Rights groups complained about Guyana Govt. unresponsiveness to queries

Mar 29, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – The US Department of State has cited the Government of Guyana over its treatment of human rights groups.

In its 2022 human rights report, the US Department of State highlighted that several domestic groups generally operated without government restriction, investigating and publishing their findings on human rights cases. However, the report said that these groups also complained of the difficulty they encounter when requesting information and support from the Government. “These groups at times complained government officials were uncooperative and unresponsive to their requests. They stated that when officials responded, it was generally to criticise the groups rather than to investigate allegations,” the report outlined.

The report noted that the support and cooperation of the government is integral to correcting many of the human right abuses taking place in Guyana. One of the most common violations that was highlighted in recent times the US Department said was the Guyana Police Force’s (GPF) failure to investigate claims that some of its officers were bribed by a businessman to foil the murder investigation of Ricardo Fagundes also called ‘Paper Shorts’.

The report noted that corruption of police officers was frequent in 2022. One of the major corruption scandals was that of senior investigating officers of the Force’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) accepted a $30M a bribe to cover-up the 2021 murder of Fagundes.

“In August, police officer, Dion Bascom alleged that a businessman bribed members of the Guyana Police Force to foil an investigation into an execution-style killing of Ricardo Fagundes, a gold miner. As of October (2022), police had not investigated Bascom’s claims”, the US Department of State said.

The Department of State’s conclusion that the Force did not investigate the bribery claims was made after the Barbados-headquartered Regional Security Service (RSS) had completed a review of the Force’s investigation into Fagundes’ murder. In August last year, the government was forced to invite the RSS to review the work done by the Force in the murder probe after Bascom publicly accused the Police Force of covering up the case.

According to media reports, President Mohamed Irfaan Ali had specifically said, “the RSS will review work done on the murder of Fagundes and will also review the allegations made by Detective Sergeant Dion Bascom”.

The RSS completed its review the following month and on September 09, 2022 publicly reported that it did not find any alleged cover-up in Fagundes’ killing and called Bascom’s allegations “Hearsay”.

Many have since criticized the findings, including Fagundes’ relatives and it appears that the US Department of State is of the view that the Force could have done more than just allow the RSS to review its work into the high-profile murder case.

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allegations, domestic, Government, Guyana, US Department of State

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