- Urges responsible behaviour
The Alliance For Change visited Linden Monday afternoon to urge residents of the beleaguered community to guard against any further destruction of property. The Party made it clear that it does not support such acts.
The AFC team was headed by Party Leader Khemraj Ramjattan and General Secretary David Patterson and included other members of the Party.
While in Linden the AFC team was taken to the site of the burnt out One Mile Primary School where they were assured by the protesters still on the streets that they would not have set fire to the school as it was the first school for many of them and their children are now pupils of the school.
The team also met with the parent of a ten year old who reported that her child was on the ‘landing’ of their home when he was struck by a pellet. The AFC was shown X-Rays of the child’s head with the pellet embedded. According to the mother, the doctors say it would be dangerous to try to remove the pellet.
The AFC team also met with Michael Wills who was shot through the thigh. He contradicted reports on NCN that the joint services rendered assistance to injured persons. There were also reports of the police destroying food supplies donated by persons sympathetic to the Lindeners.
Ramjattan and team also visited the McKenzie Police Station to enquire into the welfare of a number of individuals arrested by the police. They were informed that some of the arrested persons were transferred to Georgetown. The Police are trying to have the cases brought before the court.
While in Linden, Ramjattan made the following statement to the residents:
There has been much comment over the Alliance For Change’s objection to the inclusion into the Terms Of Reference of ‘an investigation into the events leading up to the protest of the 18th July 2012.’
The constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana guarantees the right to protest.
In its simplest form if a citizen wants to protest against any issue however trivial he has a right to do so. If he wants to protest against his neighbour’s green roof he can do so.
If he wants to persuade the rest of his neighbourhood to protest against his neighbour’s green roof he has to right to solicit their support. If he succeeds and the entire community comes out against his neighbour’s green roof, they have a right to do so. If they then peacefully assemble unarmed at the community bridge to protest where they are shot dead in cold blood by the local police how relevant is it to any investigation into the shooting to death of innocent community members that a neighbor started the protest over a green roof?
It was his right to do so.
We would be entering very dangerous territory if we start to apportion blame for the organization of an activity expressly guaranteed by the constitution.
The real reason the Government wants this included in the TORs is that they want to deter citizens from attending protests which are anti-government thereby effectively restricting the exercise of their constitutional right.
The words of the Prime Minster perfectly captured the government’s preferred sentiment “They should accept with quiet resignation”. It’s the same thing they told slaves two centuries ago when they rose against oppressive circumstances.
Let it be stated now and up front that whoever organized the protest on the 18th July 2012 had a guaranteed constitutional right to do.
The people of Linden should not be made to feel guilty or culpable for attending a protest they had a right to attend irrespective of who organized it.
It is an insult to the intelligence of the community to say that they were misled or led astray by some politicians to protest. Perhaps it’s a commentary on the President that he thinks citizens of this Republic are gullible and can be led astray. We all know what time of day it is.
The good citizens of Linden were organized, courteous and civil enough to notify the authorities a week in advance of their intended protests. More than enough time to permit the Guyana Police Force to prepare and NCN to alert the citizenry of Linden of their misguided intentions.
The execution of citizen in cold blood is a criminal act which requires a criminal investigation irrespective of whether or not there is a Commission of Inquiry. It is not good enough for the Crime Chief to say that the bullets which shot the protestors dead were not issued by the police. Rather than assure the citizenry it alarms them. When will the Police identify and charge the killers?
So let’s not waste any more time over debate on its inclusion in the TORs if we want to pursue truth and justice then let’s find out why three citizens were innocently executed on July 18th [END]
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