Dear Editor,
I write this letter conscious of my responsibility to the Guyanese nation bearing in mind my prominent role in the polemics at the time when there were unprecedented extrajudicial killings that engulfed Guyana. At that time citizens in this country witnessed the rise of state-sponsored death squads and the emergence of drug lord, Roger Khan’s publicly declared support of the PPP/C government in its “so-called war” against crime. This period saw the deaths of more than 400 citizens, the majority being young African men.
In the public polemics at the time, I often pointed out that the genesis of these killings was as a result of the PPP/C’s deliberate policy of punishing the African Community for its continued support for the PNCR. This support was massively demonstrated in the 1992 general and regional elections and beyond. The PPP/C‘s policy had both overt and covert dimensions: while the former was characterised by government economic and social programmes, the latter was carried out mainly by a “dirty tricks” committee. The initial political goal was to pacify Georgetown – a stronghold of the PNCR with its anti-PPP history – and to avoid the resurgence of the political turbulence of the 60s when that party was in office.
This political misadventure was characterised by the use of the police to unleash violence in its most vicious form on peaceful protests and protesters, such as the nurses’ protest where tear gas and rubber bullets were employed in the course of which persons were injured, some seriously. In the PPP/C‘s opinion, the PNC’s ability to organise protest demonstrations in Georgetown is due to its connection with the city’s large body of unemployed persons. The “dirty tricks” committee then set out to use the PPP’s control of the state to develop its own connections with this section of the city, more particular the street elements. The recruitment of these elements for political purposes became the order of the day.
The notorious Black Clothes police under the instruction of the party and government began unwarranted killings of mainly African lumpen elements in the city. This reckless policy that resulted in frequent killings, untenable situations, and the inability of the African Community leadership, both political and civil, to stop these executions led to the self-organization of the lumpen elements for retaliatory actions. This manifested itself after the 2002 jailbreak. Rather than learning from its misadventure the PPP/C and government established a political /economic alliance with known Indian drug lords. This alliance between the PPP and well known Indian businessmen resulted in the development of phantom death squads. In this racial/political and criminal enterprise, Roger Khan emerged as its most notorious leader with extremely strong political ties with the then PPPC political leadership.
I say all this to remind readers that when I offered the above explanation for the rise of the state-sponsored executions and the subsequent counter executions that gripped the country, I was vilified by my detractors and deemed racist. I was also accused of supporting violence against Indians. In the public polemics, the PPP/C and Indian rights activists took the position that those mainly young African men who were being executed by the police and phantom death squads were ethnic/criminals killing Indians. On the other hand, supporters of the rebellious youths called them freedom fighters. This claim was initially made by a leader of the rebellious young men.
For my part, given my position as an African political/cultural activist, I did not want to open myself to the accusations that I was in denial as it relates to the race of those engaged in the violent conflict with the state and its drug allies. Additionally, I was not in agreement with the freedom fighters categorization, since it meant a qualitative political and organizational development which, to my mind, was not reached at that time. However, in recognition of the fact that our young men were victims of conscious political actions of the PPP/C government and found themselves engaged in a life or death struggle with the state forces and drug lords, and were fighting back in spite of the odds against them, I felt that a more appropriate description of their efforts would have been the emerging “African Armed Resistance”.
I also recall telling my detractors that the politics of the struggle would be made clear with the state demonstrating its commitment to the ruthless destruction of the resistance fighters while continuing its hands-off treatment of its allies – the state-sponsored killers. Today, years after that explosive period, the record will show that every known resistance fighter is either dead or in prison awaiting trial, and not one of the state-sponsored killers has ever been brought to justice or killed, by the PPP/C controlled state.
I wish to use this opportunity to address the grievous situation of Roger Khan’s return to Guyana after spending several years in a US prison. Today he is a free man walking the streets seemingly, without a care in the world. He is only required to report to the police once weekly. I refuse to accept that in spite of the numerous statements and information given to the PNCR over time and the revelations at Khan’s trial in the USA, nothing has been done to date to indict this man for the role he played during the sordid period of extrajudicial executions in Guyana. What is equally alarming and distressing is that nothing has been done by the state in relation to the numerous properties he acquired during the period of him being a drug lord. When the coalition government’s and the Guyana Police Force’s non action on the matter of Roger Khan’s properties is juxtaposed against their treatment of the seizure of “Big Head’s” properties the question to be asked is – why this contradiction?
Is the nation to believe that those persons in the coalition government, with the responsibility for national security, and more particularly the leaders of the Guyana Police Force did absolutely nothing in the years following Khan’s trial in relation to the astonishing revelations which pointed fingers at his collusion with senior officials in the PPP/C administration with the widespread extrajudicial killings and particularly the murder of Ronald Waddell?
The irony of the present situation forces me to recall the public polemics I had on the merits of having a Commission of Inquiry into the assassination of Walter Rodney. I pointed out that while such an inquiry was important to bring closure to the matter and justice to Rodney, his family and the WPA, an equally important issue was to establish in the political culture, the nation’s rejection of politicians and high and low governmental officials and their cohorts use of the state to engage in the execution of its citizens extrajudicially.
To date, the APNU+AFC coalition government led by President David Granger has the outstanding record of being the only government pre and post-independence that has not engaged in the killing of political opponents. This is an observation that has been a central theme in Dr David Hinds’ public discourses at WPA’s community meetings and in the media. However, the coalition government’s credentials and commitment to eradicating the tainted image of the country, given what has occurred in the past have been called into question at home and abroad, in light of the present inaction in the “Roger Khan fiasco”.
Yours faithfully,
Tacuma Ogunseye
