Bisram Responds to Mayor Green’s Challenge

Aug 08, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I am responding to Mayor Hamilton Green’s challenge to me to reveal identities of those who were raped during the dictatorship and the doctors who performed abortions on the victims (KN Jul 27).  I am not certain why Green needs the names of victims and attending doctors.  But victims of wrong doings who complained against the dictatorship were severely victimized, some picked up by secret police and thugs and never to be heard from again.  Professor Rod Thurnton spoke in NY about the disappearance of political opponents during the reign of terror. And Professor Ken Danns spoke about the police state.
What Green is doing is desecrating the victims by denying they were violated.  It is like saying people did not suffer during the 28 years of the dictatorship or goods were not banned. Green does not understand the sensitivities of a woman who was raped, the shame and embarrassment she would feel if the public gets to know about it. Apparently also Green does not understand that there is something called doctor-clientele relationship (names cannot be revealed) similar to researcher/research relationship (confidentiality of source of information in investigative reporting) when it comes to sensitive topics like rape or political murder, etc.
What we need in Guyana is a peace and reconciliation commission (similar to South Africa) to hide the identity of doctors and others who may not want to violate their oath and to allow victims to speak freely about what happened to them during the reign of terror.  I will begin the confession of wrongdoing.  I was part of a plot to end the dictatorship and bring about free and fair elections in Guyana. How about you Green? Can you begin the process by coming out publicly and owning up to wrong doings. Oops! I forgot! You never did anything wrong.
According to Green, the dictatorship did no wrong and no one was ever raped, not even those who publicly came out and said they were raped.  Green also said democracy was never raped and elections were never rigged in Guyana.  So much for Green’s credibility! Green wants evidence ….  One does not need a lamp to see what happens in broad daylight under sunny skies. I and others don’t need to convince Green about rape.  The international community and every Guyanese knows what took place during the dictatorship.
Since he wants me to report to him, I would like to know if Green is the new authority to report rapes. And why is he so concerned about rapes now and not when they occurred when he could have done something about it? Once the evidence on rape is presented to Green, what would he do with it – go to the police? Would he support the establishment of an international tribunal under the ICC and bring back for trial the perpetrators safely ensconced in North America and the Caribbean?  Would he call for the compensation for the victims from seized assets of the perpetrators? And if Green is
fingered as a perpetrator, would he turn himself in to the police and hand over his assets to the victims?
I am prepared to withstand the Green Challenge providing he (since he was an influential figure in the dictatorship) answers the following questions: Who fatally shot Vincent Teekah and who transported the body from where Teekah was shot to where he died? Who escorted the female American Dentist from Atlanta (witness of the shooting) to the aircraft to make sure she flew out of Guyana? Was Teekah’s wife abused after he was killed and who was the molester? Who abused Mrs. Jean Maitland Singh? Who assassinated Dr. Walter Rodney?
Who shot Dr. Joshua Ramsammy? Who planned the kidnapping of Dr. Clive Thomas?  Whose plan was it to pour sand and sugar in the gas tank of vehicles of WPA members and other opponents of the dictatorship?  Whose harebrained plan was it to ban flour, dhal, alou, channa, etc?  Were the religious and cultural sensitivities of ethnic groups considered? Who drafted the X-13 Plan and why does his name figure prominently as an executor of that plan?  Who planned and executed the election riggings from 1964 thru 1992?
Does Green know about anyone involved in rigging? What would he recommend be done to those who were riggers? Would he support the establishment of an international tribunal to try them as is being done in Cambodia? Would he call for their extradition back to Guyana from their safe locations overseas?
How many opposition political activists were beaten at the dungeons?  Who organized the beatings of political opponents during anti-government protests? Who abused the late Desmond Hoyte (on election night) telling him he would not accept instructions from a White Man (referring to President Carter) to transfer the government to the victor in the 1992 elections?
Could it be that answers to the above questions will provide damning proof for the occurrences of rape and other wrong doings during the dictatorship?
Vishnu Bisram

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