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Consulate in Barbados dealt with this matter

Apr 28, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
I refer to a news item in your paper (“No arrest for Guyanese murdered in Barbados”, 19 April 2009).
An interviewee, one Abiola Alleyne and described as a relative of the deceased, is quoted as saying the Guyana Consulate in the island has done nothing for the family.
It will be recalled that a Guyanese national, Mr. Christopher Anthony Griffith, was shot dead by unknown persons at an entertainment establishment in the island last year.
On checking my log postings on the matter, no person by the name of Abiola Alleyne, or any other relatives of the deceased have contacted the Consulate for assistance. To my knowledge, they have also not made a report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Guyana: the Ministry has not contacted me about the matter. We sympathise with any relatives on the death of Mr. Griffith but procedures have to be followed.
To claim, as the interviewee does, that the Consulate has done nothing on this case is a falsehood. When the crime took place, I contacted the police and gathered certain information. I also made a point of visiting Ms. Samuels, who was wounded during the incident, in hospital.
The Kaieteur News should show more responsibility in matters like this rather than try and sensationalise things. You are doing this by giving publicity to claims by persons that the crime was a hateful one against Guyanese in Barbados and the authorities are targeting the entertainment establishment for wrong reasons. There is no factual basis for this. Aside from information from the Barbados police, the Consulate has received certain intelligence and other information regarding this matter.
It does not support any argument that the shooting death was a hate crime against Guyanese. I made this clear to Kaieteur News in one of my previous communications to you (and which was published several weeks after submission) following a misleading editorial on the matter.
Relatives of Samuels came to the Consulate urging me to speak out on the matter. Aside from the fact that investigations are continuing in this particular case, the Consulate has contacted the Barbados government entity (the police) and taking into account the afore cited intelligence received, protocol requires that the Consulate cannot publicly get involved in this matter. Aside from sympathising with them on the death of Mr. Griffith, I reminded them the Consulate has on many occasions spoken out for Guyanese, and contacted the authorities, in an appropriate way.
The other allegations from the interviewee including tardiness on the part of the Barbadian police are speculation.
Finally, I am disappointed that your reporter did not contact the Consulate to get my response to the allegations and speculation made by the interviewee. Isn’t contacting the person complained about (that is, the Consul) to get his/her side of the story an elementary tenet of journalism? Senior editors at Kaieteur News know my contact information including my cell phone number.
NORMAN R. FARIA
(Guyana Honorary Consul in Barbados)

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