Linden COI a learning experience for all – Attorney General

The Linden Commission of Inquiry (COI) was indeed a great learning experience for all Guyanese as it was the first time that Guyana convened a commission comprising a number of international personalities.

Speaking on the just concluded COI into the July 18 Linden shooting incident, Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall said the COI also allowed the opportunity for persons who felt strongly about what transpired in Linden to come forth and ventilate whatever information they had in relation to the issue.
The COI was set up by President Donald Ramotar in September 2012 to “inquire into and report on the circumstances surrounding the shooting to death of Allan Lewis, Ron Somerset and Shemroy Bouyea and the injury of several other persons on July 18. The trio died when protests in the mining town against increased electricity tariffs became ugly and led to the blockading of the Wismar/McKenzie Bridge, the main thoroughfare, in that area, to the interior of Guyana.
The AG said the COI gave the nation an opportunity to have an outlet for a lot of the emotional and other issues in relation to what transpired in Linden. “It provided an opportunity also to deal with many aspects of the misinformation and misperception which prevailed out there in relation to who was responsible for the Linden incident,” he added.
Recalling the attempt to implicate Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee and members of the Guyana Police Force in the deaths of the three men, AG Nandlall said the COI “allowed a very fair, civilised and legal opportunity to allow those who believed that they had evidence, to come forward and produce that evidence.”
He also pointed to the fact that many of the persons who were giving their views on the issue before the commission was established, did not “produce themselves before the commission. Either they failed to do so, or the evidence which they produced did not support the contentions which they were advancing prior to the establishment of the commission.”
The Commission therefore, “provided that fundamental forum for there to be a resolution of these issues that were hanging in the air,” the AG said.
He posited that prior to the establishment of the Linden COI, many persons had already condemned the police for what transpired at Linden and many were also firmly of the view that Minister Rohee was somehow implicated.
“As a result of the commission and the evidence which was presented, I am sure that these perceptions have been altered drastically. In fact, whatever perception existed in relation to Minister Rohee’s involvement ought to dissipate,” he observed.
The AG posited that the evidence in fact extricated and exonerated Minister Rohee rather than implicated him, “and one may argue that the evidence also does the same in relation to the Guyana Police Force.”
He noted that significantly, the witnesses who came forward did not do so at the behest of the Police Force or the Commission, “but at the behest of lawyers who appeared for the persons aggrieved.”
Additionally, there was evidence from a ballistics expert from the United Kingdom whose role was to say whether the bullets used and the spent shells found were those which were used by the police. He pronounced that they were not.
There were also other witnesses, called by lawyers who were appearing for the aggrieved persons, who “gave evidence that was indeed damaging to the case that they came to support. So you had all these things which allowed an opportunity for many of these matters that were unclear to become clear by virtue of this evidence.”