An appeal to Norway’s Environment Minister, Erik Solheim

Apr 01, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Mr. Solheim is in Guyana. I timed this publication for today. I assumed that since the Minister arrived last night, he may not have had a chance to read the independent dailies. Mr. Solheim’s visit came the day after Transparency International published its corruption index for 2010. Guyana is classified as the 57th most corrupt country in the world. In a list of 178 countries, it lies at 116. Guyana chalked up 2.7 on a scale of 10. On that scale Norway is 8.6. All Caricom nations are way in front of Guyana.

Today, the Minister meets with the opposition. He must be handed a picture of the regime to which his government plans to give millions of American dollars. Mr. Solheim comes from a region of the world that is generally viewed as one of the most enduring democratic havens. All Scandinavian countries are models of freedom and justice.

What Mr. Solheim needs to do while he is in Guyana is to run a comparative check on this country compared to his and he will see why Norway should not give Guyana a single cent until Guyana joins the league of democratic nations.

Here are some facts for you, Mr. Solheim, that you must weigh carefully before you share out the taxpayers’ dollars of Norway. Guyana has only one radio station and it is owned by the state. There has been no license granted to private citizens to own and operate a radio system since the ruling party came to power in 1992.

A long, promised human rights commission is still to come into existence. Unlike a majority of English-speaking states in the Caribbean, the Guyana Government is still to table a Freedom of Information Act. Pressed by the World Bank to implement a procurement commission to make government contracts transparent, this has not been done.

The Integrity Commission is moribund. The money laundering authority does not function. Guyana doesn’t have an Ombudsman. The DEA office is yet to be established in Georgetown despite a willingness by the US government to do so.

The Guyana Government has refused a British-funded programme to modernise the Guyana Police Force because it has rejected the proposal of a resident British expert at police headquarters.

A Commonwealth expert came to Guyana and strongly recommended an end to the subordinate role Parliament plays to the Executive. To date, his proposals have not been made into policy. Not one powerful Guyanese drug baron has been arrested on local soil. They are only captured by DEA officials when abroad.

At the time of writing, a large shipment of cocaine out of Guyana worth almost one billion Guyana dollars was intercepted by the Jamaican authorities. The investigation is stalled.

What you need to know, Mr. Solheim, is that among the Guyanese population is an extensive perception that key figures in the power establishment are linked to cocaine kings. In two court trials in the US, witnesses testified that the present Minister of Health  had a close working relation with convicted drug baron (jailed in the US), Roger Khan.

This government is fascist, Mr. Solheim. Here are some of the reasons.

A man, Paul Thomas, arrested for being part of an extrajudicial gang of killers directed by ruling politicians was hospitalised under state protection. He mysteriously died. The same type of death in the same circumstances occurred to another prisoner, David Leander. The cause seems to be poison.

A 14-year-old suspect was brutally tortured with his genitals and surrounding parts burnt. The police officers escaped prosecution because the boy and his mother didn’t turn up to give evidence. An opposition figure, Ronald Waddell, was assassinated outside his home. Another one, Mark Benschop, was jailed for five years, then released

Eight diamond miners were massacred at their remote camp off Christmas Falls. Journalistic investigation involving a study of the terrain suggested that it was the work of security forces. No charges.

Sexual misconduct characterises the exercise of power in Guyana, Mr. Solheim, and I am referring to both heterosexual and homosexual perversities, with the latter being very prevalent among the power elites.

Canadian immigration authorities granted asylum to a 14-year-old girl who was brutally raped by three powerful men. Refugee status was allowed because the Canadians found that had the girl been made to return to Guyana her life would have been in danger because her attackers are people with political power.

Do not give the present leaders in Guyana one cent as part of the LCDS project, Mr. Solheim. That money will find its way to foreign bank accounts of the fascists.

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