Torture allegations…

Nov 09, 2008 News

‘Let the PNCR publish the names’
Dr Luncheon

The Government and the main opposition party, PNCR, seem to be going in circles as it relates to the revelations of the findings in the torture report. The People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) is threatening to release the names of the army ranks implicated in the torture report, if the Government refuses to do it.
When questioned about this, at his weekly post Cabinet media briefing at the Office of the President yesterday, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, said that he has heard the very threat made by the PNCR before, and that the party can go ahead and release the names of the ranks.
“It was the reckless resort of media houses in disclosing the names of operatives in the security sector, in the Joint Services fighting crime, fighting drugs, that have contributed to the demise of some of them… and the PNC has said that they would release the names; let them go ahead and release it,” Dr. Luncheon told members of the media.
He added that the sanitised version of the report would soon be made available, but he could not say exactly when.
He was, however, advised that the sanitary procedures of the report are still to be completed.
At its press conference on Thursday, the PNCR had stated that the party was adamant about filing charges against the implicated ranks, and that the perpetrators should also be reminded that they are individually answerable for their acts of torture.
The Alliance For Change (AFC) had also said that to publish the report without the names of the ranks implicated would see the entire Guyana Defence Force being blamed for the allegations of torture against citizens and colleagues.
President Jagdeo, on Saturday last, told media operatives that he would release the report without the names of the ranks, given that he was fearful that their faces would also be published, and hence would be subject to discrimination.
The PNCR is of the belief that since neither the original nor the edited versions of the torture report has been released as yet, it would only qualify as farce and comedy rather than an example of a Government making a serious effort to respect the fundamental rights of the citizens of Guyana, as enshrined in and guaranteed by the Constitution.
According to the main opposition party, the PPP/C and the Jagdeo regime are actively pursuing a propaganda campaign to persuade the public that members of the GDF did not torture our citizens but merely ‘roughed’ them up or interrogated them aggressively. The party added that the unedited publication of the self-serving torture report would have enabled citizens to judge for themselves the nature of the acts committed by senior ranks of the Guyana Defence Force.