2016 prison disturbances cost $12.2 million, while the CoI into last year’s fire at the Drop-in Centre cost $1.3 million.
Inquiries into conditions of veterans and the discovery of a foreign aircraft at Yupukari cost $14.8 million and $8.3 million respectively; and the inquiry into allegations made against the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) by Barry Dataram cost $1 million. The CoI into the October 2016 collapse of a mining pit that killed Keon Wilson cost $5.1 million and in the case of the inquiry into the release of a private vessel in Guyana’s waters, a total of $8.2 million was spent. The sum of $5.4 million was spent on the CoI into the alleged presidential assassination plot.
Government has, for some time, faced accusations that it has ignored recommendations made by some of these very CoIs, such as the inquiry into the state of GuySuCo. Among other things, this CoI had produced recommendations that no estate should be closed. Government has, in fact, already stated it would forge ahead with closing all estates except Blairmont, Uitvlugt and Albion, thus rendering this piece of advice redundant.
