The use of fire by enforcers of the law.

Mar 27, 2012 Letters

---

 

Dear Editor,
In 2009 we were appalled by the use of fire to inflict pain and suffering on the Guyanese child, Twyon Thomas. The photograph of this horrific abuse was sent to me; it invoked shock, disbelief and revulsion.  This picture has since appeared several times in the local media and the effects are always the same – including anger and rage. The cruelties associated with medieval torture chambers were recalled. Fire was always a powerful tool to terrify an enemy.
Even though over the recent years others and I have been writing of the past excesses and abuses of the former Burnham’s Government and then the Jagdeo’s regime, these particular gross human rights violations of a child went beyond our wildest nightmares. This disturbing image is the worst that I have seen coming out from recent Guyana.
This country in now further discredited with the willful burning of a 14-year old child under interrogation without a parent, guardian, teacher or adult to represent young Twyon Thomas’s interests.
This shocking republished image (22nd March 2012) is now associated with the President Jagdeo’s PPP Government and all the politicians and officials who served and are intimately associated with his unprincipled PPP Government are likewise tarnished.
Attorney General Mr. Anil Nandlall’s statements and actions, as reported in the press, are not only condescending, degrading and inhumane, but further victimize the Thomas family and show a callous disregard for any human empathy and decency.
Under the Burnham’s PNC regime school girls who were engaged in a peaceful protest against the Government were flogged (beaten with belts) and manhandled by the police. The Jagdeo’s PPP Govt. not to be outdone, went further and burnt a child during police custody. In both cases the accused violators involved were police officers (sworn protectors of the people); and in both cases these men went unpunished.
In both cases their political superiors did not allow justice to prevail against the acts of these police enforcers. The breakers of their oaths ‘to serve and protect the people’ were not disciplined.
What we would like to know is how come a police station was being used as a medieval torture chamber? These officers must know that no one would stop them and were certain that their superiors would support them afterwards.
They must also know that whatever they did, no matter how horrific, illegal and beyond inhumane, they would get away with their misdeeds. Did these ‘enforcers’ enjoy the anguish and pain on young Twyon’s face? Did they enjoy his screams as he cried for help and his mother? Why attack his genitals? Is this some kind of sick perversion?
Can we not picture the fear in the eyes of Twyon and the trembling of his body as he is subjected to this agony by adults who have sworn to protect him and his rights under the law? Twyon’s nightmare would be lived and re-lived over and over again and again. It will be triggered by many things – fire, police, smell, sound etc. How does one shed and live with this burden?
He needs expert medical help and counseling.
The police officers knew their acts of intimidation and infliction of painful burns and torture would be condoned by their political masters in the PPP Govt. or Police Commissioner. They were right. It was Twyon Thomas and his mother who had to go into hiding, the victims being further victimized!
We are still waiting to hear condemnations from the PPP Government-associated international human rights worker and professors. We wonder how they can ply their trade and remain silent about such blatant abuse of the human rights of a child in their own home country.
The silence of our NY based self-proclaimed ‘freedom fighters’ is deafening. Where are our Pro-Chancellor and Senior Presidential Advisor, Dr. Prem Misir and others from the President’s office on this burning issue?
How can we remain silent about these gross violations of the body, mind and psyche of a child? How can we welcome such ‘condoners of evils’ in our communities? How would we feel if the terror inflicted on Twyon descended on one of our own children? If we are silent, then we are just as guilty and tell the world that we tolerate the torture of children.
This matter should be raised in Parliament. We thank Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan for standing up for the rights of this unfortunate child, Twyon Thomas. We should stand with Mr. Ramjattan as he seeks some compensation for these two victims (Twyon and his mother, Shirley) and demand an impartial investigation into this whole affair.
In a genuine democracy justice is not only the privilege of the wealthy and powerful. We should stand together for these unfortunate victims of terror; otherwise, we lose our own humanity and the respect of our own children.
Seelochan Beharry PH.D.

---

---