A description of horror and evil by a freed treason accused
Dear Editor,
My name is Carol Ann Munro, the first woman in the Caribbean and in the South American hemisphere to be charged with treason, December, 27th, 2010, an accusation I am not proud of and a situation I wish to wake up and find it was a dream, a terrible nightmare.
My rights were violated in many forms and besides Mr. Mark Benchop and Mr. Freddie Kissoon, parents of my school, friends, relatives, the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) writing in the newspaper upon the issue and Mr. Green, the Mayor making an appearance in court. I can’t remember anyone making an issue of a woman being shackled hand and feet. On Thursday, 23rd December, 2010, at approximately 22:30 hours, I was alerted that there were persons on my premises through bright lights streaming into my windows. Upon investigating, I discovered that my entire yard, porch, the street on which I lived and still do was swarming with police.
I was informed by a police gentleman, who seemed to be the leader of the group that they were sent to search my home. I immediately asked why, and was informed that it was none of my business and they couldn’t say. I informed them that without a search warrant by the Court, signed by a magistrate that I wouldn’t give entry. My husband stated his rank and where he worked, and I told him to call his boss. At that time it was Commandant Brig. Gary Bess, Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force. One officer said, ‘I don’t care who your husband’s boss is, we have instructions from higher authority than him and we are searching your home. My husband instructed that we complied. He said, ‘you comply and then complain’.
I requested, that their shoes be removed, because of our son, who was born with an incomplete oesophagus and suffers from allergies to many things, and the home had to be constantly mopped down with bleach, he is also chronic asthmatic and only a few days prior was released from the hospital. They didn’t cooperate. Now, note the period of this incident and you would know it is a time when persons would be cleaning and fixing their homes. We were never told what they were looking for. I watched men as they climbed on our vanity and other pieces of furniture to search and get into the attic. Nothing was taken and we were never told what they were searching for unto this day.
Our two children, Hannah 8, and Immanuel 4, were both asleep, they didn’t notice them. When we asked where, after being told, that we were to accompany them, we were refused an answer. In the middle of that night, while our children slept, we had to find persons to take the children with them. They’d taken up our cellular phones which were on the counter charging without notifying us of this.
I drove, my husband was in the passenger seat, and two police officers with large rifles, either the AK-47 or the SLR-Fal sitting in the back. I was directed from them where to turn, until we arrived at Eve Leary, in Kingston. There we were placed to sit, denied phone calls to our attorneys or relatives. When my husband asked about calling his boss, at that time he was seconded to the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), Col. Ret’d Chabilall Ramsarup, he was denied. My husband, a senior officer, Major of the Guyana Defence Force, with eighteen (18) years of unblemished service, treated like a common criminal. When asked to call the Chief of Staff, the same was done. Where were his rights?
We sat there from the time of arrival on the 23‘d of December, 2010, to after 10 pm, of the 24th December, 2010; without a bath, one call to Attorney-at-law Mr. George Thomas. Who was pushed around to produce identification of his status, and a five minutes visit. No one would say what it was we were brought there for.
I was whisked away to the female lock-ups that night, East La Penitence, and my husband to Brickdam. Never knowing what was the reason for this. Always being told when asked if we were under arrest, no, you are here for questioning. Not one question was asked besides our address, spelling of our names, age and date of birth. Finger printed and pictures taken. It is stated, that one can’t be detained for more than seventy-two (72) hours. Count the days, the charge was instituted on the 27th December, 2010, four days later, and we appeared in court on the 28th.
Do you want to hear of the violation of rights? My right to be read my rights by the officer who arrested me. My Right to an attorney. My Right to a phone call. My Right to have a search warrant presented to search my home. My Right to be told on what charges or accusation I am being detained for or on. My husband’s Rights as an officer, to have a senior officer of the Guyana Defence Force be present on such matters.
I slept on the tiles and concrete of a dirty lock-up floor, on a few sheets or newspaper, couple pieces of clothing or my bath towel as a bed. To bathe with a two litre bottle of water or cranberry’s juice bottle of water brought by my mother twice per day. To be kept in an area, built for a vault, a dim, maybe twenty watt bulb, which hardly provided any light to an area without any form of ventilation or natural lighting. In an environment where there was hardly any running water, and the toilets overflowed with flit and a floor where water had lodged and ringworm had found themselves a place to live.
To not have my spectacles taken away was a happy moment and forcing myself to read the Bible in that limited light condition and ruining my sight further, at La Penitence — female remand. To be locked away in solitary confinement from the 30th of December, 2010, to the 8th of July, 2011. Twenty-three hours in a 10 x 6 cell, that was about fourteen feet high or more, just a hole in the door designed to only see straight ahead. With only one hour of time granted to bath, sit alone and instructed not speak to anyone without permission being granted. Not being allowed a newspaper or to watch the television. To have every document screened and even a page being torn out of my Bible because I wanted to keep a journal. To be given two potties to use as a toilet for both urination and excretion, and they are only emptied when I was let out. To be shackled hand and feet and paraded in an orange suit for any external visits —the hospital. To be in pain and not complained because you don’t; you can’t endure the curious eyes of on-lookers. In relation to my husband;
· As an army officer, Maj. Ret’d Bruce Munro, should have been investigated by the army
· A senior police officer must be present — Snr. Superintendent or above
· Held for five (5) days without a warrant
· Denied an attorney being present
· Didn’t find any evidence, or items to suggest criminal intent
· Investigation starting after the arrest was made
· Entitled to half month’s salary, was only for paid $4,000 per month
· Unsanitary conditions—even a bed with springs but no mattress
· A persona-non-grata status without any letter informing so
· No interview after release
· No apologies
· No compensation for violation and disgracing one’s name
· Violating the magistrates orders, to not published any articles on the matter until the court released the information
· The President — at that time, Bharrat Jagdeo screaming every night on the television ‘we got three of them right now in prison charged with plotting to overthrow the government….” (he should have been bold enough to apologies after all)
· My husband being stripped searched upon every entry after court and every time a search of the prison was conducted
· Living in a bug-infested dorm, among persons with TB and chicken pox, which he eventually contracted (pox)
· Invasion of one’s privacy — cars trailing, phones tapped, strange-heavily-tinted vehicles in our street and place of business
· Illegal search of our home; persons being planted in your home and traversing in your absence
· What about the right to sue, when we were advised if we do, we would have to flee the shores of
Guyana, live as refuges in another country.
Let’s talk of our children and our person:
· To date, our son can’t be left alone. He can’t awake and find either of us not in the home — six years about the fact and almost four years after released
· My husband gave 20 years five months of service, he and the other cadets were the first batch of 1992 to be commissioned by the President Cheddie Jagan, has served no other government; never and failed a course; the army nor the government then can never say they’ve wasted tax payers money on him
· From the age of seventeen (17) he served
· Our children’s grades, especially the girl have declined
· Bruce and I have been working from the ages of 17 and 16 respectively (we’ve lost so much financially, emotionally, psychologically) Who compensates? The state officials made themselves immune to prosecution for whatever wrong doings.
· I have visited seventeen (17) countries so far in my life, lived in three, never an arrest warrant, a criminal charge…nothing
· My husband took three years before seeing a job, after he chose to resigned and not returned.
· My business was shattered — persons don’t want association with the school, the stigma that
followed — you have to remove emotion from the sleeve to hold your head high and prevail in it
· Our children’s college fund practically emptied
· I’d gone through post-mortem depression after the lost of our first child; suffer from panic attacks and am claustrophobic. (ask yourself, what happened to me — to be placed on amitriptyline and Lorezpam to control attacks, when I was functioning independent of those medication)
· Ask me, how I learnt to close my eyes and know the cell, and everything I had in there from positioning of items to not have the walls seems as if it is closing in on me
· I saw the outside of the cell on the 8th of July, 2011, when the Board of Directors of the prison came to visit and inspect and one of the Businessmen in the group objected to the conditions I was in and stated I could be placed in the passage of the Condemn Cell Division)
· My husband chose to return to serve his country in 2000, after being offered a change of status in the US by a three staff Command General
Between my husband and his father, they’ve given over fifty years of service to Guyana and the Guyana Defence Force. I ask again, for what? I have one question directly for Christopher Ram who complained about mistreatment of Kurshid Sattaur; ‘where was the Private Sector Commission’s cry for justice and the violation of citizens rights, when Mr. Sattaur and the PPP regime held ‘The Sword of Damocles’ (in Sattaur’s own words) over the heads of innocent citizens of this country such as the Munros, Freddie Kissoon, Mark Benchop, the Wharton’s, Mr. Glen Lall and many others?’ I can write a novel of my fifteen months and five days of incarceration in the system of Guyana.
Carol Ann Munroe (former treason prisoner)
