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Threats to Guyana's security
Rickey Singh
Sunday, May 28, 2006
IF the people of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago continue to be traumatised by the frightening rates of murder, kidnappings, the heinous rapes and killings of children, they should also know that in Guyana - itself a major crime centre of the region - has now surfaced a self-claimed "armed resistance movement" that worsens the climate for social harmony and increases fears over national security.
Rickey Singh
This was the situation on Friday as Guyana marked its 40th anniversary with the scenario being all the more depressing by perceptions that the security forces are too compromised to be effective on the offensive in defence of the national interest.
Or, perhaps simply too overwhelmed by the networking of criminal gangs, some with highly sophisticated arms and equipment and with a mixed agenda that extends to expedient calls for a new form of governance.
In either case, a serious assessment should establish that for all the self-serving rhetoric of assurances to the public from both the high command of the security forces and the governing political directorate, it is hardly a flattering image for the security forces - 40 years after the dawn of independence.
Their credibility has been seriously impaired by surprising levels of failures to produce results in the battle against high-profile killings/assassinations, and other gun-related murders and daring armed robberies.
In addition, that is, to what has been operating for some four years now from a fortified base in the village of Buxton, east of the capital Georgetown, as their biggest challenge from a reputedly a well-armed and suspected politically connected criminal network.
JAGDEO. group says his government unlikely to defeat an armed resistance
Now comes what arrogantly presents itself in sections of the local media as an African Guyanese Armed Resistance (AGAR) movement.
It may be flattering for AGAR to describe itself as an armed resistance "movement" when it could well comprise a group of hardened political/social activists with shared racist/ideological views against lawful government and driven by a passion to replace democratic, multi-party governance by extra-parliamentary means.
What is of immediate relevance is not the size or resources that may be available to AGAR. Rather, it is the disturbing silence and inaction of both the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Since AGAR's declaration almost a month ago of its existence and its expressed empathy with a "domestic insurgency", which it argues, should not be treated by the government as "simply crime", there has been NO known response from the security forces.
This is all the more troubling, by the chilling boast of AGAR that it was "very unlikely" the government of President Bharrat Jagdeo could defeat an armed resistance, "given the ethnic and political history of the security forces" (police and army).
As is known, the security forces are predominantly of African descent in the multi-ethnic Guyanese society. The traditional dominant contenders for political power - the current governing PPP and main opposition PNC - draw, respectively, the bulk of their popular support from voters of East Indian and African descent.
It should, however, be noted that neither party can win a free and fair election without a crossing of ethnic boundaries by voters.
The advantage has generally been in the PPP's favour, as confirmed by the three elections since 1992 when electoral democracy was restored following consecutively rigged elections to maintain the PNC in power.
But in the context of today's danger to the maintenance of political stability where in Caricom, except Guyana, can a group like AGAR, with known hostile political and social activists brazenly parading as an "armed resistance" be ignored for almost a month by the police without even a public warning or questioning of any of those identified with the group?
If the police commissioner, Winston Felix, or any of his deputies have found it difficult to do what seems elementary to members of the public - for example, a warning against any threat to the rule of law or any attempt to engage in extra-parliamentary tactics to destabilise a legitimate, democratic government - then why is there NO action by the DPP?
After all, as obtains in other Caricom jurisdictions - certainly in Trinidad and Tobago where the DPP projects quite an activist role - a DPP generally functions as a leading counsel for the police force.
Is it that both the police commissioner and the DPP in Guyana feel that the open threat against lawful authority by a self-styled "armed resistance" can be ignored - even after the spate of execution-style killings and, more recently and ominously, the organised assassination of a Cabinet minister ('Sash' Sawh) and two of his siblings?
AGAR is also on record as recently embracing an earlier call by another anti-government group, African Cultural Development Association (ACDA), for a boycott of coming national elections - possibly by September 2 - and a preference instead for constitutional reform, BEFORE the elections, that provides for "shared governance". This is an unrealistic demand.
Both AGAR and ACDA have clearly adopted extreme positions against the government. In the case of AGAR it leaves no doubt that they are sympathetic with what masquerades as the "Buxton resistance" but which, according to the security forces themselves, constitutes a dangerous criminal network.
The problem - a really tragic reality - is that combined contingents of police and army have repeatedly failed to flush out the criminals embedded in Buxton.
Questions are now being openly raised whether this may have to do with rogue elements, safely secured in the bowels of both the police and army, and who act as collaborators in providing prior "alerts" to "allies" outside of the GPF and GDF - ahead of joint operations against the criminal gangs entrenched at Buxton or elsewhere.
There are also questions about the lack of a response from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in reporting the results of its assessment of the bugged conversation between the police commissioner and the Opposition PNC vice-chairman, Basil Williams that covered a range of sensitive matters of national importance.
A tape of the bugged conversation was forwarded over a month ago to the FBI by the Office of the President. For those familiar with such an investigation, it normally takes between three to five days at the most to determine the accuracy of the taped voices.
It seems to be in the interest of the credibility of both the police commissioner and the FBI that a report be given to either confirm or exonerate, while separately the probe into the illegal act of bugging the Felix/Williams conversation continues.
Who are really involved in such a probe remains a mystery - as is the case with the "intensified investigation" into the assassination of Agriculture Minister Sawh and the disappearance of 33 AK-47 rifles and five pistols from, of all places, a storage depot at the army headquarters in Georgetown.
It may well be in the interest of Caricom, whose leaders have been extending customary independence greetings to the administration in Georgetown, to show some active interest in the threats to national security and lawful, democratic governance in Guyana - a member state whose size and resources make it vital for successful functioning of the CSME in a stable political environment
Rickey Singh
Sunday, May 28, 2006
IF the people of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago continue to be traumatised by the frightening rates of murder, kidnappings, the heinous rapes and killings of children, they should also know that in Guyana - itself a major crime centre of the region - has now surfaced a self-claimed "armed resistance movement" that worsens the climate for social harmony and increases fears over national security.
Rickey Singh
This was the situation on Friday as Guyana marked its 40th anniversary with the scenario being all the more depressing by perceptions that the security forces are too compromised to be effective on the offensive in defence of the national interest.
Or, perhaps simply too overwhelmed by the networking of criminal gangs, some with highly sophisticated arms and equipment and with a mixed agenda that extends to expedient calls for a new form of governance.
In either case, a serious assessment should establish that for all the self-serving rhetoric of assurances to the public from both the high command of the security forces and the governing political directorate, it is hardly a flattering image for the security forces - 40 years after the dawn of independence.
Their credibility has been seriously impaired by surprising levels of failures to produce results in the battle against high-profile killings/assassinations, and other gun-related murders and daring armed robberies.
In addition, that is, to what has been operating for some four years now from a fortified base in the village of Buxton, east of the capital Georgetown, as their biggest challenge from a reputedly a well-armed and suspected politically connected criminal network.
JAGDEO. group says his government unlikely to defeat an armed resistance
Now comes what arrogantly presents itself in sections of the local media as an African Guyanese Armed Resistance (AGAR) movement.
It may be flattering for AGAR to describe itself as an armed resistance "movement" when it could well comprise a group of hardened political/social activists with shared racist/ideological views against lawful government and driven by a passion to replace democratic, multi-party governance by extra-parliamentary means.
What is of immediate relevance is not the size or resources that may be available to AGAR. Rather, it is the disturbing silence and inaction of both the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Since AGAR's declaration almost a month ago of its existence and its expressed empathy with a "domestic insurgency", which it argues, should not be treated by the government as "simply crime", there has been NO known response from the security forces.
This is all the more troubling, by the chilling boast of AGAR that it was "very unlikely" the government of President Bharrat Jagdeo could defeat an armed resistance, "given the ethnic and political history of the security forces" (police and army).
As is known, the security forces are predominantly of African descent in the multi-ethnic Guyanese society. The traditional dominant contenders for political power - the current governing PPP and main opposition PNC - draw, respectively, the bulk of their popular support from voters of East Indian and African descent.
It should, however, be noted that neither party can win a free and fair election without a crossing of ethnic boundaries by voters.
The advantage has generally been in the PPP's favour, as confirmed by the three elections since 1992 when electoral democracy was restored following consecutively rigged elections to maintain the PNC in power.
But in the context of today's danger to the maintenance of political stability where in Caricom, except Guyana, can a group like AGAR, with known hostile political and social activists brazenly parading as an "armed resistance" be ignored for almost a month by the police without even a public warning or questioning of any of those identified with the group?
If the police commissioner, Winston Felix, or any of his deputies have found it difficult to do what seems elementary to members of the public - for example, a warning against any threat to the rule of law or any attempt to engage in extra-parliamentary tactics to destabilise a legitimate, democratic government - then why is there NO action by the DPP?
After all, as obtains in other Caricom jurisdictions - certainly in Trinidad and Tobago where the DPP projects quite an activist role - a DPP generally functions as a leading counsel for the police force.
Is it that both the police commissioner and the DPP in Guyana feel that the open threat against lawful authority by a self-styled "armed resistance" can be ignored - even after the spate of execution-style killings and, more recently and ominously, the organised assassination of a Cabinet minister ('Sash' Sawh) and two of his siblings?
AGAR is also on record as recently embracing an earlier call by another anti-government group, African Cultural Development Association (ACDA), for a boycott of coming national elections - possibly by September 2 - and a preference instead for constitutional reform, BEFORE the elections, that provides for "shared governance". This is an unrealistic demand.
Both AGAR and ACDA have clearly adopted extreme positions against the government. In the case of AGAR it leaves no doubt that they are sympathetic with what masquerades as the "Buxton resistance" but which, according to the security forces themselves, constitutes a dangerous criminal network.
The problem - a really tragic reality - is that combined contingents of police and army have repeatedly failed to flush out the criminals embedded in Buxton.
Questions are now being openly raised whether this may have to do with rogue elements, safely secured in the bowels of both the police and army, and who act as collaborators in providing prior "alerts" to "allies" outside of the GPF and GDF - ahead of joint operations against the criminal gangs entrenched at Buxton or elsewhere.
There are also questions about the lack of a response from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in reporting the results of its assessment of the bugged conversation between the police commissioner and the Opposition PNC vice-chairman, Basil Williams that covered a range of sensitive matters of national importance.
A tape of the bugged conversation was forwarded over a month ago to the FBI by the Office of the President. For those familiar with such an investigation, it normally takes between three to five days at the most to determine the accuracy of the taped voices.
It seems to be in the interest of the credibility of both the police commissioner and the FBI that a report be given to either confirm or exonerate, while separately the probe into the illegal act of bugging the Felix/Williams conversation continues.
Who are really involved in such a probe remains a mystery - as is the case with the "intensified investigation" into the assassination of Agriculture Minister Sawh and the disappearance of 33 AK-47 rifles and five pistols from, of all places, a storage depot at the army headquarters in Georgetown.
It may well be in the interest of Caricom, whose leaders have been extending customary independence greetings to the administration in Georgetown, to show some active interest in the threats to national security and lawful, democratic governance in Guyana - a member state whose size and resources make it vital for successful functioning of the CSME in a stable political environment
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