No objection to releasing clandestine video footage - PPP

No objection to releasing clandestine video footage – PPP

Sep 04, 2008 News

– A decision for security forces, says Ramotar

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) says it does not object to the release of the clandestine video footage of members of the Rondell ‘Fine Man’ Rawlins gang operating aback Buxton on the East Coast of Demerara.
This is according to the party’s General Secretary, Donald Ramotar, who was speaking at a press briefing yesterday at the party’s headquarters, Freedom House.
Ramotar was responding to questions in light of the call by Alliance for Change Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan for the footage to be released in light of the recent killings of some key members of the notorious gang.
Ramjattan is of the view that the way has been cleared and there is now no excuse for President Bharrat Jagdeo to release the purported footage of the gang operating in Buxton.
Ramjattan had stated that the public has a right to know who were the people “cavorting with the beasts.”
Ramotar explained yesterday that the release of the footage was not the responsibility of his party but rather, that of the security forces.
He also used the opportunity to place on record the party’s congratulations to the security forces in the recent success it made in the fight against crime, namely the killing of the “leaders of the murderous criminal gang which was responsible for the killing of dozens of persons…The PPP also supports the work that the security forces are presently engaged in to dismantle the infrastructure which was built up by the bandits.”
He expressed the party’s optimism that that the recent achievement of the security forces would contribute to bringing closure for the family of the victims of the “Fine Man/Skinny” gang.
“This is also a great victory for the peace loving people of Buxton whose village was held hostage by the criminals.”
President Jagdeo had earlier in the year announced that the security forces are in possession of video tapes that contain gripping evidence of the ‘Fine Man’ (Rondell Rawlins) gang operating on the East Coast and it was very likely that persons whose images appeared on a tape recording meeting with gunmen in Buxton could be detained soon.
However, after several months, only persons who have allegedly committed heinous crimes have been shot and killed by the Joint Services.
“Some people would be embarrassed…The same people who run around the place and call for inquiries and speak about the Joint Services, they will be thoroughly embarrassed,” the President remarked about the footage.
He went on to say that when the footage is released, “You are going to see some very damning things come out about linkages. I know for sure, because I see the security forces’ reports…Now I have seen a lot of political figures are linked, too.”
He said that the video footage existed even before the Lusignan massacre.
However, the tape was not released because it would have compromised the clandestine operation that led to the footage being obtained.
This was the basis of Ramjattan’s call in that there were no more excuses, given a number of the criminals on the tape are dead.
Jagdeo had explained that some of the footage was taken from houses in Buxton and a release of the tape would have shown the angle from which it was taken.
The other set of footage was taken by informants who had hidden cameras and who were sitting next to the criminals.
“If we make that public, we would betray who the informants were and the houses from which the surveillance was taken.
But clearly when the faces were extracted from the footage, and they were available to the security forces, they (the forces) looked at them even before Lusignan,” according to the President.
Apart from “Fine Man” and “Skinny”, several persons whose images were purportedly extracted from the footage have been shot and killed by the Joint Services in recent months.
Among the men fingered in the released photographs and now dead are 17-year-old Otis Fiffee, called ‘Mud Up’; Cecil Ramcharran, 42, called Uncle Willie; and 16-year-old Robin Chung, called ‘Chung Boy.’