AFC backs govt amendments to Granger’s killings motion

The Alliance For Change (AFC) said it will support the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission to probe the countless unlawful killings that occurred in Guyana over the years. The party also wants to expand the period to be investigated. The two amendments were proposed by government for a motion tabled by Opposition Leader David Granger. Granger in his original motion had asked that a Presidential Commission of Inquiry investigate unlawful killings from 2004 to present, but government wanted the probe to go back as far as the 1960s.
AFC leader Khemraj Ramjattan, during his party’s weekly press conference on Wednesday, stated that the AFC wanted to propose amendments, which would essentially call for the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission.
“Our position is that we are going to support, we have some amendments we’d like to see attached. We are calling for a truth and reconciliation commission that goes back to deal with issues like ethnic violence; it goes back to 1966, to the date of our independence. We have shared that with APNU and we are still considering whether it will be incorporated in their motion,” said Ramjattan.
Nation needs to deal with issue and move on
AFC executive Catherine Hughes expressed the view that there was need for all aspects of crime to be looked at and not confined to any isolated period, event, or form.
“We need to look at all that has happened and we don’t believe that any one segment of society or any one ethnic group has suffered more or suffered less. This has been a challenge that has plagued Guyana since independence, the type of violence has changed with time… we have been faced with gun violence, extra- judicial killings an increase in narco-violence and a series of things and we need to put this on the table, we need to deal with it and we need to move on as a country,” Hughes said.
Too much of time is spent “looking back” and this prevents the country from moving forward, she declared. Hughes emphasised that this should be a philosophy of the relevant authorities and they should not turn the situation into a “blame game”.
Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall told Guyana Times International on Wednesday afternoon that he had attended a meeting with Speaker of the House, Raphael Trotman recently. The meeting was based on discussions surrounding the amendments proposed by government. Nandlall stated that Trotman had found some aspects of the proposed amendments “offensive” to certain standing orders and government had agreed to remove these.
“The meeting was indeed held and I agreed to remove some aspects of the proposed amendments, specifically those that expressly mention the names of persons who are members of parliament. However, the expansive nature of the amendments remains untouched. Government’s position remains the same with this,” the attorney general noted.
He further added that government had also proposed that a truth commission be established rather than a commission of inquiry into the criminal violence, since it believes these two commissions represent two radically different processes. “Therefore, a truth commission would be more suitable in such circumstances”, said Nandlall.