Dear Editor,
In response to the article published in your newspaper captioned ‘Cops want relatives to provide numbers used to call 911’ (SN, June 30), I wish to say that all the newspapers in Guyana, as well as the GPF, have contact information for myself and other relatives, should they wish to get accurate information. As a matter of fact, the telephone numbers they printed in the Kaieteur News article were given to Commissioner Greene’s office in order for them to contact me while I was in Guyana. Since they are so desperately trying to get in touch with me to investigate further, it would make sense for them to call one of those numbers initially. I’m unclear why the GPF would issue a release asking “relatives of persons who drowned in the Abary Creek on May 27 to provide them with the telephone numbers from which repeated calls were made to 911”; or why they would deny “claims made by Tara Mattai… that the telephone numbers police referred to in an earlier statement were not the ones that the numerous 911 calls were made from.” I’m also unclear whether, given the outcome of this incident, it is our obligation to contact the GPF to correct them, or whether it is their duty to make every attempt to get at the truth and separate fact from fiction. In all civilized nations, the latter is a given – Guyana excepted.
Like most people reading the articles in all the major newspapers in Guyana, I’m getting a bit weary of the constant cover-up by the authorities. These articles are like daggers that jab deeper into the wound every time they are printed, not only for me, but for all those affected by the tragedy. We wish to continue to honour the memory of those we lost by putting an end to this farce by the GPF. When this is all over, the truth will stand, as told to Stabroek News from that fateful day onwards.
Yours faithfully,
Tara Mattai
