Latest update January 17th, 2025 6:30 AM
Torture Allegations… Opposition to move to UN, OAS, Int’l Human Rights Institutions
Robert Corbin
The political opposition is gearing to move to the United Nations, International Human Rights Institutions and the Organisation of American States (OAS) among others in a quest for justice for torture victims in Guyana.
This was confirmed by leader of the People’s National Congress reform, Robert Corbin, yesterday. He said that the move will be fulfilling a commitment by the party that vowed to bring to justice those army ranks guilty of torture.
“This silly pretext that it was just roughing up when there have been deaths is ludicrous,” said Chairman of the Alliance for Change, Khemraj Ramjattan. “We have to carry the motion to the United Nations. We have to support the PNC on this motion.”
A motion titled ‘Allegations of torture made against the Joint Services of Guyana’ was defeated in the National Assembly by the ruling party despite staunch opposition.
The government benches dismissed the motion as irrelevant, given that all of the resolve clauses were already catered for. Further, the government side argued, the motion was riddled with allegations.
The motion that was tabled sought to have the House call on the government to honour its treaty obligations under Article 12 of the United Nation’s Convention against torture and establish an impartial and independent Commission to examine and investigate the allegations of torture made against the Joint Services in Guyana.
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.”
The purported victims of the barbaric acts were Patrick Sumner, Victor Jones, David Leander, Michael Dunn, Alvin Wilson and Sharth Robertson.
PNCR executive member Aubrey Norton told the House during Monday’s debate 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.”
“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.
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