Police ballistics experts say they are still conducting tests on the two PNC-era weapons that were found abandoned in a boat at Mahaicony, West Coast Berbice three weeks ago, but according to a police source so far there has been nothing to link the guns to any previous crime.
Guyanese had been skeptical about ballistics findings emanating from Eve Leary since most of them showed a single trend, leaving many to believe that the results were not credible. The police however have stoutly defended the reliability of their results. Over recent years the force has published the ballistics findings from weapons confiscated from criminals with greater alacrity than was formerly the case.
Gunmen had abandoned the rusty arms during a shoot-out with the police at Zeskendren, Mahaicony three weeks ago. The Guyana Defence Force later revealed that two of the weapons, an M-72 rifle and a Beretta 9mm submachine gun belonged to the army, noting that the weapons had been issued to the now defunct Ministry of Mobilisation and National Development between 1976 and1979. Presi-dent Bharrat Jagdeo has since announced that an inquiry would be conducted to determine how many guns had been issued by all military and para-military organizations from the 1950s to now. Jagdeo revealed that his proposed probe followed the revelation that the weapons found had been issued to the Forbes Burnham government, and had ended up in the hands of criminals. He also announced that according to records provided by the military 237 weapons of various calibre had been issued to the Ministry of National Develop-ment between 1976-1979. The minister at the time was the late Ptolemy Reid.
Speaking to Stabroek News on Friday a police officer disclosed that since the weapons had been found work had commenced on determining whether they had been used in the commission of any crime previously. The officer said that they had to match the weapon with hundreds of spent shells recovered over the years and this was a tall task. So far, he said, there had been no trace which linked the weapons to any serious crime recently. Among the weapons that had been issued to the national development ministry were seven Smith and Wesson Pistols, Four HK 11 Light Machine Guns, eight G-3 rifles, four General Purpose Machine Guns, 20 Beretta Submachine Guns, 15 Self Loading rifles, 50 M-10 Pistols, six .22 rifles, six .30 Carbines, six .303 rifles, 15 Self Loading rifles, six G-3 rifles, 50 M-10 pistols, 20 berretta Submachine Guns, 15 M-70 rifles and five M-72 rifles. At the time when he announced the probe, Jagdeo said he did not want the issue to become a political one, noting that his main concern was for a full, transparent investigation to be completed so that it could be determined that all weapons were returned to where they belonged. I don’t want us to be caught up in a political issue of creating smokescreens. We should all cooperate in getting to the bottom of this issue and more importantly, we should all try to establish how these weapons from 1976 would in 2007, get in the hands of criminal elements,” he added. Leader of the PNC Robert Corbin who admitted that he was a cabinet member during the 1970s said he believed the weapons had been returned and he urged the GDF to check its records. However, fresh information reaching this newspaper recently stated that weapons had been issued by the army to state agencies after the 1970s with a number of them being issued to a current senior official of the PNCR. Stabroek News has not been able to make contact with Corbin since the new revelations. Corbin had earlier said he would not venture to speak on behalf of the past PNC administration and the policy it adopted three decades ago with respect to the issue and distribution of guns to a state agency. He said however that the matter should be examined in the context of the security conditions that existed at that time in the country. He said the question of the issuing of weapons to state agencies in the seventies and eighties had a specific context, noting that it was a troubling and challenging period in the country’s history. Another minister under the Burnham-led PNC administration, Hamilton Green told Stabroek News recently that he had no knowledge of the movement of weapons from the army to government ministries in the 1970s. However, Green who is now Mayor of Georgetown insisted that the then government and the party were under threat from “terrorists” from within and without during that period. On Monday Stabroek News was told that several government ministries and semi-autonomous bodies had been issued with army weapons under the Burnham government and that the GDF had records showing weapons being issued to one senior, current PNCR official which to date have not been returned. Stabroek News was told that weapons were not only issued to the national development ministry, but several other such agencies. According to a source, guns had been issued to the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and other semi-autonomous bodies. Green said that he knew that the government at the time and the country had been the targets of terrorist from various sources. He said coupled with that Guyana was under threat from Venezuela. He denied that weapons were ever issued to him and when asked whether he knew of any other departments which received weapons, he said he could not answer for them. Observers say that Green was a ‘power-house’ in the Burnham cabinet and he must have been aware of such decisions.
