More opposition antics on security

Nov 05, 2008 Peeping Tom

In a matter of days the Torture Report will be made public because the government had taken that decision ever since the calls for the report to be made public became more strident. This all began when the Joint Services started in earnest to hunt down some criminals who had been making life in the country difficult.
Gunmen with seeming impunity went into people’s homes and killed them. This was the case in Lusignan and Agricola. Gunmen also went to communities and dealt their trademark – death by the bullet. Sometimes the gunmen went even further. They beheaded their victims and sometimes burned their bodies.
Guyana was scared because there were people and communities that supported the gunmen by providing them with food and shelter. They refused to heed the appeals to avoid supporting criminals and ignored the passage of legislation making harbouring criminals a serious offence.
Things reached the stage where police stations came under attack and none was more telling than a gun attack on the Headquarters of the Guyana Police Force. People then began to see barricades being put up on the streets around police stations and armed policemen manning these barracks.
The Joint Services then went on the attack and arrested people who were identified as having links to the criminals. These people were interrogated and the Torture Report suggests that there was some measure of ill-treatment and physical contact between the interrogators and the person being interrogated.
The government has always said that it is against torture, therefore when the reports came out that some people were tortured, the government ordered an investigation. That investigation was free from outside influence and made some startling conclusions. For example, it noted that there were no senior ranks when the interrogations were taking place.
It also concluded that the interrogators need to be trained in the skills of interrogation, something that suggests that all was not well and that some of the claims might have had some merit.
President Bharrat Jagdeo admitted that there might have been excesses and in his own words, said that the government may not be able to avoid excesses but he promised that in every case where there are reports of physical abuse there will be investigations.
The government took notes and debated the release of the report, but there was a problem, because names were clearly stated, and in the past this posed problems for those who happened to be engaged in the fight against crime. Last week, reporters suggested that the names be expunged from the report and that the facts be released.
What is not known is that the Cabinet had already taken this decision, and any comments to the contrary were unfortunate to say the least, or an oversight.
The Guyana Human Rights Association stated that the longer it takes for the report to be made public, the less credible that report would seem to the people. The government also knows this and since it is all about credibility, the speedy release of the report has been promised.
The release of the report is not likely to see a halt in the criticisms and the allegations of torture. One aspect of the report suggests that one of those making the allegations actually sustained self-inflicted injuries when he jumped some eighteen feet to the ground and then came into contact with razor wire in a bid to escape from his interrogators.
It is the same with some of the people who were detained in the lock ups of police stations. Many of them abused themselves but the police got blamed. Even when the detainees hanged themselves people blamed the authorities.
Fortunately every report is investigated. The government has nothing to hide and whenever requested, the reports will be made public.
This is a far cry from the days when there was torture but the government held itself above the people and could not care about the criticisms. It has not escaped notice that some of those who presided over torture in the past are now calling for investigations into reports of torture. It would be nice if they could produce some of the reports of investigations they conducted instead of seeking to blame the government.

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