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National inquiries would provide answers for massacres
…Says retired Top Cop Felix
Retired Police Commissioner Winston Felix yesterday said that the answer to some of the country’s bloodiest and most gruesome crimes in recent memory could have been found if there were national inquiries, but the government failed to commission these.
Felix has joined A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), the opposition coalition looking to unseat the incumbent PPP/C at the November 28 polls.
Speaking at the APNU’s Secretariat in Georgetown, Felix referred specifically to the massacres that were committed at Lusignan, Bartica and Lindo Creek at which a total of 32 persons were either gunned down or torched to death.
On January 26, 2008, gunmen invaded the village of Lusignan, East Coast Demerara and slaughtered 11 villagers, including children. On February 17, 2008, twelve persons were killed by gunmen in the mining community of Bartica. And some time in mid-2008, the burnt bodies of eight miners were found at a mining camp at Lindo Creek.
Winston Felix
“If a serious crime was committed, like a massacre, the Lusignan massacre, shouldn’t there have been an inquiry into that? A national inquiry? You had Bartica; shouldn’t there have been an inquiry? You had Lindo Creek; shouldn’t there have been an inquiry?” Felix asked.
Felix, who served as Commissioner from 2004 to 2006, would not directly say that he did not sense a commitment on the part of the government to solve such violent crimes.
“The purpose of an inquiry is to provide you, or to delve into areas, and to acquire information which would allow the public to know what took place, those who are to be held accountable, and what steps can be taken in future to prevent the incident from recurring and to provide the organisation with necessary information for improvement of the particular service, whether it’s the Police, Prison or where.
“But if you don’t hold an inquiry you go back to doing the same things,” he stated.
APNU Presidential Candidate David Granger said that were the government willing to put Commissions of Inquiry in place to investigate these slayings, the findings would have assisted lawmen.
But he said that the incumbent PPP/C did not commission inquiries because it feared the revelations such a move could have provided.
“The PPP/C has a lot to hide,” Granger declared.
Felix yesterday outlined a number of problems that inhibits the Police Force from effectively achieving its mandate.
First, he said that the Police must have the respect of the public it serves. He said that is the first and necessary requisite to reforming the Police Force.
“The Police must understand that they serve a public and they must do so efficiently,” he stated.
He said it is the responsibility of the government to “sharpen” the tools that the Police use and the skills required for the Police Force to effectively and efficiently carry outs its functions.
He also pointed to the shortage of manpower in the Force, though he said this could not be blamed on the government.
He said that the crime commissions which were put in place since 1992 ought to have provided adequate measures which any government could use to improve the Police Force and contribute to enhanced security for the public.
Granger said the Police Force is nearly 20 per cent under strength, and that the Ministry of Home Affairs deliberately did not do anything about this. Instead, it focused on meeting that inadequacy by encouraging community and neighbourhood Police, though these may be necessary.
However, he said community and Neighbourhood Police cannot compensate for a Police Force that is not up to full strength.
In addition, Felix said that at times he felt he was deliberately starved of resources. During his time, he said the capital budget was managed by the Ministry of Home Affairs, so that repairs and renovations could not go forward unless the Ministry of Home Affairs dealt with it.
In addition, he said that he had developed a patrol system in the interior designed to interdict illegal miners, but this was stymied by inadequate manpower.
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