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Arrest was not politically motivated- Rohee

Jul 17, 2009 News

Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee, has denied that the arrest of trade unionists Norris Witter and Lincoln Lewis, and social activist Mark Benschop was politically motivated.
Rohee told Kaieteur News that the arrest of the three was based on the judgement of the police.
The three men were detained on Wednesday when they protested outside the office of Police Commissioner Henry Greene, demanding that he investigate allegations that a Guyanese drug lord headed a phantom squad that killed or caused to disappear several young men during the 2002-2006 crime wave.
They were each subsequently released on $10,000 bail each after spending a night in what has been described as deplorable conditions in the Brickdam lock-ups.

The Home Affairs Minister said that the law is politically neutral, that it has nothing to do with who is in the government. The law is expected to be applied irrespective of which party is in the government
“So the law shouldn’t have political favours,” he said.
On Wednesday night attorney at law Khemraj Ramjattan who was once a colleague of Rohee in the People’s Progressive Party told the media outside the Brickdam lock-ups where the arrested trio was being held, that it is ironic that the Home Affairs Minister is
presiding over a police force at a time when ‘atrocities’ are taking place against the citizens.
“The last time I was here for something like this, it was in relation to peaceful picketing and Mr. Clement Rohee was locked up like that. Mr Rohee was indicating that it was so wrong and unlawful and now he’s home affairs minister and he’s allowing this to happen.
It’s terrible. It seems like it’s just cyclical at this time in time. It happened several years ago and today we see this happening again. So it’s rather a big irony. Those who suffered and are now in ministerial positions are having others suffer exactly like them,” Ramjattan pointed out.

Defending his actions while he was a member of the then opposition People’s Progressive Party, the Home Affairs Minister said that the PPP faced repression under the ruling government.
According to Rohee, the situation is different today. He said that no political party is facing political persecution.
Rohee did not deny the fact that it was Ramjattan and others who had helped during his arrest and expressed gratitude to them for that.
However, he said that the difference then was that he was ‘dragged on his back’ from Public Buildings and placed into the said lock-ups and was denied the right to an attorney for three days.
He said out that, then the police had felt that he had violated the law and had instituted charges against him, which were subsequently dismissed by the court.
“If the police in their judgement consider that activity to be a breach of the law then the police is expected to act in the same way they acted when I was in a protest. In the same way the police felt then that Rohee was violating the law, it is the same way the police felt that these people were violating the law,” Rohee said.
The Minister told this newspaper that he does not believe that the rights of citizens are being trampled upon, with specific reference to the recent actions of the police.

He noted that there were several protests prior to last Wednesday’s Eve Leary protest and no one was arrested.
“Peaceful protest was never denied. But I am saying that there are limits to peaceful protests,” the Minister told this newspaper.
He added that oppositions would always feel that the police are taking instructions from the political directorate, pointing out that this situation is not peculiar to Guyana.
The Home Affairs Minister said that he supports Police Commissioner Henry Greene that any allegations against the perceived inaction of the force with regards to certain investigations should be supported with evidence.
“When people make wild statements that the force is corrupt and the Commissioner is corrupt, if they feel that is so, why don’t they present the evidence?” Rohee said.

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