…calls for independent probe into jailbreak crime spree
People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo has debunked as fallacious a list constantly referenced in sections of the media of persons allegedly murdered under the previous Administration, but in reality, this list is padded with the names of massacre victims and persons who died of natural causes.
At his press conference on Monday, Jagdeo walked with a copy of the list to show the media. He pointed out that among the names on the list are victims who lost their lives in the Lusignan, Lindo Creek and Bartica massacres.
“They would resurrect all of the old things. So now with the resurrection of the 400 young, black men according to them, killed in the PPP era… remember, we made it clear in Parliament that we’re prepared to have a Commission of Inquiry [CoI] into the whole period, in which you can investigate the criminals, the phantom gangs, drug dealers, everyone else and their connections to political operatives on both sides.”
“We are confident,” Jagdeo continued. “We can demonstrate in any CoI that they had deep links in the [People’s National Congress] PNC. We are still waiting for the President to propose that CoI, because we support it. He went off to do Lindo Creek (CoI) and got (retired Justice Donald) Trotman and the lawyer, the Minister’s brother (Patrice Henry), to do that.”
According to Jagdeo, he wants a CoI covering the entire period from the 2002 Mash Day jailbreak to the time they were apprehended or killed. Jagdeo noted that the massacres that occurred within the time, where the criminals got their weapons from and any potential links between drug dealers and political figures should also be probed in the CoI.
“All this talk about investigating, they would only say that because they had a hand in a lot of the turmoil that took place in that period. It was political. I can show you the list. Look at all these people,” Jagdeo said, just before he brandished the list. “They were all killed… the supposed black men. Shazam Mohamed, Lusignan Massacre; Clarence Thomas, Lusignan Massacre; Ron Thomas, Vanessa Thomas, Ashraf Ally, Errol Thomas.”
“You have people of every race here. You have the “Fine Man” gang members, the Bartica Massacre people, and members of the “Fine Man” gang. “Fine Man” (Rondel Rawlins) is on the list himself. The Lindo Creek (victims). Two persons who died of heart attacks are on this list. Lieutenant Colonel D Narine died from heart attack and Tony Ross. And they’re on the list. This is a fallacy. They don’t have anything else.”
Checks on the list confirmed that it contains the names not only of victims of the massacres, as well as the infamous Rondel “Fine Man” Rawlins and Jermaine “Skinny” Charles, but it also contains the names of criminal elements who were killed in shootouts with the Police.
One documented case in the list dates way back to 1999, with the inclusion of Terry Madhoo. Madhoo, also known as “Rusty”, was reportedly part of a gang that robbed an America Street cambio, opening fire indiscriminately, in the process injuring several persons, including an off-duty Policeman. Newspaper reports are that the gang was chased by Police into a cane field on the East Bank of Demerara, during which gunfire was exchanged and Madhoo was killed.
The list is contained in a dossier that details various cases that occurred under the previous Government which the then Opposition parties and now governing coalition had wanted investigated for alleged human rights violations.
In the dossier, the joint Opposition parties of the Alliance For Change, National Front Alliance, People’s National Congress and the Working People’s Alliance all joined together in their demands for an international inquiry.
“The goal of this dossier is to establish that there is a sufficient prima facie basis to warrant further interrogation of grave human rights abuses in Guyana by an independent body cloaked with the legal authority to do this,” the dossier also states.
The dossier was released by the then Opposition in 2009. Since coming to office in 2015, however, the only steps that have been taken towards an investigation of that era is a CoI ordered by President David Granger into the Lindo Creek Massacre earlier this year.
