Challenging the integrity of the work of the Commission of Inquiry into the death of Walter Rodney, government used its majority in the wee hours of Friday morning to rework an opposition motion to have the findings adopted.
The motion, moved by PPP/C Chief Whip Gail Teixeira, originally sought to have the assembly adopt the commission’s report and direct the government “to take measures to implement the recommendations therein in order to ensure that the democratic architecture of the state is preserved and strengthened.”
However, in the end, the APNU+AFC government members amended the motion and voted to “acknowledge the report” and resolved to direct the administration to “examine the findings so as to ascertain which, if any, are acceptable and implementable.” Teixeira later said that the government’s changes “watered down” the motion.
In presenting the motion, Teixeira told the House that it was of great importance to the nation and the people as it sought “to right an injustice done to Walter Rodney, his family, comrades and nation.
“It is an affirmation that justice must be done and can’t be suppressed forever,” she added.
A three-member commission, led by Barbadian QC Sir Richard Cheltenham, had found that there was a conspiracy involving the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), the Guyana Police Force and others to kill Rodney and the then leader of the PNC, and prime minister of Guyana, Forbes Burnham had to be aware of it.
It also found that the late soldier Gregory Smith carried out the killing and he was then spirited out of the country to French Guiana in an elaborate operation spearheaded by the police force and GDF.
President David Granger, who is now leader of the PNC’s successor, the PNCR, has denounced the report.
“When you look at details of the evidence provided, it is clear that the report itself is very badly flawed and we intend to challenge the findings of the report and the circumstances under which that report was conducted.
That is all I would like to say at this time on that report but it is terribly flawed,” Granger had after the report was handed over. He had also said he believed the terms of reference of the inquiry were prejudicial.
During the debate on the motion, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo challenged the veracity of the commission’s findings, while noting that in conducting the inquiry it attempted to take a “side alley” by trying to let in hearsay evidence “in order to pursue a conclusion that was leading away from Gregory Smith, who evidence shows is the primary suspect.”
Meanwhile, Minister of State and member of the PNCR Joseph Harmon, in his presentation, maintained that the inquiry failed to fulfil its objectives as laid out in its terms of reference. He charged that “it became clear as the commission did its work that either they were not interested in public perception of bias or biased political outcome was their intention” and that this was “made clear by their treatment of witnesses whose testimony were not in keeping with their objectives.”
According to Harmon, the CoI was “a well-planned ploy” by the former administration to deflect public attention from issues of the time and “to give support [to the motion] would be to contribute to a farce perpetrated by the last government and fly in face of natural justice.”
He, however, said that his government would be willing to accept some if not all of the recommendations and therefore the government side, in the person of Attorney General Basil Williams, proposed an amendment to examine the findings so as to ascertain which, if any, of the recommendations are acceptable and implementable.
In the face of the more long-winded presentations on the subject, Minister of Education Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, who is a member of the party founded by Walter Rodney, kept his presentation short.
After detailing the history of the attempts by his party, the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), to find answers about Rodney’s death, Roopnaraine said, “I sense an act of those bringing this motion to politicise this matter. We must desist from talking and playing politics with a serious matter… on this motion let us desist from talking politics, let us deal with it as an objective matter to be fully and thoroughly investigated by an international inquiry leading where it may.”
The minister did not address the report which was laid before the House or its findings in any way.
