Following a meeting with President Donald Ramotar yesterday, Region Ten Chairman Sharma Solomon reported that there has been some progress towards resolving the unrest in Linden, where protests have been ongoing over the last two weeks.
Solomon, however, declined to go into details of the meeting, which follows a previous engagement involving representatives from the government and opposition at the Office of President (OP) on the situation, saying that it would be unethical. He, however, noted that talks will resume on Friday, when there is expected to be more “positive actions.”
Solomon and members of the opposition and Ramotar, his advisors and ministers are having discussions to find favourable solutions to the electricity tariff increase that sparked the protest, the killing of three protestors by the police and the region’s economic situation.
Stabroek News was unable to get a comment from the OP on the meeting, which was the first engagement since the President cancelled a planned visit to Linden on Saturday after unsuccessful efforts by the security forces to clear blocked roadways. No senior government official has visited the town since three residents were killed after police opened fire on protestors.
At a joint press conference with APNU and AFC representatives, Solomon said that the two teams on Friday would engage “some of the positions that we would have agreed on so far, with regards to establishing our technical team to deal with the issue of electricity distribution and generation within Region Ten and to allow for the terms of reference to be presented at those discussions along with the economic team to take into consideration some of the models that are being advanced by both government and the regional officials.”
Solomon did note that ideas and information as it relates to bringing resolution to what is taking place in Linden and Region Ten were shared.
When asked how close the parties are to reaching a compromise, he said “we have movement, we have significant movement.” He later opted not to release further details on the talks, saying that negotiations are in progress and they are sticking to their word that they would not release details as the aim is to ensure that the talks continue in good faith. “The fact that it is ongoing, it would be rather unethical to come out and say anything,” he explained.
PNCR member Aubrey Norton, who is also part of the talks, told reporters that “there [has] been some progress on the technical and economic matters but much work has to be done on the political and security issues.”
He also noted that when the opposition delegation arrived at OP for the meeting, members of the Private Sector were there as well. “…At that point we said that we appreciate the role that the Private Sector plays, however, we had agreed to a meeting with the president and our team and even if the Private Sector was to be there we felt that you needed to have the trade union and other stakeholders and not the Private Sector alone,” he said, pointing out that yesterday’s meeting was the continuation of an adjourned meeting between the government and opposition.
“We want to state clearly that we welcome the involvement of the private sector but it must be with other stakeholders and not at the continuation of an adjourned meeting,” he said, while adding that this sort of arrangement would not be a healthy.
APNU MP Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, meanwhile, said that work on the Commission of Inquiry into the killing of the three protestors—Shemroy Bouyea, Allan Lewis and Ron Somerset—is moving apace and it is expected that Joe Harmon and Dr. Roger Luncheon, who are compiling the Terms of Reference, will meet tomorrow’s deadline.
He once again expressed the view that Lindeners’ position as it relates to composition of the commission should be taken into consideration. He said that the international component that APNU is interested in would be well respected and experienced Caribbean jurists. “If we need to go beyond the Caribbean, then we will be looking at more regional organisations maybe UNASUR or the OAS,” he added, saying that the aim is also to complete the inquiry in the shortest possible time.
Nigel Hughes, the AFC representative at the talks, noted that his party has a slightly different perspective compared to APNU. He said that his party’s position is that the commission should comprise experts in human rights law; crowd management and control; the use of firearm and deadly weapons and law enforcement. In terms of the composition, he noted, these are the areas that are of critical importance and those experts should be drawn from the Caribbean and internationally.
