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US calls for probe into Phantom squad killings

Jul 20, 2010 News

While the government has backed down from calls to launch an independent probe into allegations that a so-called Phantom Squad executed scores of Guyanese, the outgoing US Charge D’Affaires, Karen Williams, has reiterated the US’ interest in such a probe.
“We as a government believe that human rights issues should be investigated thoroughly; that necessary steps should be taken to ensure that human rights are ensured rights and are observed and protected and that where persons are found to be culpable of violating those rights they should be prosecuted,” Williams told reporters yesterday.
She said this investigation should be “in total, wherever it is, Phantom squad or anything else.”
“That should just be the policy. If there are human rights issues and abuses they should be investigated thoroughly; they should be prosecuted,” she added.
The government has insisted that it will only call an independent commission of inquiry into allegations of a “Phantom squad” that carried out unlawful killings if evidence comes forward.
Presidential Advisor Gail Teixeira and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, just after attending the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, in May, indicated that the chance for an independent commission is “slim” at this point in time.
The United Nations Human Rights Council provides for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) every four years, examining the human rights record of each state.
In Geneva, the United Kingdom and Canada called for an independent probe into human rights abuses and allegations of a death “phantom squad” responsible for numerous deaths in Guyana.
Yesterday, the US Charge d’Affaires said that while the US delegation did not sign on to this call from the UK and Canada, she underscored the need for investigations into allegations of such human rights violations as those leveled against the Phantom Squad.
“We have been probing the matter and we shall wait to see if the evidence will be provided to lead to further investigations; until then there is no inquiry. You can have no inquiry with no information coming forward,” she stated.
Reacting to concerns about public confidence in the Police to undertake such an investigation, Teixeira declared that the Police Force is the agency by law that has the authority to investigate.
In November 2009, opposition parties in Guyana released a dossier of extra-judicial killings, torture and matters of corruption, they hoped would lead to an international inquiry.
The dossier cites instances of extra judicial murders and violence perpetrated by security forces and forces working in alliance with the state on citizens of Guyana. It also includes all instances of unsolved murders.
Opposition leader Robert Corbin stated that it is a matter of public record that the revelations during the trial of attorney Robert Simels and self-confessed drug trafficker Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan in the USA was a catalyst for the opposition parties to meet and decide on a common approach.
The government had dismissed the dossier, saying “it is obvious that the PNCR and their acolytes in their parliamentary opposition parties have used the publication of the dossier to advance their grand design which is to sensationalise, confuse and to score partisan political points using the circumstances of the dead as their primary tool.”

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