Latest update April 1st, 2025 5:37 PM
The coalition still to seek justice for the murdered
Dear Editor,
APNU+AFC Coalition government leaders have not honored their campaign promise to seek justice for hundreds of citizens murdered by the Phantom death squad under the PPP
The APNU+AFC Coalition government of Guyana came to power on a platform that included justice for the murder of over 400 young, black men, former minister Sash Shaw, journalist Ronald Waddell, political activist Courtney Crum Ewing and hundreds of others who were brutally killed by PPP operative Roger Khan and his Phantom death squad.
Evidence presented in court establishes that Courtney Crum Ewing was allegedly assassinated by a henchman of a then PPP government official, while he was working to get citizens to vote in the 2015 general elections; the very elections which brought the coalition to power. Yet, it pains me that, to date, this criminal has not been brought to justice.
The Phantom death squad, allegedly with the complicity and protection of ministers of the former PPP government, undoubtedly committed genocide in Guyana. They killed over 400 persons, with apparent impunity. These killings have never seen any investigation.
The PPP government refused to investigate these serial murders. No one has been held to account. The killers roam society freely, in some cases with a life of luxury.
This is crushing to family members of the victims and advocates for human rights and justice in Guyana. Similarly, it should horrify the nation. Victims’ families are revictimized each day when some of these gun touting killers walk into Palm Court and other nightlife establishments flashing and spending their ill-gotten, blood money.
Family members remain hopeless as an entire nation, including the new government, turn a blind eye to their tragedies; the inhumanity perpetrated against their loved ones. It is contemptible, that some with knowledge of these extrajudicial killings sit in the Parliament today, with the mildest of sanctions.
They have raped the Honorable House of its stature and augustness. They are wicked people in high places.
The very coalition government leaders who inspired young people with a litany of promises; including the pursuit of justice, have three years into their term, done nothing but continue to deny justice to these families, while they rub shoulders.
Their inaction makes them no better than the PPP. It is disrespectful of the families and to voters, and speaks volumes about this government’s “so-called” commitment to human rights and the principle of ‘equal justice under law.’ such inaction is disgraceful and must be condemned.
It is horrifying to watch as the coalition government allows Bharrat Jagdeo and his cohorts recast their image into Mother Theresa’s, control the narrative and lecture the nation on corruption and crime.
Some in this coalition administration seem to have forgotten that it is their advocacy on these and other issues that fueled their ascension to office. They have grown so aloof, so disconnected from the people who elected them.
They seem oblivious that their alienation is engendering a frightening and dangerous apathy that is eroding confidence and trust in the entire government, and that this apathy will drive them out of government.
One would have thought that the devastating turn out at the last LGE would have awakened them from their slumber of indifference, and cause every minister and MP to hit the fields and reconnect with the citizens, to listen to their concerns, do good by them and assure them that the government is back on track with the agenda that fueled their election.
But shockingly, most of these leaders slumber on in their state of audacious aloofness, seemingly dismissive of the cries and beckons of the masses and the peril they face.
Is this how they intend to be re-elected in 2020? Do they seriously expect the people to reelect a government that has systematically alienated them, ignored their cries and dishonored its promises? Unless APNU+AFC coalition government leaders roll up their sleeves and get to work for the people, and not themselves, they will lose the 2020 general elections.
They can begin to repair their credibility and restore the confidence of the people by introducing a motion in Parliament calling for the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry into the genocide committed by the PPP and its band of Phantom death squad killers, and move to appoint such a COI.
If they cannot achieve this basic function of government – ‘equal justice under law’ – then how can the people further empower them to govern?
Rickford Burke
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