…not so softly
The Stabroek News did yeoman service to the nation in publishing a list of 420 persons murdered as a result of the “troubles” after the Mash Day Jailbreak of Feb 23, 2002 and after Sept 2006. According to their analysis, which came out of their records, 151 of those persons had been murdered by bandits; 239 were killed during confrontations with Police and in unexplained circumstances, while 30 were security officers who lost their lives.
These figures obviously didn’t include the garden variety murders which hover around 100 annually, since the total number of murders during those years was 898. SN promised to continue with the figures up to 2008, when the last of the gang members had been finished off by the Police.
The “just the facts” approach might put a spoke in the wheels of the PNC’s decade-long propaganda onslaught that accused the PPP of killing “400 black youths”. The “dossier” they compiled actually had 449 names allegedly killed between 1993 and 2009.
It’s been pointed out without any effect that the PNC had included the names of many of the innocents who’d been killed by the bandits. And these certainly weren’t “Blacks”, but Indians like Ramdeo and Sita Persaud, who were gunned down as they relaxed in their hammocks under their house in Annandale, next door to the bandits’ hideout in Buxton. While the Police killed were mostly “Blacks”, they were all killed by the bandits!!
It really doesn’t give a flavour of the times, does it? The Canadian Immigration Service has a piece on the Web: “Calling themselves the Five for Freedom, the convicts stated that their mission was to defend the rights of the Afro-Guyanese, and since their breakout, the group has been linked to a number of crimes, including the murder of at least a dozen mainly Indo-Guyanese civilians, the assassination of several top police officials and a machine-gun attack on a police station.”
They quoted an analysis of GIHA, which showed another racialised selectivity of the bandits between 2002-2003: “Of 460 incidents of robberies, assaults, and kidnappings, 330 were directed at Indians, Indian businesses and Indian families. 31 Indians were killed by Black bandits. Twelve people were kidnapped, all Indians, by Black bandits. Two of the kidnapped were killed.” Yes, it was a time of horror for this country.
By starting in 2002, the report missed the PNC actions that led to the carnage. While protesting the results of the Dec 1997 election in Georgetown, hundreds of Indians were beaten by roving mobs on Jan 12, 1998. This outrage segued into arson; blocking of roads at Buxton; killings of a father and son behind Buxton; kidnappings, and other murders.
It was the execution of Desmond Hoyte’s strategy dubbed “slow fyah; mo fyah”!!
…with sacrifice??
So Jaipaul Sharma – representing his father, CN Sharma of the “Justice For All Party”, in the APNU coalition – insists he’s “prepared to give up (his) position as a possible MP and Minister of Government after the 2020 Elections in the interest of all Guyanese.”
Awwww! Isn’t that noble?? Or is it??
The way your Eyewitness heard it, the PNC types (who call the shots in the coalition) suspect that Sharma was about to say, “Yes! Yes! Yes!!” on that fateful night of Dec 21, 2018 in the hallowed halls of the National Assembly. Charrandas just beat him to it!! Whether it’s actually so or not isn’t the point. Perception IS reality, and the perception that he’s a fifth columnist inside the Trojan Horse (to mix a metaphor!) has already made the PNC decide that there ain’t no place for the son of CNS.
His effort to save face should be emulated by Ramjattan, since even if he gets the PM’s nod, it’ll be a poisoned chalice!!
…without comment
Isn’t someone going to parse the 600-odd murders that took place during the PNC’s watch of 2015-2019 to determine what sort of youths have been killed??
Or are murders under the PNC all kosher??