Two weeks after two Buxtonian men alleged they were brutally beaten and burnt by members of the joint services while in their custody, Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee yesterday said that the government does not support the torturing of any citizen and assured that the allegations are being investigated.
The Government Information Agency (GINA) quoted Rohee as saying, “I want to maintain that we have always denounced torture as a means of extracting information whenever it is discovered and that position remains the same.”
The Acting Police Commissioner, Henry Greene has refused to comment on the issue while the newly appointed Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force, Commodore Gary Best would only say that an investigation will be conducted.
Patrick Sumner and Victor Jones, both residents of Buxton, East Coast Demerara were picked up by members of the joint services two weeks ago during an operation. They were escorted out of the village and taken to Police Headquarters, Eve Leary from where they said they were later whisked to a location on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway where they were assaulted by ranks. The treatment of the two men has drawn strong criticism from the local human rights body and political parties. There has been no official statement from the joint services on the issue. In a GINA bulletin in which he responded to a PNCR press statement issued last week Minister Rohee denied allegations made by the party that torturing was a new tactic government wanted the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to introduce in crime fighting.
“When I spoke about new forms of fighting crime it had nothing to do with the introduction of torture. It had to do with encouraging the Police to revisit their posture and wherever there is room for improvement, they should seek to expand on that room. So I think that statement is misplaced and has nothing to do with the policy of the administration,” Rohee said. Rohee added that the administration does not support the torturing of any citizen but maintained that the police like any other force worldwide are allowed to interrogate suspects. “We have to remember that the Police have a role in any part of the world to interrogate suspects whenever they are captured and detained, but so far as torture is concerned, that is out of the question,” Minister Rohee asserted, according to the GINA bulletin.
Political football
The main opposition, PNCR had criticized the security forces’ treatment of the men and questioned whether torturing was a new tactic of law enforcement. Rohee according to GINA said that the party was using the incident to gain political points. “I don’t know where the PNC is coming from, but I suppose that this is a matter that is being used as a political football.” Noting that there was a serious criminal enterprise that has set out to upset peace and good order in the society, Rohee asserted that no one would deny that the Police are going seriously after the criminals.
At a press conference on Thursday, the PNCR says it intends to pursue justice for the two Buxtonians. Party Central Executive Committee member Aubrey Norton said the matter of the men’s treatment will have to be dealt with at the level of the community, civil society and the international community would have to be sensitized about the allegations. He said the party will be working to ensure that the international community becomes aware of what occurred.
Reading the party’s statement Norton restated its condemnation of the action and expressed disgust too at similar allegations made by Damyoun Wordsworth, a Berbice resident. He said this latest development suggested that the incidence of torture was more widespread than is generally believed.
The party stated that the treatment meted out to the men is unacceptable to it and should be so for all Guyanese.
Additionally, the party registered its ongoing concern and disgust at the continued raids on the Buxton community by elements of the security forces, even after the circumstances surrounding the tragic death of Donna Herod. In this regard, the party also restated its calls for an independent investigation into the woman’s death.
According to Norton, the police are yet to produce one iota of evidence that police ranks were exchanging gunfire with criminal elements in Buxton.
State secret
“The house from which these alleged criminal elements were exchanging gunfire with the police must be a state secret as the security forces have not to date been able to produce one convincing photograph of that building,” he told the media.
Two Thursdays ago Jones and Sumner were released from Eve Leary with their genitals seared and their bodies lacerated with burns and bruises after blows allegedly at the hands of police and soldiers on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway. The men had told this newspaper that they were first taken to Camp Ayanganna, and then transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department, Eve Leary where they were allegedly questioned about their lifestyles before being asked whether they knew the gunmen in Buxton. After spending some time at Eve Leary the men were taken to the Brickdam Police Station where they spent the night in the lock-ups. The next day they were escorted up the Soesdyke Highway in chains. They arrived at what appeared to be military camp where they said they were clubbed with pieces of wood and shackled to posts. “They really beat us and I think at one time they would a kill I,” Sumner had told this newspaper. He said during the torture the policemen threw a corrosive liquid on their bodies as well as gunpowder. They were also placed on a sheet of cardboard face-down and their feet were bound and eyes blindfolded and in this position, they said, they were beaten on their heads. They said they were also thrown into a pool of water on the highway.
Yesterday the men’s relatives told Stabroek News that they were still badly bruised and had not recovered from the ordeal. Jones was sent back to the hospital last week after collapsing at home, while Sumner with burns all over his body has gone into hiding. Relatives also told Stabroek News yesterday that they will this week make a formal complaint to the Police Complaints Authority and will seek the intervention of other organizations in their struggle for justice.
The torture allegations come less than a year after the government submitted a report to the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT). The submission in November last year came after a 17-year delay. After consideration of the submission, CAT delivered its conclusions and recommendations on December 7 last year.
Among its conclusions, CAT said that it was concerned about widespread reports of police brutality, the use of force and firearms by the police and the lack of accountability of the force.
CAT recommended that Guyana should ensure that the circumstances under which police officers are authorized to use force are exceptional and clearly defined and that members of the force receive appropriate training on the use of force and firearms.
It added that Guyana should also take “effective steps to guarantee the accountability of the Guyana Police Force and, to this effect, carry out prompt, impartial and effective investigations, try the perpetrators of acts of abuse and, when convicted, impose appropriate sentences and adequately compensate the victims”.
It also said that in relation to torture, Guyana should provide in its next periodic report detailed data on torture complaints against law enforcement personnel and “on the related investigations, prosecutions and criminal and disciplinary sanctions. Information is further requested on any measures taken to compensate and provide rehabilitation services for victims”.
The next report is due by December 31, 2008.
