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GDF denies torture allegations
– but soldier’s family maintains position
By Dale Andrews
The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) has contacted the mother of one of its ranks to discuss matters relating to his detention at Camp Ayanganna.
Avril Haley yesterday told this newspaper that she was invited to Camp Ayanganna to discuss issues regarding her son Dane Wilson, who she alleged was badly beaten and placed in detention in a cell with a wet concrete floor.
However, she is yet to take up the invitation.
She believes that the invitation came in the wake of the publication in this newspaper of allegations of her son being tortured.
The woman had claimed that her son had informed relatives about the treatment meted out to him.
Initially, senior officials in the GDF refused to comment on the matter when contacted on Monday, claiming that they had not received an official complaint.
In this Army released photo Private Dane Wilson is being interviewed by Force Welfare Officer Lieutenant Deon Heyliger.
Yet, it issued a statement yesterday in the absence of a complaint, after the publication of the article that detailed the allegations.
The army categorically denied the claims that it tortured one of its ranks by stripping, beating and forcing him to lie on a “wet concrete floor while in custody at army headquarters, Camp Ayanganna,”
The organization accused this newspaper of making the claim when it was in fact made by the soldier’s mother, Avril Haley.
This newspaper merely reported it. However, the soldier in question was incorrectly listed as Dane Newton.
According to the army, last Friday, Private Wilson was ordered to be placed in detention for refusing to perform a military duty and being absent without leave.
The GDF said that upon being taken to the cell, he stripped naked and had to be wrapped in a sheet before being placed in the cell, where he was eventually clothed in detention uniform.
“Private Wilson was subsequently disciplined yesterday, Monday 22, for the offences. Our investigations have so far revealed that his mattress was withdrawn from him and his cell was deliberately soaked by another inmate. The persons responsible will be appropriately disciplined. Further investigations are being conducted into allegations that he was manhandled while in the cell,” the GDF said in its release.
The GDF admitted that its Welfare Officer Lieutenant Deon Heyliger, yesterday, contacted the private’s mother to have her concerns addressed.
“The GDF wishes to assure the public that all of its actions and practices are of a high standard and are above board; and it is on record of taking swift disciplinary action against deviant behavior,” the army stated.
But the army’s account of what transpired is being described as a blatant lie and an attempt at a cover-up.
Tifannee Benn, Private Wilson’s sister, told this newspaper that after being told what had happened to him by a friend, she spoke to her brother last Sunday at Camp Ayanganna, and he related the sordid details of the treatment that was meted out to him.
According to Benn, Wilson’s hands were swollen and his back bore a mark of violence, which strongly pointed to a beating.
The woman said that Wilson had informed her that he was stripped and roughly handcuffed to a military vehicle, where he remained in the full view of persons in the Camp Ayanganna compound.
“They were laughing at him and people were using their cellular phones to take photographs of him standing there naked,” Benn told Kaieteur News.
Wilson, she said, recalled that he was placed into a white car and taken to the back of the compound and then handcuffed to his cell door, still without his clothes.
She added that he was then forced to endure water being thrown on his cell floor, where he had to lie down for the rest of his stay in custody.
“If I had reached there, with the temper I had when I heard about it, I would have been in the lock-ups. My brother get a lil hot mouth yes, but you can’t treat people children like that.”
Benn believes that her brother was intimidated and recanted his story when he was questioned by the force welfare officer and others yesterday.
“Even if he is scared, I will go and talk what he told me on Sunday,” she said.
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