The Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) is calling for a commission of inquiry to ascertain the validity of former first lady Varshnie Singh’s allegations of ‘hi-tech’ domestic violence against her by President Bharrat Jagdeo.

The allegations made by Singh should be of concern to all, Acting General Secretary of the GTUC, Norris Witter told reporters at a press conference last week.

He said the trade union body “demands, as a matter of urgency, the setting up of an independent and impartial commission of inquiry to ascertain the validity or not of the damning allegations”.

He declared that there are regional and international implications for the allegations and stated that Guyana is a signatory to a number of conventions and protocols as it relates to domestic violence among others. He said that the GTUC had been in contact with a number of “very strong” women’s groups in the Caribbean.

Singh had told reporters earlier this month, after being locked out of State House that she did not receive proper maintenance or care during the nine-year marriage and suffered ‘high-tech’ domestic abuse. She had later revealed that the marriage was never legally registered.

President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday refused to respond to the allegation that his nine-year marriage to former First Lady Varshnie Singh was never registered, stating that all he wanted to say on the issue was contained in a statement he released after Singh went public last week accusing him of, among other things, ‘high-tech’ domestic violence.

Asked at a press conference yesterday to react to Singh’s claim last Saturday that their marriage was never registered, the President said: “Well I have reacted already by a statement and you should ask her [Singh] why, since she is the one who has been going to the press.”

President Jagdeo and Singh were married according to Hindu rites in 1998 and according to Singh she made at least three attempts to register the union. However, she said on the first two occasions the President said he had lost the forms and by the third attempt he had already become president and informed her that he could not be subjected to court proceedings. As a result she took the decision not to sign any legal documents. Initially she did not think there was a wilful attempt to stall the process, but she told reporters of harbouring doubts in retrospect.

Singh said she was considering engaging a local firm to represent her. She noted, however, that the law stipulates that in the division of property, a woman in a common-law marriage is entitled to a share of the property acquired during the marriage. She said she was a housewife during the years in the marriage before she began work with the children’s charity, the Kids First Fund.

Probed yesterday on the issue, which has occasioned widespread public discussion, the President staunchly refused to offer further comment, stating that though his former wife gave a “one-sided account of our whole history together,” he was not going to contest it.

“I am happy that finally we are moving on and that it is over and… All I have said and wanted to say is contained in my press release,” a smiling President Jagdeo said, adding that he was not going to feed the issue “and that is how I deal with the matter”.

When it was pointed out to the President that the issue was being publicly discussed, he said people could continue speaking, but he was not going to “feed the gossip columns and the Stabroek News” by saying anything further.

“I could have given my side of the story and then she could have given another side and then this would go on forever and then this becomes a major issue; the press can serialise it. I am not getting it. I am not into that,” he said.

The two announced a separation in 2007. But last Tuesday, Singh went public with complaints that she did not receive proper maintenance or care during the marriage. Last Monday, she had been locked out of State House on the instructions of the President and told reporters at a news conference that she had no clothing apart from what she was wearing at the time.

In his statement, Jagdeo said it was expected that Singh would have left State House when they announced their separation. He said that at the end of his tenure as president in 2011 he would also have to leave the residence and was “forced” to make a “painful decision” and take steps to have Singh leave, since she refused to do so despite numerous promises.

In response to Singh’s charges that he denied her access to resources to support her charity work, the President said he had made it clear to her on more than one occasion that the resources of the state could not be used to support the work of a private charity. “…I sought to keep a certain distance from it so as to avoid accusations that the fund was benefiting from the patronage of the state because of the presence of my wife,” Jagdeo said, adding that it would be unethical for him to allow it. “She was therefore free to undertake her work with the clear understanding, as she acknowledges, that there were to be no special favours involved.”

On the division of assets, Jagdeo said the issue was jointly discussed with his lawyer and he showed her copies of his declaration of income and assets to the Integrity Commission over the period that they were together. “I am prepared to meet all my obligations to her provided for by the laws of Guyana,” he declared, adding that he could not meet her demands to hand over government lands and other assets and provide duty and VAT-free concessions as part of the settlement.

Singh goes back to the UK today to conduct fundraising activities for the Kids First Fund. She will return to the country in April.
When she met reporters on Saturday to clarify aspects of her statement, she had said that her decision to go public was a last resort, emphasising that she is a private person but did not see any other way. “I didn’t want to do what I ended up having to do,” she explained. “It wasn’t a joyful thing to bare your soul to the nation.” She said going public could have been avoided if there had been agreement on an amicable parting. “I wanted to avoid conflict because he is powerful and I am an ordinary person and even if I know I tell the truth it can be spun around.”

In her statement Singh had said in the first week into the marriage she was locked out of the couple’s bedroom. She could not explain the President’s behaviour, saying he was angry and she did not know why.

Singh then returned to UK in 1999, a year after the marriage, to further her studies. She said she had resolved not to return but had been asked by Jagdeo to attend his swearing-in when he assumed the presidency that year. She recalled a kind of “pressure,” with the elections having been dubbed by the opposition as rigged. Singh agreed to attend and arrived on the morning of the swearing-in, travelling directly from the airport to the ceremony.
The next year, the case that led to her creation of the Kids First Fund presented itself and she was unable to leave, although she had initially planned to hand over the organisation to someone else. “I kind of got stuck,” she said.