Jocelyn Dow, an associate of historian Dr. Walter Rodney, has described her friend’s death as a “state-sanctioned” act in a time when she and several others feared for their lives daily.
Dow made the declaration during yesterday’s Walter Rodney Commis-sion of Inquiry (CoI) hearing at the Supreme Court Law Library. In her testimony, Dow described an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, which led to Rodney’s death. She explained that she, along with others, had thought that they could be “killed at any time” and, when she learnt of Rodney’s death, she had instantly believed that he had been murdered by the state. Though she had not been a member of Rodney’s party, the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), Dow said she was nevertheless subjected to victimisation.
She described in detail the events leading up to her discovery of Rodney’s death. According to her,
she and others had just driven up to the Croal Street home of a colleague, Andaiye, when it was discovered that blood was on the door. They were soon alerted by a “very distressed” Andaiye about the killing and a subsequent search of the Croal Street home led to the discovery of a badly injured Donald Rodney. According to Dow, Donald Rodney’s body bore several lacerations and marks, including a hole in his throat.
She later learned that he had sustained his injuries in the blast that killed his brother. “At the time, all I would think is that they have killed him; and by ‘they’ I would mean the state, Burnham’s regime, the political party…I know ‘they’ meant that the state of Guyana – the overriding adversary of the WPA – would be involved in his killing. I didn’t think that he died in a car accident. She said, ‘they killed him; he’s dead,’” Dow recounted.
“So nothing more had to be said for the meaning to be conveyed that the state had caused this thing… it was sort of an understanding?” commission lawyer Glen Hanoman asked.
“It was an assumption,” Dow said before adding in an undertone, “It turned out to be true.”
Noting the Commis-sion’s first term of reference, which focuses on determining who caused the explosion which killed Rodney, Hanoman asked Dow whether she could describe his death as an act of terrorism. “Terrorism is something the state accuses people of, so I don’t see that if the state murders you or seeks to murder you that that is an act of terrorism; I say that is an act of state-sanction,” Dow said. Later, she added, “State-sanctioned terrorism? Yes. Or if you want to call murder and those kinds of things terrorism. I thought so then and I think so now.”
Under the gun
When asked about the response of her colleagues and herself after learning that Walter Rodney was dead and Donald Rodney seriously injured, Dow explained that the group had gone into “a high-security mode” with the immediate aim of getting Donald Rodney medical attention. However, she said, they avoided the public hospital and instead took him to a trusted medical practitioner.
She added that though they could not say whether they were in immediate danger, they had known that something had gone terribly wrong and caution was of utmost importance. “We were always under the gun, so to speak,” Dow said. “We were all frequently sought on the road, arrested, locked up in the stations. Each of us in there have been. There was always a sense that you could be attacked.”
Dow further explained that the identity of Gregory Smith was unknown to herself and several others and, after the name was eventually mentioned by Donald Rodney, she was part of a widespread hunt to find out as much about Smith as possible.
According to Dow, the search for Smith was a massive nationwide one and had unearthed some information about the man. “People were calling in, we were gathering information. People would call you, tell you things. A large part of the society was mobilised in getting to the truth and another part was mobilised in hiding the truth,” she said.
These persons who sought to hide the truth, Dow believed, were “the army or army-types and obviously the government of the time.”
“There was denial that Gregory Smith was a member of the army, there was denial that he was in any way connected to electronics, there was just denial that Gregory Smith ever existed. I mean, I don’t think up to this day they’ve admitted he existed,” she further said, before adding that any information, such as photos proving that Smith actually existed, did not come from the army but elsewhere.
“There has just been a silence on Gregory Smith, even up to now,” she pointed out. She further said, “There was nothing I have ever heard on Gregory Smith. The police never offered an explanation, the army never offered an explanation, the government has never offered any explanation…even when it surfaced that he [Gregory Smith] was flown to Kwakwani in an army aircraft… nothing was even said about that to this day except for Mr. (Gerry ) Gouveia’s evidence (at the Rodney COI).”
Dow further noted that Rodney’s death was well-known throughout the region and had been the topic of discussion not only in Guyana but in other countries. She recalled one such public discussion with the then Minister of Information in Barbados. According to Dow, she had heard “rather odd things” about Rodney’s death but no explanation or form of defence by the state. “If you are the government and you’re being accused of engineering the murder of your top political rival, you would believe that it would be an obligation of the state to make clear who this person was… but this was never done,” she said.
Dow was also questioned about whether Rodney had indicated any interest in acquiring bombs or walkie-talkies. Accord-ing to her, many persons at the time wanted to own bombs in a “general sense but nothing specific.” However, she said that Rodney had never discussed with her anything such as bombing anyone. She further noted that they had been subjected to numerous searches and the possession of anything to do with arms and ammunition was a serious offence.
Hence, she said, the notion of owning a bomb was “really quite fanciful.”
Embarrassment
In his final day on the stand, Lieutenant Colonel Sydney James, on behalf of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), apologised for not only missing documents but the presentation of apparently inauthentic ones to the commission.
James, head of the army’s G2 branch, was tasked with providing information to the commission on the issuances of GDF weaponry to external bodies. However, during his time on the stand the documents he presented had come under constant fire for their continued inconsistencies and omissions.
“It is disappointing for me to have to come before this commission and there are documents with the discrepancies which were noted,” James said. He went on, “I’m cognisant of the environment in the military, from time to time, [when] a number of shortcuts are taken to facilitate, I would say, getting the job done… It is even embarrassing to me that even as I speak to this commission we have some of the same documentations present. We still have some challenges as it relates to correct documentation and people following all the procedure.”
Though James noted that the present situation was not as serious as it would have appeared to be in the late 1970s, it is still present.
“Again, I am not making excuses to what is entered here,” James said. “All the information should’ve been on hand. Notwithstanding, I don’t know exactly what might’ve been the internal environment or the situation in the 1976 to 1979 that might have facilitated what’s brought before these proceedings,” he added.
James further noted that the duties set out by the commission for the GDF had been tough tasks.
“We tried to satisfy the requirements of the commission,” James explained. “I know some of my colleagues may not have been able to produce the documents you would have requested but we tried our best.” James added that in the GDF there has always been a problem with retrieving documents, especially following the 2005 flood which destroyed several files in the army’s archives.
During yesterday’s hearing, James was further cross-examined about his evidence. This time, he was questioned by lawyer Selwyn Pieters, who represents the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) and Camille Warner who, in partnership with Keith Scotland, represents Donald Rodney. Christopher Ram, who represents the interests of the WPA, also continued his cross-examination of James.
James answered more questions on the issuance of weaponry and was asked about the GDF’s response to Rodney’s death. When asked by Warner whether it would have been prudent for the GDF to launch an investigation into the death of Rodney, especially considering that Rodney was a high-profile scholar, James admitted that it would have been. He was also questioned about any possible links between the issuing of army weapons and events throughout the region, such as the Cubana Air Disaster in 1976 and replied that he would have no idea to any connections.
Father Malcolm Rodrigues also briefly took the stand.
Dow will continue her testimony today.
