– AG condemns plan aimed to discredit work of the CoI
- Attorney General Anil Nandlall
The government has placed the nation on notice that the combined opposition political parties are up to mischief again, saying it has begun a rather sinister campaign aimed at discrediting the work of the Linden Commission of Inquiry (CoI), even before any final recommendations are made after it wrapped up its work on Friday.
Attorney General (AG) and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall has since strongly condemned attempts by opposition news personalities utilising blogs and Internet sites, Alliance For Change (AFC) political figures, and the A Partnership For National Unity (APNU) apologists, of directly attacking the integrity of the commissioners, as well as the commission itself.
“We have to prepare ourselves for the commission now being the subject of attacks; and it began a few days ago with persons attacking the work and integrity of the officials there,” he warned.
Wracked-up charges
- PPP MP Manzoor Nadir
Nandlall explained that the opposition political parties are becoming “desperate” as the days go by, particularly given that all of the mischievous allegations and politically wracked-up charges they have levied against government and the Guyana Police Force are slowly being “dismantled”.
He argued that information arising out of the Linden inquiry thus far has proven that Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee cannot be held accountable for any wrongdoing as far as executing his ministerial responsibility is concerned.
The legal affairs minister reiterated that Rohee’s integrity has been vindicated, as there has been no iota of evidence indicating he gave “any orders to shoot” persons protesting on July 18, in Linden, a fact which even AFC Chairman Nigel Hughes acknowledged when he called for the home affairs minister to testify.
Nandlall said the fact that the two lawyers, Basil Williams and Nigel Hughes, representing the interest of the families of those killed, as well as the AFC and APNU, sought to first accuse the minister of ordering the shooting and, later in the inquiry, failing to give instruction as to how to deal with the situation is a telling shift in their position.
“And this usually happens when you have a bad case; when you can’t get the evidence to support your original theory and thesis, and your thesis is being dismantled by the evidence which is adduced, you have to shift. And so they have been shifting and shifting until it broke away with Hughes walking away from the commission,” the AG explained.
- APNU MP Basil Williams
He said other revelations, such as the opposition lawyers and representatives’ inability to prove that the police shot the three Lindeners and killed them should also be noted. “From the beginning, the AFC and the APNU have collectively and individually failed miserably to prove any form of culpability on the part of the police or Rohee in relation to the death of the Lindeners,” he noted.
Convenient Plan B
Their plan B, Nandall suggested, appears to be discrediting the commissioners and their work, which is still not yet completed. “This commission of inquiry presents a unique opportunity for the people of this country to recognise that most of these accusations have to do with a political agenda and political rhetoric… aided and abetted by a willingly press opposed to the government… so you have this public momentum gathering pace and what are lies are translated into truth… and we don’t get the opportunity to answer them as we have now in the commission,” he stated.
Nandlall made it clear that no amount of muckraking will conceal the truth of what really took place in Linden, saying the opposition cannot confer upon itself the powers of “judge and jury” since it is his government’s position that they were to be blamed for playing a game of “political trickery” on Lindeners.
The AG said the opposition’s plan B, in light of what he described as their failures at the inquiry level, has already started with posts, allegedly by opposition political activist Mark Benschop, on the Internet, which saw several undignified and unprovoked attacks on two commissioners after Hughes’ theatrical abandonment of the proceedings.
“What is worse is that I believe that this whole thing and his exit from the commission is one that was orchestrated and preconceived,” said Nandlall.
“His apparent side kick, Mark Benschop, almost contemporaneous with those regrettable exchanges with the commissioner, posted on his Internet page a very derogatory statement about Messrs K D Knights and (Lensley) Wolfe that they were corrupt,” the AG pointed out. “As a result of his consistent and abject failures at the commission, he wanted a way out.”
- AFC Chairman Nigel Huges
