Accusing the government of covering up torture allegations made by civilians, the PNCR yesterday renewed the call for an independent investigation of the joint services.
The party told reporters at its weekly press briefing that it is baffling and insulting that only allegations made by members of the security forces were the subject of Board of Inquiry investigation of members of the army. It was reacting to statements made recently by Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Chief-of Staff Commodore Gary Best, who said the inquiry dealt only with allegations made by two members of the army.

But the PNCR said by any definition, including that of the UN Convention Against Torture, several Guyanese have been tortured by the security forces. “Instead of accepting this fact and taking the right action to weed out those guilty of such nefarious practices from the security forces, the [Bharrat] Jagdeo administration has opted to cover-up and [to] deceive the public, through their usual propaganda blitz,” the party said. Nevertheless, it added that the Guyanese people cannot be convinced that Buxtonians Victor Jones and Patrick Sumner as well as the identified members of the security forces were not tortured. “The evidence is persuasive and pervasive,” it declared.

The party said it was amazed by the utterances of the Commodore Best, who accused the media of giving the security forces “an unjustified bad name by juxtaposing” the allegations of torture against Jones and Sumner with that made by members of the security forces, since only the latter was the subject of the torture report. “This is disingenuous, baffling and insulting to the intelligence of the Guyanese public,” the party stated, adding that like all members of society, it expected that all allegations of torture of citizens by the GDF, would have been the subject of the official investigation. “It seems that the Chief of Staff is signalling that Victor Jones and Patrick Sumner were not tortured by the GDF. If that is the case, he is duty bound to tell the nation who tortured those individuals,” the party stressed.

Further, the PNCR noted that both Jones and Sumner publicly said that they were handed over to the GDF by the police and while they were in the custody they were taken to a camp along the Linden/Soesdyke Highway and brutally beaten and burnt, in an extended period of torture. “They have exposed the gruesome physical evidence to corroborate this. Is the Chief of Staff claiming that they are lying or all of this was a figment of their imagination?” the party asked. It said that its focus is on the inquiry report but that does not obscure the fact that there are outstanding allegations of torture against police and prison authorities. According to the party, there is credible evidence that David Zammett was brutally tortured by rogue elements of the police force and that Edwin Niles met his death at the hands of prison authorities. “The Minister of Home Affairs promised that there would be an investigation. That investigation has joined the army of phantom investigations which have been promised by this administration. But this is a very serious matter and the PNCR will keep it alive.”

The party called for an independent investigation, saying the police cannot investigate itself into the allegation of torture by its members. And while members of the prison service have been charged in relation to the Niles murder, the PNCR also urged an independent investigation, especially in view of the death of prisoner, Nolan Noble, in prison in July this year.

According to the party, when the government next reports to the UN committee against torture, “it will have the greatest difficulty explaining the blatant violations of the human rights of Patrick Sumner, Victor Jones, David Zammett, Alvin Wilson, Michael Dunn and Sharth Robertson” as the party would ensure that the committee is in full possession of all the facts on this matter.