Extra-judicial killings have taken place during the regimes of both the PNC and the PPP

Dear Editor,

In its news report broadcast late on Friday, September 24, 2021, News Source claimed to be quoting His Excellency the President of Guyana, responding in New York to questions put to him by the media.

The broadcast included a clip of the President’s voice, in which he declared, among other things, that reports of extra-judicial killings by the police during a term of office of the PPP were a false narrative.

The President of Guyana was declared lawfully elected after a series of judicial trials and took the Oath of Office as President on or about August 2, 2020.  The Oath of Office binds those who take it to “bear true faith and allegiance to the people of Guyana” and to uphold the Constitution of Guyana.  In the light of this Oath, and to correct any false impression arising from the accusations and responses in New York about extra-judicial killings by the police in Guyana, I make the following statements:

1. Extra-judicial killings of suspects and targeted persons in Guyana by the police and other agents of the State have taken place during the regimes of both the PNC and the PPP.

2. As a citizen and activist over some decades, I have laid private prosecutions against police officers and a member of the Guyana Defence Force, alleging unlawful killing of citizens by them.

3. In three well-known cases, the testing of these allegations by a court was denied.  In one case, the Magistrate rejected my application before calling for evidence.  In two other cases, the Director of Public Prosecutions, then in office, wrote to the Magistrate concerned, ordering that the cases be removed from the court and not be prosecuted.

4. The current President of Guyana may be too young to know that during the term of office of a PPP President, a wanted man, with a female companion, had been cornered by police and army attachments in a small boarding house.  The wanted man apparently let the woman come out into the open before him.  She was shot dead.  He was also shot dead when he came out into the open in surrender mode, with his hands in the air.  The sitting President and the Head of the Presidential Secretariat both publicly welcomed the shooting of the wanted man, a member of the GDF.  After nearly two decades, there is no inquest into these unnatural deaths.

The information in these statements can be verified from primary sources.  I have not repeated facts compiled by civic or diplomatic agencies and published by them.

Yours respectfully,
Eusi Kwayana