The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) yesterday sounded an alarm about political influence over security operations, while expressing concern that the prominent involvement of the military has given rise to excessive cruelty.
In a statement, the GHRA charged that a pattern suggests the emergence of a separate justice system to deal with those persons seen as “enemies of the state,” who are being labelled terrorists and seemingly deemed to have “forfeited” their human rights to arrest, dignified conditions of detention and a fair trial.

The human rights watchdog cited various remarks by President Bharrat Jagdeo, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy and Police Commissioner Henry Greene as confirming the operation of a politically- led system that is superior to the police force. The GHRA said their comments suggest a two- track justice system that caters to two classes, “those who possess human rights” and “those who are enemies/terrorists first and citizens second,” with the latter apparently having lost their rights. By extension, the group noted, anyone or any organization having reservations about this strategy are derided as criminal lovers and denounced as soft on crime. “Apart from militarizing security concerns to an unacceptable degree, such a two-track strategy will inevitably find reasons for criminalizing social protest of any kind,” the GHRA stated, pointing out that last week saw the unjustified detention and charges of criminal activity laid against trade union leaders. “Indeed, public safety is being reduced to a frontal war with anyone whose loyalty may be suspect, rather than addressing the real drivers of insecurity, namely disparities in access to resources, education and jobs,” it added.

Clement Rohee

Referring to remarks by both Minister Rohee and Commissioner Greene about the recent Health Ministry arson, the GHRA said they leave “no doubt” as to which of the parallel approaches is dominant and which provides a fig leaf of legitimacy. Rohee said Monday that the attack on the Ministry was done within a “political context” and involved “well-known” persons while pointing to “passive players” whom he linked with statements “about people not liking the government.” Added to that, the GHRA said Commissioner Greene “dutifully” echoed these sentiments when he indicated that alleged suspects were motivated by hatred of the government.

Meanwhile, when questioned on the identity of the men who dumped the badly beaten Troy Small at the Alberttown Police Station, the GHRA said Greene’s responses confirmed that they had the authority to act in this manner. Greene refused to take questions about Small and declared that all persons are suspects until “we have cleared this matter.”

City resident Troy Small has alleged that he was questioned about the ministry fire and tortured by a group of men including one uniformed GDF rank early Monday morning, and was later deposited at the Alberttown Police Station. Relatives of Small said he is in poor health and “suffering a lot” but is afraid to be admitted to the public hospital. Small has maintained that he has no knowledge of the attack on the ministry. Later when asked to comment on Small’s allegation that one of the men wore a uniform of the Guyana Defence Force, he said he preferred to await results of an investigation being carried out by Dr. Roger Luncheon, Head of the Presidential Secretariat. “These statements, along with those made by government leaders confirm the existence of yet another politically-led security operation, superior, rather than subject, to the Guyana Police Force,” the GHRA noted.

‘Excessive cruelty’
Moreover, the GHRA also said that long-standing disagreements between the Office of the President and the UK High Commission over the two approaches spilled into the public arena last month with the disagreement over the UK-funded security sector reform programme. It contended that the UK’s preference for a rights-based approach to security was at odds with the war on crime and sophisticated weaponry favoured by the OP.

It noted that members of the army, under the guise of joint forces operations, have “progressively” taken on numerous tasks since 2005 that legally fall within the competence of the police force. What is more, the group added that the prominence of this security role for the military coincided with control of the army being removed from the army itself and located in the “miniscule” Coast Guard Service by an appointment procedure which attracted much controversy.

At the same time, it stated that constant complaints of excessive force accompany joint services exercises, which invariably end with inconclusive investigations. Apart from the killing of all suspects in the Joint Operations into the Bartica and Lusignan massacres last year, the GHRA pointed to incomplete investigations in the alleged torture of Victor Jones and Patrick Sumner, who claimed they were removed from Police Headquarters, Eve Leary and brutally tortured by army personnel; the alleged torture of soldiers  Michael Dunn, Alvin Wilson and Sharth Robertson, by ranks of the army; the death of Edward Niles in the Camp Street prison during investigations involving army personnel; and the alleged torture of Mitchell Thomas with ants during a joint forces operation in Wakenaam. Additionally, the group noted that there have been numerous complaints of demeaning, disrespectful and illegal procedures suffered by ordinary citizens in the course of joint operations.

Noting that “excessive cruelty” is a hallmark of these operations, it observed that the claim of the use of a hammer on the ankles of Troy Small is “a chilling reminder” of an identical tactic allegedly used in the unsolved Lindo Creek mining camp massacre last year. The joint services have denied accusations of their involvement in the incident, which they blame on fugitive Rondell “Fineman” Rawlins, who they later killed in an operation.

The GHRA was also critical that the $50M reward offered for Rawlins’ capture was divided among members of the joint services without any assurances that the “complete elimination” of he and his gang did not involve excessive force. Similarly, it noted that without recourse to normal police channels, President Jagdeo personally announced a reward of $25 million for information leading to the capture of the Ministry of Health arsonists.