Here are the facts that support Burnham’s involvement in Rodney’s assassination

Jul 01, 2013 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Forbes Burnham dominated and ruled Guyana with an iron fist. He dominated the armed forces, government, state and PNC party. Walter Rodney was Burnham’s biggest threat because of Rodney’s appeal to the PNC’s African constituency. Further, Rodney matched Burnham intellectually and charismatically and surpassed him morally. A major political and international figure like Walter Rodney could not be assassinated in Guyana without Burnham’s knowledge and endorsement. The WPA threatened Burnham when it became a political entity in May 1979. Three months later, in August 1979, Burnham replaced the armed forces leadership with his loyalists. Between November 1979 to Rodney’s death on June 13, 1980, four WPA activists were killed by the Burnhamite-controlled security forces (Ohene Koama on November 18, 1979, Claude Bovell on November 18, 1979 and Edward Dublin on February 29, 1980). Within 13 months of its formation, the WPA suffered the most casualties of any political party in Guyana’s history. Burnham wanted a new constitution promulgated in 1980. Rodney was killed before that new constitution was passed. Minette Bacchus says Rodney was stockpiling arms and therefore, planning to overthrow the Burnham regime and kill Burnham. Logically, wouldn’t Burnham want to kill Rodney who was plotting to kill him?
The Burnham defenders say Rodney had an accident and blew himself up (see Forbes Burnham’s statement from 2.46 to 3.22 of the Youtube’s video titled ‘War Stories Trailers’ posted by Mykal Cushnie). Rodney’s death was no accident. Logically, it can only be an accident if Rodney knew he was holding a bomb. No rational human being, after losing three of his bodyguards and lieutenants, knowingly tests a live bomb that could be remotely triggered in the enclosed space of a car (a luxury in those days) and in the company of his beloved brother. Gregory Smith admitted in his book a bomb could be triggered in a walkie-talkie by external forces hacking its channels. His body was intact. His brother, Donald Rodney, sitting one foot away from him had only minor injuries. The bomb exploded upwards, not outwards. The car roof was damaged. The bomb’s small blast force and upward not outward projection means it could have barely dented the Georgetown prison’s metal fence. This was a bomb made to kill a human being, not blow up a metal fence. Further, the prison goes into standard lockdown at night and there is no reason to bomb a prison in lockdown.
The PNC never released the reports of the two British bomb experts, Dr. Frank Skuse and Dr. Hugh Johnson. Dr. Skuse was later disgraced in the UK for many flawed findings. The PNC knew Rodney was secretly using walkie-talkie sets because it had seized two sets from his home in a July 1979 raid (source is June 17, 1980 telex from Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Guyana Ambassador to USA). So, the PNC knew from as early as July 1979 this was one way of getting to Rodney. Smith was a GDF member with badge number 4141. The GDF flew Gregory Smith to safety at Kwakwani and the Guyana government smuggled Smith into French Guiana. Smith’s girlfriend found work at the Guyana Embassy in Canada after she was exposed. Smith’s home at 50 Russell Street, Georgetown was empty and locked since the night of Rodney’s assassination. In a country notorious for lax police response, a large group of Death Squad and security personnel reached the explosion within minutes. Two Colt vans carrying Death Squad members were seen double parked near the jail just before the bombing. A June 14, 1980 Ministry of Information statement said two Beat-Duty Constables saw Rodney’s parked vehicle near the prison and then several minutes later there was an explosion. Why not confront a parked car near a prison at night unless you are waiting for a bomb to explode? Security personnel in close proximity to Rodney that fateful night offer yet another opportunity for a remote trigger of the walkie-talkie bomb.
The pre-prepared PNC radio statements at 6 am on June 14, 1980 said the victim was unrecognizable and that the explosion took place right next to the prison wall. Rodney was instructed by Smith to peer into the walkie-talkie which would have blown his head off and made him unrecognizable but he didn’t. However, Rodney’s vehicle was one block away from the metal prison wall when he died. The PNC later admitted this fact with its flyer later that morning of June 14, 1980 stating quite crudely, “Rodney blows himself on way to blow up the prison.” A WPA press release dated June 17, 1980 said a senior PNC security official was overheard around 8.45 pm at a party stating he was leaving to meet with Burnham and other PNC heavyweights because Rodney was killed. Clearly, if we believe this statement, Burnham knew it was Rodney who was killed yet his government issued propaganda to the contrary at 6 am the following morning. The only plausible explanation is to cover up the killing. Burnham was in Guyana when Rodney died. The 1980 US State Department review on Guyana states “available information indicates that the government was implicated in the June 13 death of WPA activist Walter Rodney and the subsequent removal of key witnesses from the country.” Forbes Burnham is now preserved on video (see above) suggesting a theory of Rodney’s death by accident that has always been utterly rejected by forensic, logical and factual evidence and rejected by the US findings. Minette Bacchus and her pals can flounce, dance, prance, masquerade and revel all they want around these facts but they continue to point unflaggingly to Burnham’s role in Rodney’s assassination.
M. Maxwell

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