Govt to constitute Coroner Departments to investigate – Granger 

“Extrajudicial killings”…. …investigations should be more comprehensive – Jagdeo

Moves are already afoot to launch an investigation into the “extrajudicial killings” which plagued the country between

Kaieteur News Publisher Glenn Lall

the period 2000 to 2008. However, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Opposition holds  that any such inquiries should be broadened and lengthened. It could then encompass, for instance, such killings that go back to the seventies which could include the Glenn Lall vigilante killing of Kenny France of Mc Doom and that of Monica Reece in Georgetown. President David Granger made this disclosure about his perspective on “investigating killings” during a televised appearance on ‘Public Interest’ where he was being interviewed by a Government Information Agency (GINA) Editor and a Guyana Times/Evening News Reporter. According to President Granger, Government is in the process of ensuring there are proper Coroner Departments to efficiently and effectively investigate the respective cases. “We are looking at that right now to ensure that once we get going, every death that is reported we get to investigate,” he stated, noting the Government is taking their “time” on the matter to ensure everything runs smoothly. But following the Government’s call for an investigation into the unsolved killings during that particular period of time raised some concerns for the PPP/C Opposition which questioned why the Government does not launch comprehensive investigations into all the deaths dating as far back as the assassination of Walter Rodney in 1980. Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo accused the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) of

Dead: Monica Reece

being selective in its calls of these investigations and suggested instead, that the probe be done into all the murders and all the missing weaponry. “We should have an inquiry into everything, maybe the mother of all inquiries,” he stated during a previous media conference at the Party’s Headquarters at Freedom House. When President Granger was asked what cases in particular he would be opening investigations into, his response was “all of them”. He later explained that Government does not intend to make as their priority the high profile murders or the “spectacular deaths”. “We want normal people,” he stated. Asked about the progress Government has made thus far, President Granger explained they are still in the preparatory stages. He reminded that these investigations require the Magistrates in each district to be present and in the event this would be impossible, a dedicated coroner to handle the cases. Furthermore, President Granger highlighted that in order to conduct these investigations, the Guyana Police Force  would need to be strengthened in order to produce the necessary evidence to assist in the investigations. While in Opposition, both the APNU and AFC supported the establishment of a National Truth and Reconciliation Commission to probe the countless killings that occurred over the years in Guyana. Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Jagdeo had highlighted some of the cases in particular that should be investigated. He pointed out that there are still unanswered questions regarding the 155 missing Guyana Defence Force (GDF) weapons. Last August, Lieutenant Colonel Sydney James, who spent three days at the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on the witness stand, testified and submitted documentation that the GDF loaned high-powered military weapons to the PNC’s Ministry of National Development. The records that Lieutenant Colonel James tendered as evidence to the Commission showed the GDF had loaned 200-odd weapons to the Ministry, as well as paramilitary organisations and other agencies. Of those 200-odd weapons, 155 are still missing. The work of the Rodney CoI was curtailed by APNU/AFC after it came to office. “Let’s start with how the guns were given to the PNC and how they ended up in the hands of criminals in 2004. Granger (Brigadier (ret’d) David Granger) still doesn’t want to help us get back those guns,” Jagdeo had posited. He added that the smuggling of guns from Suriname to Buxton during the 2002-2008 crime wave, the murders of Police Officers, the massacres in Lusignan and Bartica in January and February 2008 and “every single” charge of extrajudicial killings by the ‘phantom’ squads, among other issues, are areas that need to be looked into. (devinas@guyanatimesgy.com)