The dossier on government’s human rights abuses, which is being compiled by the joint opposition, is still to be finalized and difficulties in getting the large amount of documents from drug lord Roger Khan’s trial in New York, has held up the process.
But the dossier is expected to be completed shortly, Alliance For Change (AFC) Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan told Stabroek News last week. He said the others involved have completed their drafts but the finalization of the document has been held up largely by the difficulty in getting the transcripts emanating from the drug trafficker’s court case. Ramjattan was assigned the responsibility for this. “I am still to complete my draft,” he said.
He explained that some persons had promised to source the transcripts but did not and another factor was the high cost involved in getting all the documents copied, so they are extracting the relevant parts.
The AFC Chairman said his draft would have been completed by last weekend and then the parties would meet to finalize the dossier. He said he expects this process to move faster and shortly thereafter, the dossier will be released.
The joint opposition had agreed to compile a comprehensive dossier cataloguing the government’s human rights abuses, including extra-judicial killings, torture and complicity with known organised crime gangs and narco-traffickers and the resulting corruption. The dossier, upon completion, will be submitted to local, regional and international bodies, including the courts with the appropriate jurisdiction and the public.
Ramjattan, who had pushed for the preparation of the dossier, had earlier explained that it is receiving input from several sources, including local experts as well as assessments by international organisations on government corruption and state abuses.
The joint opposition had been calling for an international inquiry into the alleged links between government and Khan. Ramjattan had told this newspaper that they had been successful in communicating to the citizenry the wrongdoing that has taken place since 2002, and in particular the relationship between the government and narcotics traffickers. He had said the dossier would aid in internationalising the issue, and would justify the call for an international inquiry. The AFC, GAP, NFA, the PNCR and the WPA had announced a partnership in August to sensitise local and international organisations on the Khan saga and to force greater accountability from the government.
