THE JOINT OPPOSITION FORGOT THE SNAKE BITE VICTIMS

Oct 25, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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There were at least two persons who died as a result of hit and run accidents during the crime wave of 2001-2006. I hope that the joint opposition parties add these two names to the dossier that they are compiling because it seems as if they are simply stringing together all the violent deaths that occurred during that period and attributing these to the activities of Roger Khan.
Then we had two persons who died after being bitten by a snake. The joint opposition had better add these names to their dossier because we do not know whether it was Roger Khan who sent the snake to bite them.
The biggest joke of all is the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA). They have submitted the names of sixty persons whose deaths are unexplained. This is a disgraceful approach being taken by the GHRA because while one can excuse the main opposition as being politically opportunistic, the GHRA as a human rights body must know that it will lose all credibility by simply submitting this information without the requisite evidence linking them to the phantoms.

The joint opposition’s position must be understood. They have to be seen as doing something in the face of the political capital that can be made from what emerged in the courts of New York. However, they too face an embarrassment because one recalls that the very two hundred killings which they are now threatening to lay at the feet of the Roger Khan gang, was previously laid at the feet of the alleged death squad which the opposition had claimed was being directed by a government minister.
An investigation into those allegations exonerated the minister but the charade this did not quite down the din about the minister being responsible for a squad which committed genocide in Guyana. Now tell me, how can the same deaths which the opposition attributed to the alleged death squad purported to be headed by a minister, now be attributed to a phantom squad associated with Roger Khan. Is it possible for the persons to be killed by one squad and then be killed again by another squad?

What is needed is an investigation into all the unsolved killings in Guyana, including and especially those committed by the “Talibans.” This whole thing was started after the PNCR lost the 2001 elections and trouble broke out at Buxton which became a haven for prison escapees. From this base, originated some of the most senseless, ruthless and cold- blooded violence ever seen in this country. The phantoms, were, was a response to the Talibans who it was said was on a crusade of murder and mayhem to liberate Guyana from the PPP. Even an American diplomat playing golf was kidnapped and taken hostage by them.
Do not let us fool ourselves that our two hundred innocent persons were slaughtered by the phantoms. A great many of those killed were killed in clashed with the police; the deaths of countless including policemen were at the hands of the criminals holed up in Buxton; many were law abiding citizens but quite a few of those who were killed had questionable histories.
This is not to excuse any killing. Any unlawful killing is wrong and what is needed is an investigation into all of these deaths, an investigation aimed at assembling evidence and not in evincing suspicion based on wild assumptions.

The joint opposition has a right to be suspect of any investigation summoned by the police and this has to do with their own suspicions that the police may have been in league with those who carried out some of the extra judicial killings as well as the fact that the police themselves were under attack by the Talibans and thus likely to have turned a blind eye to some of the killings.
This, however, does not give to the joint opposition the right to lump all the suspicious deaths that occurred and lay them at the feet of one man. The opposition in compiling its dossier must ensure that a prima facie case has been made out against those to whom it is pointing fingers.
The main opposition must also be reminded that it was burnt once before in similar circumstances. A man named George Bacchus went to them and told then a fancy story that he was in a room at the home of a government minister on the night when some men were executed on Robb Street. He told them, and the prepared affidavits to this effect, that a call came through saying that the targets were identified and that the minister then ordered the targets eliminated.
This prompted a Commission of Inquiry and when the commissioners checked the phone records of the minister’s home, they found that no call was made. They also found that this alleged star witness, who once claimed he was grazing cows at four o clock one morning, was a discredited witness.
The joint opposition has a dossier of unexplained deaths from 2001 to 2006. Other dossiers can be complied about unexplained deaths in Guyana since that time, including the murder and degutting of four fishermen. To which dossier are these deaths going to be added?

TO BE CONTINUED

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