Help and Shelter said it is “irrepressibly saddened and appalled” at the massacre of 12 persons at Bartica and it stands ready to assist the affected families.
In a press release the charity said it extends condolences to the relatives, friends and colleagues of Edwin Gilkes, Dexter Adrian, Irving Ferreira, Zaheer Zakir, Shane Fredericks, Ron Osborne, Deonarine Singh, Ronald Gomes, Ashraf Khan, Abdool Yasin, Errol Thomas and Baldeo Singh.
It said too it unequivocally condemns the killings at Bartica and at Lusignan and calls for the perpetrators to be bought to justice.
“We are at a point in our history where unless we can collectively put aside our political and ethnic differences and unite as a people to overcome the terror stalking our land, we will all become its victims in one way or another,” the group said.
Further, as an organisation whose goal is to work to build respect for the rights of women, children, youth and men to live lives free of violence and the threat of violence, Help and Shelter said it recognised the need to examine all attempts to work towards finding solutions that will ensure the safety of all.
“No one has – or should think they have – a monopoly over the right to find solutions to the problems facing the nation,” the group said. It said it believed alienation and exclusion breed criminality and anti-social behaviour. “The politics of exclusion that have flourished for so long in Guyana have led us nowhere but to this tragic state of affairs,” the organisation added.
The group said it is vital that the security personnel “abide by the rule of law in the apprehension of those responsible for these – and all- killings.”
It also said it stands ready to assist the relatives of the deceased, from Bartica and Lusignan, and it welcomes any initiative that includes the use of its knowledge and skills in rendering assistance.
