Former President, Mrs Janet Jagan says that the police and army have to be more alert to crimes.
In her column in the Weekend Mirror of February 2-3 addressing the Lusignan massacre, Mrs Jagan said “..we expect the police and army to be more alert. Notification of crimes as they begin are not getting the attention and response needed. That must change.” The late police response to the Lusignan attack two Saturdays ago enraged residents of the East Coast. A report is expected on the time the first call was made to stations on the East Coast about the attack.
In a column entitled `Time for unity against cold-blooded killers’, the former President said that every police station needs to have better equipment to deal with emergencies. She added that there were too many unfilled vacancies and more cops are needed. Mrs Jagan said that President Bharrat Jagdeo was right when he asked why more people were not joining the police force.
The former President also said that community police need more training, equipment and better liaison with the police. “They can do a lot by their very presence in the community, particularly equipped with firearms and cellular phones and have mobility”.
Stressing the need for peace, Mrs Jagan, who served as President between 1997 and 1999, said that some sections of the media were fanning flames and “playing dirty games with the delicate situation that exists in our country”. She cited the February 1 edition of Stabroek News as an example of “how our frequently disgusting media operates”, noting that it did not highlight on the front page the information that all of Guyana wanted – the report that the security forces had “killed two of the gunmen of the Lusignan Massacre, one being the No.2 killer and arrested five in the Buxton backlands” but consigned it to page 18.
In a comment, Stabroek News Editor Anand Persaud said almost the entire front page of that day’s edition was devoted to honouring the memory of the 10 victims of the massacre who were buried the day before. Persaud said the original front page of the edition carried a blurb on the report of the joint services operation referred to by Mrs Jagan but this was replaced after a murder occurred in Campbellville after 10 pm. Persaud noted that the previous day’s edition had front-paged the joint services operation referred to by Mrs Jagan. Furthermore, the joint services press conference had been held very early in the morning and the information had already been widely dissemination by the time the February 1 edition was to be printed. A full report was however carried on the joint services press conference on page 18.
Persaud also added that the police provided no information to substantiate the claims that the two men killed had participated in the Lusignan massacre and that one of them was Rondell Rawlins’ deputy.
