Special Report on the Rodney Commission of Inquiry by Shaun Michael Samaroo

WHEN Police seized submachine Army guns from criminals killed in a  deadly shootout with cops at Mahaica in 2009, an alarm rocked Guyana:  How did the hardened, murderous criminals secure submachine guns from  the Guyana Defence Force (GDF)?Yesterday,  senior GDF Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Sydney James told the Walter  Rodney Commission of Inquiry that the GDF issued those guns to the  People’s National Congress (PNC) Government in the 1970s, along with  hundreds more.

Many deadly weapons remain missing, never returned to  Army stores. Where are these missing guns today? Lieutenant Colonel James continues his testimony today at the High  Court, as the Commission seeks the answer to that question, in  determining what conditions existed in Guyana between 1978 and 1980,  when renowned international scholar, Dr Walter Rodney died in a  political assassination in a bomb blast explosion in his car in  Georgetown on June 13, 1980. Lieutenant Colonel James’ testimony yesterday unmasked the PNC reign as  one of heavy militarization of the Guyanese society, with the State  handing over GDF military weapons to at least one State Ministry and  other paramilitary forces. With the Guyanese society on the edge of  militarized violence, Dr Rodney led a mass uprising against the  draconian socio-political pressure Guyanese faced under the PNC.  However, Dr Rodney’s populist public protests, international campaign,  and political threat to the dictatorship ended when the bomb exploded in  his car, killing him instantly.

For the past 34 years, the world academic community has clamored for a  thorough and independent inquiry into his demise, and to probe why  Guyana had descended to assassinating its foremost historian and  world-class scholar. In answer to that call, President Donald Ramotar  convened the Commission, now in its fifth hearing. Yesterday’s hearing saw Lieutenant Colonel James’ testimony validate the  Commission’s probe, despite criticism from the PNC and some media  houses that the Commission’s work may be outdated. In unearthing the  fact that heavy military GDF weapons are today still unaccounted for,  the Commission would have touched a raw nerve where national security is  concerned. In fact, Commission Chairman Sir Richard Cheltenham noted  that “it’s very difficult to protect a society with so many weapons  outstanding… This is serious matter, that so many weapons of this  caliber could be lent out with no follow-up. Your country cannot be safe  and secured if there’s no strict control of weapons lent out,” the  Barbadian legal luminary said at the Commission’s hearing yesterday, his  tone of voice somber in the quiet room, as leaders and members of the  Working People’s Alliance (WPA) sat stony-faced in the audience. Dr Rodney was leader of the WPA when he was assassinated, and the WPA  now sits with the PNC in a political coalition in Parliament. Current  WPA senior leader and Member of Parliament, Dr Rupert Roopnarine, also  attended yesterday’s hearings. The WPA fought against the PNC’s militarization of the society, and the  Party has long accused the PNC of assassinating Dr Rodney, its  charismatic leader, in a State-sponsored act of militarized violence,  involving the late Army Officer, Sergeant Gregory Smith, who, it  alleged, delivered the bomb that killed Dr Rodney. The Commission heard  in a previous testimony from ex-military intelligence officer, Robert  Allan Gates that Smith was a military double-agent for the PNC  Government. Could the missing guns be in the hands of criminals today, like the Guyanese nation shockingly saw in 2009? Forty-four of those weapons still missing are GDF submachine guns. They  are among 150 to 200 guns issued to the PNC’s Ministry of National  Development, a notorious State Ministry charged with nefarious  activities to secure the PNC dictatorship’s hold on political power in  the country.

Lieutenant Colonel James yesterday told Sir Cheltenham that he cannot  say how the Army plans to find them, as he does not know of any  follow-up procedure to secure GDF weapons that are missing. Lieutenant Colonel James testified at the Presidential Commission of  Inquiry that Army documents show guns the GDF handed over to Robert  Corbin at the Ministry today fail to show up in an Army inventory and  weapons audit. The documents show the guns handed over to “R. Corbin and  someone named Skeete.” In the timeframe under probe, Robert Corbin,  former Opposition Leader and later head of the PNC, served as Minister  at the Ministry of National Development, with his Permanent Secretary  being one Skeete. Although the GDF documents do not explicitly state that Minister Corbin  or Permanent Secretary Skeete were the named persons, Lieutenant Colonel  James’ testimony correlates the link between the Ministry and those  named in the Army weapons-issuing documents. The PNC’s Ministry of National Development played a key leadership role  in the heavy militarization of the State of Guyana in the time under the  Commission’s probe, and Lieutenant Colonel James’ testimony shows that  GDF guns went out to the Guyana People’s Militia, the Guyana National  Service, the Guyana Prison Service, the Ministry, the Prime Minister’s  Office, and several other paramilitary and civilian agencies and  organizations. During the 1990s, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C)  Government dismantled the paramilitary forces in the country, and  Lieutenant Colonel James said some “units” were absorbed into the GDF,  while others were disbanded and dismantled. But GDF records show that only the Guyana Prison Service returned weapons to the GDF. Between 150 to 200 guns, including 44 submachine guns, issued to Corbin  and Skeete at the Ministry of National Development, still remain  missing, the Army Officer said. Corbin served as the Minister at that Ministry in the PNC Government,  and later served as leader of the PNC, before retiring from politics and  public office. Lieutenant Colonel James said the Guyana Police Force unearthed guns,  from the list of weapons handed over in 1979 to the clandestine PNC  Ministry, in 2009 at Mahaica during a deadly shootout with criminals. Today, however, many other weapons that the GDF issued to the Ministry  of National Development, the Guyana Prison Service, the Guyana National  Service, the Guyana People’s Militia and other paramilitary  organizations that the PNC Government had established remain missing.  The witness said only weapons issued to the Guyana Prison Service show  up as returned. While the GDF made some “permanent” weapon transfers, these would have  been incorporated back into the GDF when the State dismantled the  extensive paramilitary establishment that the PNC Government maintained,  incorporating one as a GDF unit. But the weapons issued to the  Ministry, Corbin and Skeete were never recovered, to this day, he said. During the PNC Government, the country saw a major militarization of the  State, with even graduates of the University of Guyana mandated to  serve at the notorious Guyana National Service. Scores of citizens  avoided attending University because of widespread fear of abuse within  the National Service stint. The WPA and the international community have long asserted that the PNC  Government and its military arm had planned and executed the Dr Rodney  assassination. Yesterday’s hearings strike a sensitive chord across the society, as  Guyanese face continuing gun crimes. After the paramilitary PNC  establishment was disbanded as Guyana freed up the GDF and Police Force  from State control, many of the ex-military workers found employment in a  mushrooming private security sector. Such a sector formed to counter  the escalation of gun crimes, with citizens resorting to iron grills to  secure their homes. Several ex-military leaders established private security firms, and  contracted security services to major corporate clients, in the process  employing former military workers. Under the PNC rule, militarized violence included such phenomenon as the  feared kick-down-the-door lawlessness, allegedly executed by units of  GDF soldiers against Guyanese citizens. With the GDF reduced from an estimated 3,000 soldiers in the 1970’s and  1980’s to just hundreds of serving soldiers in the 1990’s, the  population of trained military folks in civilian society spiked. The Commission is awakening in the consciousness of the nation these  pressing, largely ignored, issues, and its work is growing in  significance as a crucial contribution to the socio-political stability  and future growth of Guyana.

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