Jagdeo’s Babu John tirade a bit harsh

Mar 13, 2011 News

General Secretary of the PPP Donald Ramotar

…but Freedom House maintains that PNC has blood on their hands – Ramotar

Whilst conceding that President Bharrat Jagdeo’s recent attack on the Peoples National Congress Reform and that party’s Presidential Candidate Brigadier (rtd) David Granger may have been a bit harsh, Freedom House is fully behind the President.
This is according to the People’s Progressive Party General Secretary, Donald Ramotar, who said that the President’s recent comments at Babu John while they may be harsh, are the truth.
Ramotar maintains that the PNC collectively has blood on its hands.
He was referring to the 1973 killing of Bholanauth Parmanand and Jagan Ramessar. They were reportedly shot and then reportedly flung into a truck and subsequently died during the elections.
Ramotar dismissed the Report of the Commission of Inquiry which was conducted by the Justice Dhanessar Jhappan as a cover up for what happened.
Ramotar is on record saying that, “Bholanauth Parmanand and Jagan Ramessar did not choose to be martyrs…They were simply asking for their basic human rights to be recognised – the right to vote and have their vote counted…For this they paid the ultimate

PNCR Presidential Candidate Brigadier (rtd) David Granger

price…In memory of these two sons of the soil, we cannot forget their sacrifices…We must not allow the country to forget that once the Army and Police used to steal our votes “
Office of the President documents the killing saying that Jagan Ramessar, 17, a youth just beginning his life and Bholanauth Parmanand a 43-year-old cattle farmer were slain when the security forces indiscriminately opened fire on a large crowd gathered outside the polling station at No 63 Village, Corentyne.
OP says that the crowd had gathered to peacefully prevail upon the security forces not to subvert the electoral process, under orders from the then government.
“Because of fears that the ballot boxes would be tampered with in the 1973 general elections, an agreement was worked out between the elections officials and the contesting political parties that one polling agent representing all the opposition parties would accompany the ballot boxes from each polling station and be in position to watch the ballot boxes from the time of closing to the time of opening of the boxes for the official count…
“But the PNC could not win in the election if the ballot boxes were under surveillance by other contesting parties, so it hijacked the boxes and kept them for days before the count…In their frenzy to rig the election, these two men were sacrificed.”
Ramotar says that “Corbin quoted for the Report of the ensuing Commission of Inquiry into the events. He should be reminded, however, that the Commission was set up by the PNC regime with the express intention to cover up the crime and justify the murders…That Commission of Inquiry actually reflected the times we were living in, with the paramountcy of the Party.”

Head of State Bharrat Jagdeo

The party’s General Secretary in a strongly worded statement yesterday said that they have noticed the complaints by the PNCR even to the point of lodging complaints with OAS Deputy Secretary General Albert Ramdin.
“In doing so, they seek to distort the events of that in Guyana’s history,” said Ramotar.
Ramotar says that the PNCR is trying to hide the fact that the then regime had turned the Guyana Defence Force into an arm of that party.
“They had made the Army swear loyalty to the PNC and not to the Guyanese people…David Granger at that time was one of the main proponents of the paramountcy of the Party concept…He himself virtually admitted this, when he revealed that he was a member of the PNC at the time.”
When asked what was the position with the Commodore Gary Best who swore the Army’s allegiance to the Government, Ramotar said that the army chief swore allegiance to the State which is a representative of the people and Constitution of Guyana.
“That is the way it should be,” according to Ramotar
“It is the PPP/C Government that has professionalised the army.”
Ramotar stressed that Corbin in describing the events also failed to say that the electoral demands of the Guyanese people were reasonable, in that they were simply asking for the votes cast at the elections to be counted at the places of poll. “This is a routine thing today. “
He said that the crowd that had gathered at the scene was unarmed.
“Moreover, the two protestors who were shot by the soldiers did not die on the spot…They were thrown into a truck and denied prompt medical attention…They bled to death.”
Ramotar insists that the outrage being expressed by Corbin is an attempt to blame the victims for the crimes of the PNC. “It is also an attempt to distort and re-write history.”