FORMER President Forbes Burnham issued death threats publicly to members of the Working Peoples Alliance (WPA) shortly after the brutal murder of Jesuit Priest, Father Darke and the explosive device at the centre of the probe into Dr Walter Rodney’s death, was uplifted from the Guyana Defence Force Sergeant Gregory Smith.This was relayed to the COI by the brother of the slain WPA Leader, Donald Rodney, shortly before the hearing yesterday was brought to an abrupt and unceremonious suspension.

COI Chairman Sir Richard Cheltenham was forced to adjourn the hearings yesterday when problems developed with the internet connection, leading to numerous complaints from persons, in and outside of Guyana, of being unable to follow the proceedings.
According to the Chairman since the inquiry is mandated to be a public hearing, with members of the public having difficulty listening to the feed, it would be better to adjourn so that by the time the COI meets again the technical snafu would have been addressed.

CONFRONT THE DICTATOR

Donald Rodney, the brother of the slain WPA leader who was in the fateful car the night of the bomb explosion, commanded rapt attention at yesterday’s long awaited session as he spoke of the reasons he decided to join forces with his brother to “confront the dictator.”
Detailing the events leading up to the public threats issued and eventual slaying of his brother, Donald Rodney said that it was not until the 1977, 1978 era, when he returned to Guyana that he was confronted for the first time in his adult life with an election, notably one with a referendum.
He said that it was amazing to see people were going about their daily lives while there was a political storm brewing.
As a result of the prevailing conditions, Donald Rodney said he offered to assist his brother who responded positively.
Among the many reasons that led to this decision occurred on July 14, 1979, when the ‘Arson Three’ as they were known, made a court appearance.
The ‘Arson Three’ included Dr Rodney and WPA co-founder, Dr Rupert Roopnarine and had been accused of setting fire to the Ministry of National Development and Mobilisation building.
On that day, according to Donald Rodney, he was outside of the courthouse when the crowd that had turned up decided to proceed along Brickdam towards the then Central Police Station.
Recalling the events of the day, Donald Rodney told the Commission that as he approached the Brickdam Police Station, ne noticed a single police rank in uniform.
AMBUSH
The slain WPA’s brother also recalled that he noticed a Guyana Transportation Service bus parked nearby. This mode of transportation was state owned and it was parked in an obvious No Parking Zone at a gate of the Police Station, according to the witness.
According to Donald Rodney, he then noticed a number of men emerging with weapons in hand, namely filed down cutlasses.
This he said, meant to his mind that the crowd had been ambushed; a notion that was reinforced when he saw the lone uniformed police rank turned his face, “so as not to see what was happening.”
The men, women and youths in the crowd, according to Donald Rodney, “recoiled.”
Donald Rodney said as he was retreating he noticed a shirt jacketed man being carried from the middle of road into a corner and his shirt appeared to be blood stained.
According to Donald Rodney, he later learnt that the man killed was a Jesuit Priest, whose name he spelt, as D’Ark.
“Father D’Ark died as a result of a planned attack,” Rodney asserted.
He told the Commission that he also later learnt that the person found guilty of his murder was a member of the House of Israel.
The killing, he said, provoked a response from members of civil society which issued a public statement calling for the forging of a unified government where the ideology of no one party dominated.
Rodney recalled that this appealed to him, since he saw it as a group of individuals prepared to do the right thing.
It was clearly a non-political movement.
BROADCASTED THREATS
Rodney said another defining issue that caused him to seek to support his brother in his struggle against the Peoples National Congress (PNC), was a message broadcasted over the radio where Burnham openly made threats to the WPA and Dr Rodney.
Rodney recalled that Burnham had said in a radio broadcast that the members of the WPA should make their wills.
“The WPA to me,” said Rodney, was anybody who opposed the Burnham administration and it was in the context of telling its membership to make their wills that Donald said Burnham used his brother’s name, hence the direct threat.
Led in his evidence-in-chief by his Attorney-at-Law, Keith Scotland, Rodney was referred to a report of the Third Biennial Congress of the PNC which was held in August, days after the high profile murder.
In that report, Burnham’s speech was represented and documented that in his address to his supporters, he said that the WPA members should be making their wills.
“As you know we are a party of peace but we are not pacifists we promise to match steel with steel and fire with fire,” Rodney said, as he read the excerpt of Burnham’s speech which was also broadcasted on the radio.
He said that another thing he experienced that caused him to be solidified in his resolve that his brother was being targeted, occurred during the 1980 Guyana Music Festival.
The Guyana Police Force Band, according to Rodney, played the song “Run Rodney Run, Run Rodney Run.”
According to Rodney, he approached his brother and asked what “I could do to assist in the struggle against the dictatorship.”
With the looming threats, Rodney said he recognised that his brother along with other members of the party needed people to watch their backs.
He made it clear to the COI that at no point in time did he inquire of his brother what specifically he was doing as “I was already aware he was confronting the dictatorship.”
He made it clear too that prior to Dr Rodney’s death, he was not a member of the WPA.
SERGEANT GREGORY SMITH
Rodney noted that it was not until the 1980s that he met with Sergeant Gregory Smith, the man, who according to him, would on June 13, 1980 give him the device that later exploded killing his brother.
According to Rodney, he was first told of Smith by his brother, who had explained to him that the soldier would be making walkie talkie devices for him.

Donald Rodney in consultation with his Attorney-at-Law, Keith Scotland

At the time, Donald Rodney said he was unaware of the fact that it was illegal for a civilian to be in possession of a walkie talkie device.
Rodney told the Commission that he was told by his brother that he could assist with the uplifting and testing of the walkie talkie unit.
His first time meeting Smith was sometime in February 1980 and according to Rodney, he was directed by his brother to a house at the Corner of Russell and Howes Streets.
Donald said he went to the house as instructed, asked for Smith and told the man that his brother Walter had sent him but he was informed that the device was still not ready.
According to Rodney, he met with Smith and another man, this time around Water and New Market Streets in the vicinity of a wharf and was told that the set was still not completed.
Rodney said that on another occasion, he went to a North Ruimveldt residence, but was met with a female voice who told him that Smith was not at home.
SUSSEX STREET TEST
It was not until a subsequent meeting just about two weeks before the infamous June 13, 1980 explosion that Rodney uplifted a device from Smith to be tested.
He said that he collected a device that he did not immediately recognise as a walkie talkie. Rodney said what he collected was an electric circuit on a ply-board base that was partly boxed around.
After receiving instructions from Smith as to which knob to turn on the device when testing, he returned to his car to deliver the device and relay the instructions.
Rodney told the Commission that he was informed by Smith as to how to position the knob on the device and at the time the bulb started flashing this would mean that it would have been synchronised.
He explained that the device was to be synchronised with another device held by Smith, one that he never actually saw.
Rodney told the Commission that after collecting the device from Smith, he and his brother used the car and headed to Sussex Street where the test was carried out on the device.
After what he believed to be a successful test of the device, it was returned to Smith, according to Rodney.
As the witness was about to delve into the events of the fateful night being probed, complaints began to flood the Commission over the quality of the internet stream and as such the hearing was adjourned.
But not before Donald Rodney reminded the Commission that at no point in time was he aware that the device being collected by him that night from Smith was a bomb.
He said too that he did not believe his brother thought it was a bomb either. He will return to the Commission following the two recceses it has embarked on.

(By Gary Eleazar)
See pix in graphic file as