Govt. moving towards CoI into crime wave murders

Jan 27, 2018 News

Minister of State, Joseph Harmon

The Guyana Government is pursing the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the deaths of hundreds of persons which occurred during the period known as the crime-wave under the Bharrat Jagdeo-led administration.
Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, said yesterday that the CoI is in keeping with a commitment made by President David Granger while he was in the opposition.
“I am hinting that there is a possibility of a Commission of Inquiry,” Harmon stated.
The Minister of State’s comments followed the promise by Granger, the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, of a full blown investigation into the deaths of hundreds of Guyanese, including the former Minister of Agriculture, Satyadeow ‘Sash’ Sawh, during the period of 2002-2009.
According to the President, there were 1,431 murders during the period.
On Thursday, in his address to the members of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) at the opening ceremony of the Annual Officers’ Conference at Base Camp Ayanganna, the President said that his administration will ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice.
Harmon pointed out that there is no closure for the persons affected by the wanton murders which scarred Guyana.
“At some point in time, you have to bring closure to some things and I believe that is what the President is saying. We have to bring closure. Under the laws of Guyana, any crime where there is an unnatural death, the law requires that an inquest is held under the Coroner’s Inquest Act,” Harmon stated.
President Granger said that the previous administration never bothered to account to the nation for the hundreds of lives lost through criminal violence because it refused even to conduct inquests into the assassinations of its own Minister of Agriculture at La Bonne Intention.
Other untouched high profile probes include the death of Leon Fraser, Head of the Police Force’s Target Special Squad on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway; Vibert Inniss, Deputy Head of the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit in Buxton; and of the attempted assassination of Denis Hanomansingh, the Director of Public Prosecution in Kitty.
There were massacres in Agricola, Bagotstown-Eccles, Bartica, Bourda, Campbellville, Kitty, Lamaha Gardens, Lindo Creek, Lusignan and elsewhere.
The coalition Government believes that the crimes have not been explained and the memories have not been erased.
“Every year there is some ceremony that marks it and every year there is a ceremony. These emotions rise up again. What the President is saying as the Leader of the Opposition, he was calling on the Government to do something about it; now he is President, he is in a position to do someone thing about it. I want to assure you he will do something about it.
When the President says something he means it,” Harmon stated. Asked about the potential impact of acquiring information given the timeframe, Harmon noted that this is not an issue.
“There are still people who are out there who were never called upon to give a statement. Families who are there who just heard that something happened…family disappeared.
Something has to be done about it. We have to bring closure to these wounds and I think this is what the President is suggesting,” Harmon stated.

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