– vow to continue picketing

After spending Wednesday night in the Brickdam lock-ups, on allegations of illegal picketing, disorderly behaviour, resisting arrest and assaulting a peace officer, social activist Mark Benschop and trade unionists Norris Witter and Lincoln Lewis, were released on station bail around 10:30 yesterday morning with no charges being made out against them.

The trio, dubbed ‘The Three Musketeers’ by Police Commissioner Henry Greene, was arrested on Wednesday while protesting in front of Police Headquarters at Eve Leary.
The police officers who picked them up took them to the Brickdam Police Station to be booked.

The trio declined a $50,000 station bail offer made to each of them, citing it as excessive, contending that they should be sent on their own recognizance. The bail sum was subsequently reduced to $25,000, which was still not agreed to.

However, attorney for the trio, Khemraj Ramjattan, yesterday morning secured bail in the sum of $10,000 for each of the three and they were told to report to the Brickdam Police Station at 8:30 am today.

Shortly after being released, the men met members of the media and stated that they will continue their ‘fight for human rights’. Lewis, who is the General Secretary of the Caribbean Congress of Labour and an executive member of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), told the media that based on his stay at the Brickdam lock-ups on Wednesday night he is contemplating pressing the issue of human rights to the Organisation of American States (OAS). He said the facility is not fit to accommodate any human being noting that it is filthy and has no beds, bath or toilet facilities available to inmates.

Trade unionist Lincoln Lewis and Mark Benschop (in background) walk with supporters shortly after their release yesterday.

Lewis said that at the recent Caricom Conference held here, President Bharrat Jagdeo had mentioned that citizens of Caricom countries needed to be treated “in a certain way”. Lewis lamented that Guyanese are not being treated like human beings, a reference he made to persons being held at the Brickdam lock-ups.

This newspaper had carried several reports in the past in which persons described woeful experiences while being held at the lock-ups. Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee two months ago stated that the design for the rehabilitation of the facility had been completed but he did not provide a time-frame on when repairs would be started or completed.

As regards Wednesday’s protest action, Lewis noted that he and his colleagues were protesting peacefully and were targeted by the police, adding that the sole intention was to have them locked up.

Questioned on whether armbands were used during Wednesday’s protest action, Ramjattan said there was no lawful requirement to use these while protesting peacefully in the public. He said he was prepared to test this, stating that protest action should be one’s unconditional right.

The PNCR yesterday unreservedly condemned the arrest and charging of the three men, “while they were exercising their constitutional right to engage in peaceful protests”.
The party said that based on the facts and evidence available, the men had not engaged in any activity in violation of any of the laws of Guyana. “The violation of their fundamental rights is, therefore, a further and troubling indication that the Jagdeo Administration is prepared to use sections of the Guyana Police Force as a coercive and intimidating arm of the state to silence dissent and peaceful protest actions against its many shortcomings,” the PNCR said in a press statement issued last evening.

It said the “the symbolic significance of this attack upon these high-profile Guyanese” was that the administration wanted to send a message to the GTUC that it intends to stamp out any dissent as it moved to “destroy that organisation and replace it with the pro-PPP Federation of Independent Trade Unions (FITUG)”.

Social activist Mark Benschop is greeted by a supporter after his release yesterday morning.

The party said it also recognised that the Benschop had been identified for “roughing up” because he has clearly not learnt “his lesson”.
The release said “the PNCR lauds the activities of all Guyanese who have joined the increasing numbers prepared to actively protest against the lawlessness, abuse of rights…, and other forms of poor governance…”

The party saluted Lewis, Benschop and Witter for their personal courage in standing up to the administration despite the use of tactics of intimidation, including their incarceration under the deplorable conditions found at the Brickdam lock-ups.

Irony
Meanwhile, the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), in a statement issued yesterday, said that the detention of “these three persons for the crime of peaceful picketing should open the eyes of the population”.

Declaring that democracy was under threat in Guyana and that the country was fast becoming a police state, the WPA reminded that illegal picketing, disorderly behaviour and resisting arrest were a replay of charges that had been brought against citizens who exercised their right to protest against the Burnham regime. “Among those who suffered this fate in that period was the current minister of home affairs who among his other deficiencies clearly lacks any sense of irony,” the WPA said.

The party called on all Guyanese to “recognize the clear and present danger posed to the entire society when the law enforcement agencies feel free to trample on the fundamental rights of citizens.”

Experience here and elsewhere teaches, the WPA said, that such action must be met by the most vigorous all-round resistance if officially sanctioned lawlessness is to be brought to heel.
Lewis, Benschop and Witter said they will continue their protest action at various public places and have no qualms about being rearrested. Lewis said that their actions are for a cause, “to have rights honoured for all Guyanese”.

Trade unionist Norris Witter shortly after being released yesterday.

Benschop told the media that he will continue with the protest action, stating “the government does not practice democracy”, urging that Guyanese be prepared to “stand up for their rights”.

The trio had been picketing at several locations across the city in recent weeks including at the Office of the President, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Office of the Commis-sioner of Police.

Among the issues they are protesting against are allegations linking government officials with drug accused Roger Khan, the cut-off of state subventions to the Critchlow Labour College as well as the plight of workers of CLICO (Guyana).