Dear Editor,

I am not ashamed to say that the image of the injury to the lower torso of the 14 year old Guyanese youth on the front pages of Kaieteur News caused me to involuntarily weep like a child. Just where does the buck stop in the constant repetition of these abuses?

The United States of America, the Nation that the powers that be in Guyana constantly point to when they are criticized for some act, policy or failing, vigorously prosecuted members of its armed forces when images of torture of prisoners held as terrorist suspects were published. Several high ranking military and civilian officials with direct or indirect command links over those involved in some of these acts had to leave their positions. The regime that presided over that sad chapter in America’s history was resoundingly given the boot by the electorate, responding to a campaign platform by its political opponents that condemned the torturing of prisoners, and upheld the tenets of the Geneva Conventions against torture, and the UN declarations on Human and Civil Rights.

In the United States of America, regardless of all that it can be criticized for, the universal consensus that someone has to be held accountable for human rights violations like torture, extra-judicial killings, deprivation of due process, is alive and well. In Guyana,

in contrast, there seems to have been a total abandonment of that universal principle. From the political point of view of officialdom, as expressed publicly by those who opine on its behalf, those egregious violations amount to nothing more than, ”a little roughing up”, or that “people are more interested in the contents of holiday barrels than these weighty matters”.

One has to be extremely bothered by this rapid deterioration in the national capacity to grasp and parse fundamental principles as they relate to right and wrong. The fact that someone is suspected of being involved in a crime or offence does not vitiate their right to all processes to which they are entitled under the Laws of Guyana. However, as we have witnessed over the past 17 years or thereabouts, the ruling political entity displays convenient recognition of the fundamental rights of persons suspected of being involved in crimes. When the suspicion is targeted at someone who is part of the ruling machinery or sycophancy, we are lectured and scolded about the importance of observing these principles.

There was great furor from these quarters over the manner in which Roger Khan was taken into custody. Many pontificated piously that he was deprived of the fundamental right as a Guyanese citizen to due process and the presumption of innocence. What was frighteningly apparent in these pious recriminations of the manner in which the US assumed custody of Roger Khan however, was the absolute unconcern that Roger Khan was still going to enjoy a benefit he had participated in denying to many Guyanese.

Article 1 of the UN convention against torture defines torture as quote, “..any act by which severe pain and suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or another person information or a confession, punishing for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by, or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity…”.

Article 2 of said convention makes it binding upon the Government of member states to quote, “…take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction…”. The convention unambiguously declares as invalid any circumstances of exigency to excuse or justify torture. When the events that surround the allegation of torture by ex members of the GDF suspected of being involved in the disappearance of arms and ammunition and civilians like Terrence McKenzie, this 14 year old, and others are examined through the lens of those declarations, it becomes evident that Guyana, as a state, is in serious violations of the legal principles set out therein.

If the head of any household consistently violates the rules set in place for the orderly cohabitation of members of that household, inevitably that practice will seep through and into every crevice and cranny of interaction in that human environment. The consistent failure of the PPP regime to abide by international standards of law and conventions, to allow its power to be constricted by local statutes and ordinances, and to, either blatantly and conveniently superimpose its will and preference over what is established law and precedence, or interpret such in a manner that is politically expedient, continues to create severe fissures in the civilized fabric of our nation.

While the image that greeted us on the front page of the Kaieteur News is emotionally disturbing and agonizing, it is certainly not surprising that hideous manifestations of the kind of hubris that accompanies power in Guyana today continue to be revealed in the actions of agencies of the political state.

Yours faithfully,
Robin Williams