THE US CAN HELP

Apr 12, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The report on the accident was gruesome; reading about it sent shivers down your spine. Yet it was not an extraordinary incident; it has happened before and it can happen again.

A young mother still in the prime of her life was walking home in the Diamond Housing Scheme after having gone to purchase a meal at a Chinese restaurant. As she was on her way home, she was struck by a car which dragged her body a considerable distance.

When she was found, the life was oozing from her body. Her head was split open and many of her bones appeared broken. She died after being rushed to the hospital.

The car that allegedly hit her was left abandoned by the driver who it was said fled the scene. From the reports in the press, one of the angles that the police are pursuing is that the driver has since fled the jurisdiction.

The police can easily determine what credibility to give to the version that the driver was an overseas-based Guyanese. They just have to examine the immigration records to determine whether the person alleged to have been at the wheel has left the jurisdiction. The airline’s record will also help.

If there is evidence that the person who fled was in any way connected with the vehicle that hit the young mother, then that person should be contacted to determine whether he or she was indeed involved in the accident. And once there is evidence that the person was involved, even if that person is outside of Guyana, that person should be subject to extradition.

There is tendency to think only of extradition in relation to drug related crimes. However, there are other crimes such as murder and causing death by dangerous driving which should become extraditable offenses and I urge the authorities to do all that is in their power to ensure that wherever the person is that drove that car that killed that young lady in Diamond, that the person is brought back to Guyana to face the Courts.

Guyana must not be the only country from which the United States should be seeking extradition. We should also be seeking to have wanted persons who may be hiding in the United States extradited back to Guyana. Just as how it is in the United States’ interest to seek extradition of persons wanted in their jurisdiction, we should also do the same and seek extradition for persons wanted in Guyana for crimes.

If it means that the Extradition Treaty needs to be revised, then let the process begin because Guyana cannot be used as a pawn by the powerful nations of the world. We must also demand the right to seek the extradition of wanted persons from the United States.

Last year there was a fire-bombing at the Ministry of Health and at the High Courts. One person whom the police wish to question in relation to this incident is said to be in the United States of America.

The local authorities have formally requested information on this suspect. They have come up blank since we are told that privacy and other laws prohibit the sharing of information.

This ought however not to discourage the Guyanese government from obtaining the requested information through diplomatic sources. It is well known that the United States, whenever they wish to share information with foreign governments which may be important to those governments, find ways of doing so.

For example, declassified documents of the Central Intelligence Agency revealed that information was shared with the former President of Guyana Desmond Hoyte about a plan to topple him as leader of the PNC just after he took office following the death of Forbes Burnham.

The US does not need to formally notify the Guyana government about the identity of the suspect in the Ministry of Health fire. They can drop little hints during diplomatic exchanges.

They can also help the Guyana government to build a case against the individual so that if there is sufficient evidence to indict the suspect, the government of Guyana can apply for extradition of this individual along with any other person who may have committed a crime within our jurisdiction and fled to that country.

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