Lusignan Massacre…

Glenn Lall’s “connections” leave more questions than answers
One of the most intriguing developments coming out of the Lusignan Massacre of January 26, 2008 was the revelation of the linkages between the owner of the Kaieteur News Glenn Lall, and some of the most extreme criminal elements that had vowed to bring down the Guyana government and the country

as a whole.

Kaieteur News publisher
Glenn Lall

Three days after the massacre of the 11 innocent men, women and children of Lusignan, East Coast Demerara, according to Kaieteur News, notorious gang leader Rondell “Fine Man” Rawlins called up the newspaper switchboard and asked specifically to speak to the owner. Lall and his Editor-in-Chief Adam Harris reported that the criminal took responsibility for the Lusignan killings, specifically because the government had kidnapped his pregnant girlfriend.
The Kaieteur News always appeared to have an inside line to the Guyana underworld, but the linkage was made explicit after Wikileaks released a number of cables from the U.S. embassy in Georgetown. In one that went back to June 15, 2006, a year and a half before the Lusignan massacre, the embassy’s Political Officer Benjamin Canavan reported to his State Department about various Guyanese who passed on information to him the previous week.

He summarised his report by claiming that “PolOff’s (Canavan) recent conversations with prominent locals yielded noteworthy comments about

Ten of the 11 Lusignan victims

developments in Guyana’s narco-trade.” Specifically in reference to Lall, Canavan noted, “PolOff  spoke on June 4 with Lall (protect), publisher of the Kaieteur News. Lall has a sketchy past – he translated a shoe trading business (and rumoured involvement with alien smuggling) into a muckraking independent newspaper. H

e has a finger firmly on the pulse of Guyana’s underworld, which serves his media enterprise well.”

The “(protect)” after Lall’s name means that his identity was to be protected by the State Department, since he was a regular informant to the embassy. In fact, the same cable detailed one bit of information about an individual whom Lall used to boast was a friend of his – Buddy Shivraj. The cable stated as follows:
“Lall said that Prakash “Buddy”

Kaieteur News Editor-in-Chief Adam Harris

Shivraj has run into financial difficulties, which threaten to halt progress on his hotel project – Buddy’s International Four Star Hotel.” Lall went on to say that Shivraj has tried unsuccessfully to tap additional funds to complete the hotel’s construction.
Lall reportedly lost his American visa when he stopped passing on information to the U.S. embassy, following the damning Wikileaks disclosure in the local press. When he began travelling again to the U.S. a year later, it was widely agreed that he had returned to his old role of being a local informant.

Lall’s common cause with those like Rawlins and the “Freedom Five”, who had escaped from the Camp Street jail in Georgetown to wage war against the government, was revealed in his newspaper’s front page comment following the protests by the people of Lusignan at the massacre and their need for

protection: “This newspaper (Kaieteur News) is convinced that political elements aligned to the ruling party have also been instigating some of these protests… It is not only politically irresponsible, but smacks of the worst type of moral reprehensibility the human mind can comprehend.”
The Lusignan people’s response was more morally reprehensible than Fineman’s killings of the innocent victims, according to Lall and the Kaieteur News! The front page comment showed the Kaieteur News’ alignment to those forces

Rondell “Fine Man” Rawlins

that have committed to removing the previous and present government by any means necessary.
“We end with the belief that if, in the present circumstances, the present leaders cannot show this nation results, then… they should give way to others who are prepared to show leadership qualities so that Guyana can be saved.”