Opposition Leader President Irfaan Ali
September 10 ,2020
In his address to the nation on Wednesday, the President claimed that persons including children had been raped as a result of the road blocks which were part of the protest. But the Guyana Police Force has not received any reports of rape, according to senior sources.
Opposition Leader Joe Harmon on Thursday said President Irfaan Ali’s statement in an address to the nation that children were being raped at the West Berbice protests are false and were meant to stir and incite hate.
In his address to the nation on Wednesday, the President claimed that persons including children had been raped as a result of the roadblocks which were part of the protest. But the Guyana Police Force has not received any reports of rape, according to senior sources.
The Opposition Leader in his statement today said it is clear that the President was creating his own facts.
“You may be entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts. You were baselessly branding protesters as rapists and it is disrespectful, contemptuous and an expression of disdain for those Guyanese who are outraged over the heinous killing of Isaiah and Joel Henry and most recently, Haresh Singh and Chatterpaul Harripaul. Mr. Ali’s statement about children being raped is patently and wholly false. The spectre of rape has been consistently misued by the PPP to fear monger and incite the public to hostility”, Harmon said.
He reminded of previous cases when the People’s Progressive Party recklessly called out incidents as “rape” when there were no such rape incidents.
“These acts belittle actual rape victims and minimises their trauma and pain when in fact no such action took place. At a time when the nation requires calm, caring, and unifying leadership, Mr. Ali’s statement defiles the Presidency and the actual victims of rape and being consumed in laying blame”.
The Opposition Leader said at a time when the President should be seeking to work with others to quell the situation in the West Berbice area, he appears busy playing politics.
Harmon said the APNU+AFC has been consistent in its position against violent protests. He reminded that it was the APNU+AFC Members of Parliament who traveled to the West Berbice area on Wednesday to meet with relatives of the dead teens and the protesting villagers.
