Victims were ‘roughed up’, not tortured – Robert Persaud

Oct 29, 2008 News

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Opposition vows to ensure perpetrators are brought to justice
On Monday evening, the People’s Progressive Party Civic rejected the main opposition party’s motion on torture, calling for evidence of the allegations while dismissing the motion as irrelevant and riddled with accusations.
According to executive member of the PPP/C, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud, the allegations of torture mentioned did not conform with the United Nation’s definition, and however deplorable, it was more or less the “roughing up” of suspects.

He said that the motion was irrelevant, given that what the motion sought was already in place.
Speaking to the much talked about torture report that was not released to the National Assembly as promised by the ruling party, Persaud said that there was no mention of torture, while emphasizing that police ranks are trained in basic human rights by the Guyana Human Rights Association.
Responding to allegations that there may be political directives allowing for the use of torture, he was adamant that no such order exists. “No one in the Joint Services is engaged in torture…We will not tolerate torture…It has no place in a civilized society.”
He added also that a person must assess the context of the motion, making reference to the post 2002 jail break and the reign of “organised” terror that followed, which saw the police themselves becoming targets.
Persaud told the National Assembly that the public had demanded that the Joint Services call for firm, lawful action to arrest the lawlessness, and, as such, suspected persons were interrogated.
He added that no one would dispute that there was some ‘roughing up,’ but, according to Persaud, it does not amount to torture.
The minister added, also, that if a person feels that at any time he was violated, then there was recourse, such as the courts and the Office of Professional Responsibility of the Guyana Police Force.
He also questioned the standing of the PNCR to question human rights violations, given the history of the party which, he contended, had no moral authority to question human rights violations.
PNCR Member of Parliament Aubrey Norton, who laid the motion in the National Assembly in February, reminded the House that, according to Article One of the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, torture means, “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of committing, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such a pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of, or with the consent or acquiescence of, a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering in or incidental to lawful sanctions.”
He also made mention of the fact that some politically linked elements in the Joint Services intentionally inflicted on Patrick Sumner and Victor Jones pain and suffering with the aim of obtaining information and intimidating and coercing them.
Further, what the Joint Services did to Patrick Sumner, Victor Jones, David Leander, Michael Dunn, Alvin Wilson and Sharth Robertson meets every criteria of torture as set out by the United Nations Convention Against Torture….This was clearly torture….It was intentional, it inflicted pain and suffering, it was intimidating and coercing, it involved public officials, and its purpose was to obtain information or a confession.
As it relates to whether it was discriminatory or not, an independent and impartial commission of inquiry should be allowed to pronounce on that.”
Norton noted that, were the motion to be defeated, the party would take the issue to the United Nations, making reference to the fact that persons such as Augusto Pinochet were hauled before the UN Tribunal for human rights violations.
He also made reference to the Nuremburg trial, where several people were convicted for war crimes and it was also pointed out that no person in the chain of command, be it top or bottom, was safe as a result of following instructions.
Norton told the House that, in September 2007, more than a year ago, Patrick Sumner and Victor Jones, two residents of Buxton, were picked up by members of the Joint Services during one of their exercises.
They were taken away by these members of the Joint Services to Police Headquarters, Eve Leary and Camp Ayanganna, after which they were locked up at Brickdam.
They were later whisked away to some point on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway, where they were brutally tortured by members of the Joint Services, according to Norton.
“The little group of criminals in the Joint Services, and criminals they are, since torture is a crime — not an ordinary crime, but a crime against humanity — proceeded to brutalise two citizens of Guyana, when they are paid to protect them.”
He noted that Sumner, who is a Rastafarian, recalled that, “They really beat us, and I think they woulda kill I.”
Norton added that the two men said that “They were placed on cardboard face down with their feet bound and eyes blindfolded, and beaten in their heads,” while being repeatedly asked about guns and gunmen.
They also said that a corrosive liquid was used to burn them before they were thrown into a pool of water on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway.
“After these acts by these few barbarians, who call themselves policemen and soldiers, Sumner and Jones were released by their torturers with seared genitals, their bodies lacerated with burns and bruises, and Guyana had written a sad page in its history, one in which some persons in the Joint Services, with tacit support of this Government, had resorted to torture as a means of extracting information and obtaining intelligence, in violation of the Constitution of Guyana and the United Nations Convention Against Torture. For, had they not had the acquiescence of the Government, they would have been already charged and placed before the courts…
“On the issue of penalties to punish tortures, under the Criminal Law Offence Act, a suspect could receive between seven years in prison and up to a death sentence”.
It raises the questions, therefore: why weren’t those who tortured Sumner and Jones placed before the courts, and why is the report on the investigation into torture by the Joint Services not yet available…The answer is obvious to all, they were the mere executors of Government policy, and, as a consequence, the Government is obligated to protect them.”
Leader of the Alliance For Change, Raphael Trotman, who also supported the motion tabled by Norton, told the House that every Government in the world, at some point in time, had to deal with the issue of torture. Further, every security force in the world has been accused, at some point in time, of excesses. “But it is how we deal with these allegations.”
He made reference to the definition of torture used by Norton and Persaud and said that the definition should not be interpreted in a restrictive form.
He pointed to the definition used by the Red Cross organisation, which deems torture as any ill treatment.
He urged in vain for the Government to support the motion, saying that to not support the motion will be for the Government to condemn itself.
As it relates to the long-awaited torture report, Trotman said that if the Government was so confident that it had nothing to hide, then it should be made public for scrutiny.
Regarding the UN Convention against Torture, to which Guyana is a signatory, Trotman urged that the country should not be selective in its dealing with the UN. He pointed to the recent request for help on the issue of the Guyana/Suriname border fiasco and at the same time not abiding by its (UN) conventions.
Regarding the request for evidence of torture, Trotman produced in the House a pair of blood-stained trousers that, he contended, belonged to a client of his that was a victim of torture.

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