Were these men Africans or Guyanese?

Aug 31, 2008 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
Commissioner of Police Henry Greene said the two male Africans were identified by two prison officers as wanted men Rondell Rawlins, called ‘Fine Man’ and Jermaine Charles, called ‘Skinny’.

This is one of two paragraphs which appeared within the lead story of Friday’s (29-08-08) Guyana Chronicle. Was ‘Fine Man’ from Africa?

All along we were led to believe he was Guyanese. An earlier paragraph in the same story read: “On descending upon the scene, they (the ranks) found the body of a male African lying on the ground.

He was picked up and rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation where he was pronounced dead on arrival,” Greene told reporters.

I am curious to know whether ‘Fine Man’ and some of his henchmen were indeed from Africa. Was this gang getting assistance from Africa in the form of ‘freedom fighters’?

Within certain circles in the US there was a rumour circulating recently that the Guyana Government had recruited “bounty hunters’ from Israel and Pakistan to hunt down ‘Fine Man’ and his gang.

While much credence was not given to this rumour, the report of Africans being killed suggests that this gang was not made up only of Guyanese, and now makes one wonder whether this whole situation has taken on an international dimension.

If in fact ‘Fine Man’ and his cohorts are Guyanese then the Commissioner, if quoted accurately, made a significant mistake and should not have attempted to identify the ethnicity of the dead men.

Does the police media bulletin in Guyana as a rule make reference to the ethnic background of persons killed, arrested or who are the victims of crime?

This is an issue which the Ethnic Relations Commission may wish to pursue to determine whether either the Chronicle or the Commissioner, or both, unnecessarily introduced the issue of race into a very sensitive national problem, thereby creating a situation that could incite racial conflict.
Wesley Kirton