President Bharrat Jagdeo has ordered the police and army to deal “condignly” with any act of violence and to go wherever the trail leads, even if it is to politicians.
In the wake of last Wednesday’s grenade detonation at the Stabroek Market Square that left one man dead and 18 injured, the President said the country must not tolerate such behaviour. “It is an attack that we must abhor collectively,” he said at his first press conference for 2011 at the Office of the President on Monday.
The President referred too to arson attempts at two East Coast Demerara schools and the hurling of a Molotov cocktail at the home of PPP parliamentarian Philomena Sahoye-Shury recently.
The device failed to explode. Jagdeo said that there is a fear among people that this may be related to elections since this is an election year. “Those who stir up hate among our midst whether it’s an election year or any other year, we have to collectively condemn them and hope that the institutions that we’ve created to do this, that they aggressively act in this regard, particularly the Ethnic Relations Commission,” he said.
The President emphasized that he did not want to say that the incidents are related to elections, adding that there could be various issues at play.
He said that the police and army “have my command, my instruction that we will deal condignly with any act of violence and we will go wherever the trail leads us, even if it leads to politicians.”
Referring to the grenade explosion, Jagdeo said that no stone will be left unturned in seeking the perpetrators or perpetrator of the “horrible attack.” “It’s still unclear at least from a security perspective what took place there but regardless of the circumstances that led to the attack, we know it has to be criminal in nature and… even if it was a grenade exploding on a person who had the grenade, even if we were to speculate that that was what happened then he should have never been in possession of that grenade,” Jagdeo said.
He added that the incident bothers him a lot because not only have the lives of many persons been affected but it could have happened to anyone. “If anyone thinks that they can exploit the election year and hope that by stirring problems among our people that they’re going to enhance their electoral fortune, they will face a fierce resistance from the government,” he said.
Meanwhile, speaking on the demolition of stalls that followed the explosion, the president said that the vendors were notified long before the incident but the explosion was the “breaking point.” He noted that people have to earn a living and the vendors have to “vend differently.” “But I made it clear we have to do so in an orderly fashion. If they violate that agreement that they had, that after 6 (pm) their place is not clear, then they’ll face the consequences but we are uncompromising on those fixed structures,” he said.
The President lashed out at those who he said are attempting to make the issue about race. “Anyone who tries to exploit our people and try to create racial divisions or disturbances here, they’re going to face the full brunt of the government, unyielding,” he said.
According to Jagdeo, the main opposition party PNCR, which controls the city, has not done anything for the city and suddenly it is concerned. The President said that agreements have been worked out with the vendors and they can sell from 6am to 6pm. “But we’re uncompromising on the structures, those fixed structures and we’re gonna clean up the place and put police there,” he said. He added that because of the robberies and the sub-culture of crime there, the vendors were happy for this.
The entire area will be upgraded. “We want a beautiful place where tourists could go, where Guyanese could go in the evening with their kids and stuff like that, the entire Stabroek Square,” Jagdeo said.
The site where the Bureau of Statistics once stood will also be transformed into a square. Other areas in the city will also be upgraded, including the La Penitence market.
The president said that he also thought about the creation of a “little protest square” where people can go and say whatever they want to say.
