Edwin Niles
Relatives of Edwin Niles, the prisoner who succumbed to a clot in his lungs as a result of burns during an altercation with prison officers, are questioning the silence of the police on investigations and are insisting that something needs to be said very soon.
Police have so far released no details on investigations or findings into the man’s death.
Niles was reportedly dealt a thrashing at the hands of the prison officials after he was found with seven live .22 rounds in the pockets of his pants after returning from a day of labour at army base Camp Ayanganna on July 2. It was during interrogation about where he got the rounds that he was beaten with a rubber hose and then burnt with a hot liquid. Niles had gotten the pants from a room at Camp Ayanganna which he had cleaned.
However now that he has been laid to rest, the man’s family is still grieving about the circumstances which surround his death, his mother Brenda Nurse told this newspaper yesterday.
With regard to police investigations, Nurse said she and her daughter visited the Alberttown Police Station last Thursday since her daughter had to give a statement to police. The woman said at that time she was informed that investigators were wrapping up investigations.
“But I want to know how long it will take them to get their findings … I am eager to know. The prison administration has also been very quiet but I need to be told something good,” Nurse said.
The woman told Stabroek News in a brief interview yesterday that she was more than aggrieved, “not only at his death but it’s the way in which he died.” She said she wanted to know when she would get satisfaction from the details of an investigation and lamented, ”I am not hearing from them and I want to know how long it would really take.” Nurse said she has been extremely quiet throughout the whole ordeal which she and her family was forced to live with and she feels too that she has taken her time to speak with everyone.
“But I want them to answer this question of how long it will really take before I hear from them. I need for them to come out and say something. They need to tell me and my children something,” she reiterated.
Asked whether she had heard from the administration of the prison since, the woman said her last contact was when she had to collect her son’s death certificate, but since then she has not been contacted by them.
The woman insisted that, “I lost my son under Mr. Erskine’s watch and they must say something to us. I am not giving up.”
Many organizations have come out in condemnation of the way the man died and have called for a thorough investigation. Opposition leader and leader of the People’s National Congress Reform, Robert Corbin has since written Acting Police Commissioner Henry Greene urging that the man’s death be treated as murder while in custody of the prison authorities and at best death under mysterious circumstances which require investigations.
The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) has also called for an impartial and vigorous investigation into the death of the prisoner and urged that the matter not be treated as exempt from the normal processes of the law because the disciplined services are involved.
“Charges appropriate to the severity of the crime should be laid promptly, if only to quell the rapid disintegration of official credibility on these issues,” the GHRA had said in a statement last week.
The human rights body had said too that Niles’ death reinforces the suspicion that these services are “encouraged to get results at any cost when arms and ammunition are involved.”
Oh save your energies… nothing will come of this.
i 100% agree with you.Is accountability in the lexicon of stewards in guyana. this is one place where no one seems to know wat are their responsibilties so they take no action to prevent or correct the wrongs. however they know wat are their entilement for their jobs and the favours they can have with it. i have not seen of an inquest in which anyone is ever found responsible and held accountable for anything that went wrong. iam asking again wat is taking so long for the public release of the investigation in to the torturing by the join service. was it wriiten in such a complex language that it need expert from abroad to analyse it b4 it is release.we dont have the funds as yet to get them here .it can be shown to the un expert present in guyana.she will do the job for free
.my deepest sympathy to his friend and family.
You so remind me of another blogger on this site who flies the same flag!
Callous
Uncaring
Contemptuous of those with less (material and opportunity) than you. God forbid that misfortune befalls your family
No way… you need a independent inquiry.
Can not have the “cat watching the milk”
From today’s report on the visit of the UN official, quote:
“She stated too that she also looked into questions of physical integrity, violence against a specific group because of incited feelings and the issue of discrimination against one or more groups.
Institutional racism is also another area to which her mandate extends.”
Maybe the relatives should try to get an interview with this official for the prisoner
Niles’ case falls clearly within the ambit of this official’s work, that is “institutional
racism’ by some prison officials.
Or if one wishes it could equally be “violence against a specific group because of incited feelings”.
Seems that the relatives should desperately try to meet with this official.
On expediting the probe into the prisoner’s death, the pace will be as usual,
and the result if there is any will be the usual.
Now Sharma TV has a lot of catching up when they get back to the airwaves.
It is truly amazing that the administration of this country is not held accountable for such a violation of human rights – and the ongoing human rights abuses that are being perpetuated in this country against diverse communities – there is no entity that has the courage to stand up and hold them accountable – that people should die at the hands of those who are entrusted with our safety – truly unbelievable – It seems to me that even the NGOs are not independent to act here – so until the time comes that change comes – I guess the people of this country will continue to accept with apathy – the circumstances of their lot!!
YOU GOT ME WRONG. I AM NOT GOING TO MAKE MYSELF ANOTHER A FOOL INTO EXPECTING THAT AN INQUEST WILL BE HELD AND SOMEONE FOUND WANTING IN THEIR JOB. IT HAS NOT HAPPENED FOR AS LONG AS MY MEMORY SERVES ME. AND THERE HAS NOT BEEN A CHANGE IN THE ATTITUDE OF THE ADMINISTRATION TOWARD THE LOSS OF LIFE IN CUSTODY.
HAD IT BEEN A PRACTICE IN GUYANA TO RESPECT HUMAN RIGHTS THIS AND MANY MORE TORTURES AND DEATHS IN CUSTODY WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED. I THINK IT IS MORE CALLOUS IN GIVING PEOPLE FALSE HOPE LIKE SOME POLITICAL LEADERS. AND FOR YOUR RECORD I DONT HAVE MORE THAN THE VICTIM FAMILY AND HAVE SUFFERED INJUSTICE LIKE THEM SO I KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING OF
AGAIN I EXTEND MY DEEPEST SYMPATHY TO MR NILES’ FAMILY AND FRIENDS.
GUYANA IS A HOPELESS PLACE FOR THE POOR AND THOSE WITHOUT DIRECT POLITICAL CONNECTION TO GET JUSTICE FROM THE POWER OF THE DAY.