“Those who don’t hear will feel” – Rohee

Aug 04, 2009 News

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Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee, has declared that the Administration will not allow itself to be distracted from its focus to investigate issues committed against individuals, families and the society as a whole, such as the recent fire at the Ministry of Health.
Rohee, speaking at the commissioning of the Guyana Police Force Data Centre yesterday, said that the recent incidents in the country are adequate enough to alert the Force not to drop its guard. There are still certain ‘hard of hearing elements’ in the society who are bent on disturbing the peace, he said.
“I want to warn, those who don’t hear will feel,” the Minister declared.
According to the Home Affairs Minister, the work of the police investigators who quickly solved the suspected arson at the Ministry of Health Headquarters has led to the uprooting and exposure of a whole anti-government network.
Rohee had earlier stated that from the evidence gathered so far, it is clear to him that the act was conceived within a political context.
He stopped short of pointing fingers at any specific group, claiming that investigations were still ongoing.
He had said that investigators have been able to establish that the act was a well orchestrated plan with a number of persons involved, some of whom are well known in the society and some who are underlings who were hired to perpetrate this act.
“But the intellectual authors of this act have been established. We know that persons were promised sums of money and then sent on errands to purchase bottles, to purchase channa and to purchase gasoline. There is incontrovertible evidence that would eventually be made public,” the Minister had declared at a press conference a week ago.
Yesterday the Home Affairs Minister said that efforts are now being made by some politicians to throw dust in the eyes of the public by trying to make believe that the Law enforcement Agencies and the Administration are the culprits and not those who perpetrated the act of arson.
“Let me make it clear; we never gave any instructions to anyone to beat or torture any suspect. So let’s dismiss that allegation. We said we will investigate the matter and it is being investigated.
The notion that Minister Ramsammy and the Administration conspired to burn down the Ministry is utter rubbish. Only an experienced sleazeball can conjure up such imaginative foolishness,” Rohee told the gathering at Police Headquarters Eve Leary.
Additionally, the Home Affairs Minister debunked as political wickedness the declarations by some that the fire scene was cleared prematurely and hastily.
“This is another piece of political wickedness hatched by those who live at a place where such conspiracy theories are hatched and bred. The fact of the mater is that all the Standard Operational Procedures (SOP) were followed first by the Guyana Fire Service and secondly by the Police before the scene was handed over to the Ministry of Health.”
Rohee said that it is interesting to note that those who have axes to grind with the Administration have never condemned the burning down of the Ministry of Health;
“Did Benschop condemn it? Did Witter condemn it? Did the PNC condemn it?
Did “Justice for Jermaine” condemn it? No, none of them did. Now isn’t that interesting? What does this silence tell us?”
“And what about the two suspects who were allowed to “escape” from the Providence Police Station? Did Benschop express his concern about it? Did Witter express his concern about it? Did the PNC express their concern about it?
“Did anyone else save and except the Administration and the Law Enforcement Agencies express concerns about that escape? That is something we should take note of,” the Home Affairs Minister stated.
Activist Mark Benschop in an invited comment told Kaieteur News that he has been condemning the act of burning the Ministry of Health and has been calling for a thorough investigation.
Benschop said that on several occasions he condemned the act on his online radio station which he said is available to listeners around the world.
“In any society when a public building is burnt it is a cause for concern. I have been stating all along that it is an act against the citizens and is something that ought to be thoroughly investigated.”
Benschop, Trade Unionists, Norris Witter and Lincoln Lewis have been demonstrating against alleged human rights violations and the lack of investigations into death squad allegations.
With regards to the escape from the Providence Police station lock-ups by two of the suspected arsonists, Benschop said that he had indicated that it was wrong but also needed a clinical investigation.
“I am not hearing Minister Rohee condemning torture; I am not hearing him condemning the conditions at Brickdam and Camp Street, I am not hearing him condemning activities of the ‘Phantom squad and the killing of Ronald Waddell,” Benschop stated.
According to Rohee, investigators never found any evidence of Minister Ramsammy purchasing channa, empty rum bottles or gasoline days before the fire took place.
On the contrary, he said, all those whom the Police have so far rounded up and placed before the Courts including the two escapees and others whose identities are yet to be revealed and made public are suspected to be part of the conspiratorial network.
He pointed out that what surprised many was the speed with which the investigation began to unravel leading to the arrests made by the Police.
“The Police did not have to call on any “phantom” group to assist them in unearthing the network. They accomplished it themselves by dint of painstaking, experienced and skillful investigations,” Rohee said.
He added that there are some in society who do not like to see Police successes since they would like to see the Police fail so that they can laugh at them and heap scorn on them, but that era is slowly but surely coming to a close.

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