Dear Editor,
In your news story, “Torture claims by soldiers – PPP would support independent probe,” (SN, January 9), one has to wonder whether there truly is a cavity between what the Jagdeo administration is actually doing and what the PPP knows the administration is doing? It’s not impossible, but highly improbable, given the extremely controlling nature of the PPP.
Several weeks ago, two Buxtonians were arrested and then allegedly tortured by agents of the state security apparatus over a few days. They were never charged with any crime and were later released only to make public their shocking ordeal. How can state agents engage in such a horrific act for days and the government and the PPP not know?
To date, all that the public knows is that acting top cop, Henry Greene, has denied his officers tortured the two men and then he lobbed the ball into the court of the newly minted army honcho, essentially saying the army is culpable.
The army honcho, in response, went public a few weeks ago wondering how much longer the investigation into the alleged torture will last before closure is brought to the case. Only problem with the army honcho’s seemingly humane query is that the public still does not know who is conducting the probe. Is it the army? If so, how can the army honcho not know the status of the probe? In fact, can the army be trusted to probe itself in this highly disturbing case of torturing civilians?
But, as if that episode of civilian torture at the hands of army officers had not been deeply disturbing enough, we now have fresh allegations of torture by army officers against their own. And for what? A missing AK-47 assault rifle! Is this now standard army procedure? And can the army do this kind of terrible stuff to its own and the government and the PPP not know?
Fellow Guyanese, Robin Williams, in a recent letter, questioned the state’s lopsided handling of the soldiers over the one missing AK-47 with torture as a means to an end, while the people responsible for the major excavation of land in Berbice for the purpose of using Guyana as a transshipment point for smuggling narcotics are not receiving the same treatment or even intense scrutiny.
An AK-47 in the wrong hands can cause enormous loss of life, serious wounds and a certain level of social anxiety; but narcotics smuggling can also lead to major gun running involving extremely lethal weapons, leading to greater loss of life, multiplied numbers of wounded and a higher level of social anxiety.
Yet the state’s agents are not known to be seriously going after the drug smugglers and torturing any of them if or when they are captured, the way they are going after Buxtonians or even army officers. And judging from the names and photographs of those being tortured by the state’s agents so far, they seem to derive from the African Guyanese group.
I am yet to read a news story in which the state’s agents have allegedly tortured Indian Guyanese for major crimes, including narcotics smuggling which are directly linked to major gun trafficking.
Mr Editor, I am aware that the state gave out a major monetary bonus to the GDF last month, and while I can’t recall the state highlighting what specifically the army did to deserve their bonus, I can only hope this is not in any way an attempt to keep them in check while the state turns a Nelson eye to the army engaging in torturing civilians or even its own.
The only thing worse than the actual acts of torture in this particular AK-47 case is if these victims are absolutely innocent, as appears to be the case with the two Buxtonians who were never charged even after being tortured. The regime is still nonplussed!
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin
