Backer calls for transformation of security sector

Jan 27, 2011 News

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Deborah Backer walked with Sunshine cornflakes (she couldn’t afford the Kelloggs brand) and it seems as if she had watched the 1993 American flick Groundhog Day quite often. But it wasn’t just about the humour when the attorney-at-law stood up during the 2011 Budget debate yesterday to call for change in the way the Police, the Army, and the Prison and Fire Services operate.
She wanted for the man who guides the security sector – Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee – to prove that he had the “stewardship” DNA to push a reorientation of the security sector and bring about change.

Rohee had said his political DNA has kicked in and he wants to be President of Guyana, but Backer wanted to know if his DNA shows that he has the ability to set policy guidelines for the Disciplined Services which will lead to their transformation. So, she walked with the Sunshine cornflakes to help him. She was sure that it wasn’t a goat that has bitten Rohee if he couldn’t see the serious problems in the sector. Rather it had to be a far more dangerous creature in the animal kingdom.
Backer is a movie buff or she rather likes Groundhog Day, and so she used it to describe the “sameness” in the way the public safety and security has been managed over the years.
And she had to stop to acknowledge that as soon as she spoke of groundhog, Government Parliamentarian Neend Kumar, the Director of Sport, made some outburst. She even defined groundhog to be a rodent, in case Kumar didn’t know.
Groundhog Day, which found its way on to the United States National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” is about a TV weatherman who, during a hated assignment covering the annual Groundhog Day event, finds himself repeating the same day over and over again.
It was not that Backer was saying that there has been no positive movement within the disciplined forces, but she had serious issues with the way the sector is managed, and the way this management seems to be stagnated, “this sameness.”
She wants for the political directorate to stop micro-managing the disciplined services. She wants for the government to take its head out of the sand and accept the enormity of drug trafficking and its attendant bed fellows, namely gun-running, money laundering and execution type killings.
She wants the disciplined forces to deal condignly with their ranks who refuse to adhere to best practices. She wants more money to be spent on modern scientific intelligence and for there to be a complete re-orientation of all members of the Disciplined Forces.
But Backer wants more. She wants the current government to stop being petulant and non-receptive to the recommendations and constructive criticisms offered outside the headquarters of the ruling party and the Office of the President.
Backer said that for sure there were bad eggs in the Disciplined Forces as they are in other professions. But she pointed to examples that demonstrate there is a gamut of corruption and misuse of authority in the Police Force, including demanding money with menace, incarcerating persons known to be innocent, torture and extra-judicial killings.
“There must be no defensiveness….We must not be afraid of it, we must confront it, deal with it, and improve it,” she declared.
Backer said that September 13, 2010 will go down as a dark day in the annals of history of the public security when the government categorically rejected recommendations at the United Nations  Universal Periodic Review process that reviews the human rights record of nations, for there to be an independent commission of inquiry supported by international experts to investigate human rights abuses including murders and extra judicial killings, and an independent inquiry into a phantom squad which carried out unlawful killings.
Backer was nevertheless happy  that the recommendations were included in the report that was prepared on the review process that took place in Geneva.
She said that January 21, 2011 was another dark day in Guyana with the dismissal of the torture case against two Policemen who were charged with setting alight the genitals of a teenager at the Leonora Magistrates Court. She said it was a disgrace to the entire nation.
Backer questioned why the case collapsed, whether it was political interference, police interference or just a family issue.
“What is it that led to this travesty at justice?” Backer questioned.
Another problem facing the Police, Backer pointed out, was lack of adherence to best practices and Standard Operational Procedures by some police officers when they interact with the public, whether at the various police stations, on the road and when they conduct searches.
She quoted former Commissioner of Police Henry Fraser who said that members of the public should be treated as customers and this could help the Police in the future.
She said that the absence of modern investigative and forensic equipment is another internal problem that has stymied the Guyana Police Force. While a forensic laboratory is being built, Backer suggested collaboration with labs in the Caribbean.

Murders
Regarding murders, Backer said that the problem continues to be the inability of the State to get convictions.
Pointing to the 139 murders in 2010, Backer noted that Rohee had pointed out that “disorderly murders” were the highest. Disorderly murders are defined as murders that occur during domestic disputes or following arguments by persons who might have been drinking.
In these cases, suspects are often identified without the need for any or much intelligence gathering and therefore the indictment rate for these murders are very high. But she said indictments alone are not enough.
Backer said that the State must go further and ensure that they have properly prepared cases that will ensure convictions.
Further, she lamented the fact that the various government ministries seem unable to put in place programmes to reduce and curb anti-social behavior, saying that the Guyanese society has never before been more violent and brutish.
Backer said that the appalling murder of school girl Neesa Gopual, who was killed, stuffed in a suitcase and thrown in a creek despite numerous red flags, will for a long time remain a stain not only on the perpetrators but all Guyanese.
Pointing to execution type murders, she said the sameness is in the fact that they are invariably never solved and there is often anecdotal evidence sometimes coming from the Commissioner of Police or the Crime Chief that the victims and perpetrators were involved in some illegal activity that went sour.
For example, she cited the case of Steve Jupiter, his child, the mother of his child and two other men, who were gunned down in the city in September last year.
She quoted the Police Commissioner as saying that the Police were tracking Jupiter. Backer asked if that were indeed true, then what was the Commissioner doing with the information.

Drugs
Turning to drug trafficking, she quoted from the 2010 US State Department report on narcotics control, which lists Guyana as a transshipment point for drugs, and Minister Rohee’s dismissal of the report as being “downright deception and misleading.”
But Backer said the reality is that cocaine continues to flow in and out of Guyana, including 50 pounds discovered in a pink suitcase in January, 40 pounds in another suitcase in June, 2010, and the cases of cocaine in cooked rabbit, in milk tins and in wigs.
She said that while it is generally accepted that the country has porous borders and so the cocaine goes in and out, the question is whether the government has done sufficient or curb this, even if it could also be acknowledged that the length of the country’s border make it impossible to fully man them.
She said the budget does not make any provision for any aircrafts or the acquisition of all-terrain vehicles and high-powered boats to help with this monitoring of the borders.
Backer said Rohee needs to demonstrate effective stewardship and work for the transformation of the security sector. If not, the country will remain forever locked in “Groundhog Day.”

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