President David Granger today reiterated his intention to see a motion passed in Parliament to appoint a Commission of Inquiry which would probe a large number of killings during the tenure of former President Bharrat Jagdeo between 2000 and 2008.
The motion which was first drafted by Granger in 2012, when he was Leader of the Opposition, seeks to investigate among others the killing of Agriculture Minister Satyadeow Sawh and the massacres at Lusignan, Bartica and Lindo Creek in 2006.
Granger told a forum on the State of the African Guyanese, held at the Critchlow Labour College “I will ensure that all those who were killed have their deaths investigated.”
He expressed the opinion that the happenings of that period which he referred to as the “troubles” must be thoroughly investigated to offer members of the public peace.
“When you have ministers of the government bringing in computers so you can track down peoples mobile phones; when you have young men being shot in the back of their heads with their hands tied; when you have so many deaths which have not been investigated; when you have a minister of government who has been assassinated and you don’t even have an inquest, something stinks and we are going to investigate those deaths,” Granger remarked to enthusiastic support.
In the recital to the motion which was first read in Parliament on January 5, 2013, Granger had said “…this country has witnessed a pattern of unlawful killing of undetermined numbers of persons – including assassinations; executions; murders; extra-judicial killings by members of the Guyana Police Force Target Special Squad and other forms of criminal violence in Guyana during a period of ‘troubles’ on the East Coast and East Bank of Demerara and elsewhere – which were harmful to the public welfare.”
The then opposition leader later noted that “in accordance with the Commission of Inquiry Act, Chapter 19:03, the President may issue a commission appointing one or more commissioners and authorizing such commissioner or commissioners to inquire into any matter in which an inquiry would, in the opinion of the President, be for the public welfare.”
In that regard the motion had requested that the National Assembly calls upon the President of Guyana to appoint a Commission of Inquiry to inquire into the unlawful killing of citizens during the years 2004 to 2010.
The motion was deferred after the parties which constituted the tenth parliament could not agree on several aspects of its form. Both the then ruling People’s Progressive Party and the other opposition party Alliance for Change had called for an extension of the time period referenced in the motion. The motion called for an investigation into criminal violence during the period 2004-2010.
Then leader of the AFC Khemraj Ramjattan told Stabroek News at the time that the AFC wanted “to have that body examine the criminal violence from a period way before 2004. We wanted to ensure that we bring out everything and not just [what occurred] since 2003 – 2004.”
Granger told reporters today that though the motion was unsuccessful in the tenth parliament he has discussed with Attorney General Basil Williams his intention to reopen the issue. In his presentation he referenced the period 2000-2008.
“There are three big monuments in this country, which were constructed during the reign of Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo. One monument is at Bartica, another is down the road at Eve Leary never before in our history have so many policemen been killed and never after have so many policemen been killed as during the tenure of Mr Jagdeo and if you go to Buxton you will see another huge monument. Mr Jagdeo has many monuments to his memory and those three monuments must remind us about the deaths which took place between 2000 and 2008”, Granger told the gathering.
