Police agencies cannot investigate police, army torture

Feb 09, 2014 News

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… Independent judicial inquiry critical- Granger

Opposition Leader, Brigadier (rtd) David Granger, is calling for an independent judicial inquiry into all reports of torture over the past seven years, saying that the Office of Professional Responsibility and the Police Complaints Authority cannot conduct such an investigation.
Granger on Friday last held a media briefing where he said that A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) wanted to express its alarm at the recurring reports of the crime of torture involving members of the defence and security forces.
He reminded that the Government of Guyana signed and ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment since 1988.

According to Granger, the term “torture,” under Article 1 of the Convention, means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by, or at the instigation of, or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.”
He used the opportunity to recall that there have been several confirmed reports of torture into which no independent judicial inquiry has been conducted.
He cited as example, Patrick Sumner and Victor Jones who were arrested by members of the Police and Defence forces in September 2007.
“They were taken to Defence Force headquarters in Camp Ayanganna, Police Force headquarters in Eve Leary, then to another military camp where they said they were tortured.”
Granger also pointed to Michael Dunn, Sharth Robertson and Alvin Wilson – three Defence Force soldiers who complained that they had been tortured by being beaten, cuffed, kicked, shocked and struck with metal objects between November and December 2007 in a military camp.
Granger pointed also to David Leander, also called David Zammet and ‘Biscuit,’ who was arrested in November 2007.
“He was so badly injured that he was unable to walk and could hardly speak and had to be hoisted into the Magistrates’ Court to answer charges of attempted murder and possession of narcotics.”
Granger also alluded to Twyon Thomas who was arrested in October 2007 on suspicion of involvement in the murder of People’s Progressive Party stalwart and former Vice-Chairman of the Essequibo Islands-West Demerara Region Ramenauth Bisram.
The boy, he said, was taken to the La Grange Police station on the West Bank of Demerara and then to the Leonora Police Station on the West Coast of Demerara, where he was beaten and burnt on his genital area with the aid of mentholated spirits.
The Opposition Leader also pointed to Colwyn Harding who was arrested in November 2013 and accused a policeman at the Timehri Police Station of sodomising him with a baton.

Harding suffered severe intestinal injuries.
“APNU points out that Guyana, as a signatory to the Convention, is obliged to take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.”
Granger cautioned that “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture and an order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.”
Granger reminded that the Convention to which Guyana is a signatory, instructs that, “States are to ensure that all acts of torture are offenses under its criminal law, including complicity or participation in torture. International law places an obligation on states to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish torture and other ill-treatment. The obligation to prosecute torture includes those who are complicit as well as to those who directly participate in torture, as well as those responsible in the “chain of command.”
He maintained that there is abundant evidence that the crime of torture has been committed repeatedly in Guyana.
“APNU reminds all Defence and Police Force officers that torture is a crime of a universal jurisdiction….Those who order, or carry out such acts, can be prosecuted anywhere in the world, irrespective of the nationality of the victim or perpetrator.”
According to Granger, “no one can claim exemption from this because of his or her official capacity.”
He further reminded that “There is no statute of limitations for such crimes under international law” and as such, APNU iterates its demand that an independent judicial inquiry be conducted into all reports of torture by officials.

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