The Linden Commission places a value on human life

Mar 02, 2013 Editorial

It cost Guyana at least $80 million for a group of jurists to confirm what most Guyanese knew all along—that the police shot and killed the three men during the Linden protest on July 18, last year. The protest was due to the government decision to hike the electricity rate by removing the subsidy.
Indeed, some people argued that Linden should not be taxed with any increase because it is a depressed community due to the absence of employment opportunities. But the government argued that Linden had enjoyed the best of the electricity system by virtue of the conditions they enjoyed when bauxite was king.
Prime Minister Sam Hinds lived and worked in Linden. He spoke of the manner in which the people of Linden used electricity. Indeed they had their bulbs on round the clock, using electricity as though it were water. This would have promoted the decision by the government to hike the electricity rates. Yet there are those who would insist that the decision by the government to hike the electricity rates was because the parliamentary opposition slashed money projected for the Guyana Electricity Corporation.
And as if by coincidence, the slash in the subsidy to Linden was identical to the amount that the parliamentary opposition slashed from the budget for the electricity sector. The end results were a series of demonstrations the most serious on July 18, 2012. By the end of the day three people lay dead and buildings were destroyed.
The toll on the people of Linden was even higher because nearly two dozen were wounded, some of them seriously. Passage through the mining community was halted for almost a month as the residents refused to allow anything to pass to or from the hinterland. Fuel could not get into the areas and in some cases even movement of food was denied.
As the matter attained national attention President Donald Ramotar ordered an independent commission. Foreign jurists were brought into supplement two local judges. The final report is out and it is indeed revealing.
For example, the police denied shooting anyone but at the same time, there were no reports of any outside force aiming a gun at the protesters. The police argued that the pellets extracted from the bodies of the dead and wounded matched nothing that the police force would use. The commission found the argument to be untrue.
For their part the police contended that the ammunition used by the police had been removed from circulation. If that were indeed the case then there are rogue elements with access to the prohibited rounds and used these with telling effect.
Testimonies from senior police officials were also found to contain many dishonest comments. One must now conclude whether the commission has exposed the level of trust the people could repose in the police, especially some senior ranks.
Now that the report has fingered dishonesty within the ranks of the police force one must now wait and see whether there would be any sanctions. For example, the person who issued the ammunition should be made to explain to the nation how he could have accessed decommissioned rounds.
The policeman who lied under oath must also be brought to book. The society cannot trust his presence in any issue of crowd control and those far removed from Linden must wonder whether they could trust this rank to deal fairly and accurately with issues they may raise.
On the issue of compensation, it would seem that the commission has put a value on human life with the highest price being $3 million. If that is what a life is worth then it is small wonder that people kill with little remorse.
However, one should recall that the police themselves had placed little value on human life. The force paid a mere one million dollars for the lives of those who died in the line of duty. Those injured could compute the cost of every single injury they received.
There is going to be a comprehensive analysis of the report but for sure the words of the leader of the Commission, Justice Lensley Wolfe could ring true. He said that the report would determine the relationship between Linden and the police, between Linden and the administration and between Linden and its neighbours.

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The Linden Commission places a value on human life

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