Rohee supporters demand justice for embattled minister

Scores of supporters of Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee yesterday staged a demonstration outside the compound of the Supreme Court, as he finally took the witness stand before the commission of inquiry into the July 18 Linden protestor shootings.

“We need justice for Rohee,” read one of the placards held by the group, which was made up of between 60 and 70 persons.

During a break in the hearing before Rohee began his testimony, the minister’s supporters, lined up along the South Road entrance of the court compound, where they stood silently, placards-in-hand, as curious members of the public looked on.

Three women who demonstrated in support of Home Minister Clement Rohee.

One of the minister’s supporters, who provided her name as “Joan,” told Stabroek News that they were out there to simply air their concerns about how the opposition parties have accused the minister of ordering police to shoot protesters at Linden.

She added that it was a great injustice that Minister Rohee was blamed for what happened in Linden, although he was nowhere in the vicinity. “Minister Rohee is a good man and I don’t know why they blaming he for it; the opposition is supposed to be responsible for it because they lead the people on the bridge and they got shot,” she said.

The minister’s supporters, who said that they were from different regions of the country, explained that they will stand by him to see justice prevail.

Part of the commission of inquiry’s terms of reference requires that it inquire what, if any, general or specific instructions the Minister of Home Affairs gave to the Guyana Police Force to maintain law and order In Linden immediately before, during and immediately after the events on July 18.

Supporters of Minister Clement Rohee, who said he should not be made a scapegoat for the events at Linden.

The handling of the Linden protest by the police force was among the reasons that prompted APNU and the AFC to use their parliamentary majority to pass a no-confidence against Rohee. During the debate on the motion, he had said that the no-confidence motion cannot and will not arrive at the truth of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the three persons in Linden—which was among the issues that prompted the motion—and he said that to place those deaths at his feet flies in the face of the presumption of innocence. “I await the Commission of Inquiry and I do so with a clear conscience,” Rohee had said. The government has since challenged the motion in court.

“Joan” with her placard outside of the Supreme Court.