PNCR welcomes Pres. Jagdeo with placards at airport

Aug 14, 2009 News

…accuses Top Cop of working on political directives

A section of the picketing exercise at CJIA welcoming President Bharrat Jagdeo

Chief Whip of the People’s National Congress Reform Lance Carberry, yesterday, said that from all indications by developments based on calls for investigations the Commissioner of Police Henry Greene is acting on political directives.
According to Carberry, his party has duly noted that at a press conference co-hosted with the Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee, on July 31, last, the Commissioner identified as one of the dangerous elements in the society “people who dislike the Government.”
The Chief Whip said, “It is statements like these which make the average citizen wonder if the Commissioner of Police is as independent as he ought to be.”
He said that over time the PNCR has been concerned that Greene seemed reluctant to launch an investigation into the developments of murder and drug trafficking in Guyana as revealed in the recent trial of Robert Simels in New York.
“At this point in the game the nonsense that Guyana should wait until the trial is complete is merely a red herring…Roger Khan has pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in Guyana…The Court documents in the United States have identified him as the leader of the phantom gang which was responsible for the deaths of more than 200 persons, mostly Afro-Guyanese.”
This, he said, was more than sufficient evidence to trigger a probe in this country.
According to Carberry unless there is something to hide, such a probe must be undertaken with dispatch or the integrity of the Commissioner of Police himself and some of his senior officers will be on the line.
Carberry said that his party is of the belief that the fight against crime in Guyana, in all of its forms and at all levels, must be undertaken by a re-equipped, well manned and independent Police Force led by an independent Commissioner of Police.
“The introduction of political direction into the day to day running of the Guyana Police Force and the overall policy decisions of the organisation has led to unfortunate results.”
He said, “Rogue cops torture our citizens and are given political cover…Investigations which should be unfettered by political considerations are undermined by questions of loyalty to the political directorate.”
Carberry was adamant that it is time these things came to an end given that the alternative is that the Rule of Law will suffer further attrition, crime will spiral out of control and Guyana will be looking into the abyss of lawlessness and anarchy.
He also updated operatives on the recent union of the opposition parties clarifying that the absence of their presence in the recent extra-parliamentary was agreed to by all of the parties.
He also deemed their activities as having some success, which, he said, is evident in the administration’s frenzied response.
He spoke of the dossier cataloguing the government’s human rights abuses, including extra-judicial killings, torture and complicity with known organised crime gangs and narco-traffickers and the resulting corruption in high office.
This dossier, upon completion, will be submitted to local, regional and international bodies, including the courts with the appropriate jurisdiction, and released to the media and the public.
Meanwhile, Wednesday night, the supporters of the PNCR greeted Head of State Bharrat Jagdeo at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport in their continued picketing exercises.
A source within the party stated that one of the objectives of the airport visit was to have incoming passengers be alerted to exactly what was transpiring in Guyana as well as to having the outgoing passengers inform members of the Diaspora on the situation locally.
The picketers also visited the President at State House in the dead of the night where there was another session of picketing.