From the Diaspora…THEY WERE RAPED AS CHILDREN, “RAPED”AGAIN BY THE JUSTICE SYSTEM

By Ralph Seeram
Last week I wrote about sexual assaults on woman in Guyana and the response from readers as well as from social media was overwhelming particularly from women. Many shared their stories about being assaulted; one complained that she reported the rape of her daughter and has not heard from the police over two years now.
It’s really a serious problem in Guyana, and I said rape is under-reported in Guyana because the victims don’t have faith in the justice system. This week two news items bore this out. It might have escaped the notice of the Opposition, the AG, women’s organizations and the civil society as a whole.
I mention the Opposition for a reason; they seemed to focus on this prorogation of Parliament now calling it a dictatorship. Things like rape of women and children do not get their attention, not that the government is any better in this regard, but they complained how President Donald Ramotar is a dictator and people’s rights are being violated, but pay little regard to rape victims who also have rights.
You may want to know where I am going with this but bear with me; I will get to my headline in a moment.
If President Ramotar is a “dictator” it is the Opposition who made him into one; both PNC and AFC. They failed to understand the consequences of their proposal to force elections by way of a vote of no confidence. If they succeeded then they would have given the President three months to run the Government without parliament, so to them that was not a dictatorship, but they got outsmarted and embarrassed by the President because of their ignorance of the Constitution. Ramotar prorogued Parliament and ran the country without Parliament as is his right under the constitution, and then suddenly he is a dictator. It may make for good politics for the Opposition to rile up their supporters, but they can’t have it both ways.
President Ramotar held a media conference yesterday and announced that he would not be recalling parliament. Instead he would be going to the polls.
So I come back to my main focus of this article. Readers may not have noticed two cases of rape of children, one that was dismissed in the Berbice high court this week. It has gone unnoticed, just another news item in the great scheme of things.
The item said that a Corentyne man was set free in the Berbice High Court this past week for the alleged rape of a then 10-year-old girl. This little girl was raped, in MAY 2001, 13 years ago. So this little girl, now a 23-year-old woman, had to wait 13 years to get justice, carrying guilt and shame all these years, waiting and waiting for justice, for society to correct a wrong.
She was waiting for those responsible to administer justice to do the right thing for her for the humiliation she went through, for the trauma and pain she endured all these years, for the physiological scars she carried all these 13 years, waiting for justice.
In the end she said that she was frustrated. She apparently did not want to reopen this sad chapter of her life again, to relive that horrible moment in her young life, so she decided she wanted no part of it again. She declined to testify and her alleged rapist walked free.
To be fair it was not right even to the accused, to wait 13 years for justice. My point, however, is why it had to take so long.
Then there was another case where a then 11-year-old was raped, also on the Corentyne.  This occurred in DECEMBER 2006; exactly eight years ago. The matter is now coming for trial. Granted some of it may due to delaying tactics by both defence and state, why must a rape victim wait eight years for justice?
These are the things that should get the attention of the Attorney General; these are the things that should be his focus instead of pimping for his friend or uncle to “knack the de gyal”.
Justice and a speedy trial should be his focus. It shows the mindset and the value he places on women as a thing for “knack”, and you can see why that 10 year-old did not get justice. No value was placed on women.
So we now come to the question of why these trials are taking so long to come to court. If a 2001 case is now coming to court, you can imagine the backlog of cases.
Why can’t the PPP Government appoint more judges? Don’t tell me you don’t have qualified candidates in Guyana and the Caribbean to be judges. Don’t even tell me there is no money. With all the money being squandered around by this government, with all the money being given out for political gimmicks, (election around the corner) with all the money being siphoned off by crooked ministers, don’t tell me you don’t have money to give justice to victims of rape.
What’s the problem with hiring more judges to get rid of the backlog of cases? It is a simple solution. If there is a will to administer justice fairly, quickly, as the old saying goes “justice delayed is justice denied”.
There is no point in boasting about how much money you are spending on the police force, only to have their investigations and charges go for nought.
I would like to know why we still have that antiquated system of Assize Sessions with big pomp and pageantry. Abolish that nonsense; that’s a hangover from the Colonialism. Why can’t we have the High Court sitting year round? What’s the problem with that? The judges are paid all year round anyway. Magistrates sit year round, so why can’t judges do the same. It’s done here in the U.S.
And while we are on the subject of justice and law enforcement, the Guyana Police must be complimented for arresting the gang that preyed on Guyanese returning home only to find bandits waiting at their destination for them, of note, an immigration officer at the airport among those arrested.
You don’t have to be that smart to figure out that someone at the airport was giving out the information. You only had to see which officer processed the arriving passenger that was robbed.
I advise those in the Diaspora before, do not give the address you are going to in Guyana, give a hotel address. I do that all the time. Even the police cannot be trusted in Guyana.
So we have a situation where you can’t trust the police, can’t depend on the courts for justice, can’t depend on the guardian of your rights to defend you (he too busy pimping to get young gyal “knack&rdquo so where do women turn to for their rights?
Ralph Seeram can be reached at email: ralph365@hotmail.com and Facebook.