APNU-AFC Statement
The APNU+AFC have taken note of the malicious Wanted Bulletin issued on September 29th by the Guyana Police Force for Mr. Rickford Burke. Mr. Burke, a US-based Guyanese political activist, is President of the US based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID). He is well-known as a relentless campaigner against racial discrimination, high-level corruption, human rights and general lawlessness on the part of the PPP government. The PPP, therefore, is waging a campaign to silence him through acts of harassment, intimidation, and character assassination.
This current Wanted Bulletin concerns an incident in which Mr. Burke’s role, from our review of the evidence provided, is one of conciliator and conflict resolver. Instead, the PPP, in a desperate act of revenge against Mr. Burke, has used the incident to frame him by criminalizing his well-meaning intentions and actions.
We note that Mr. Burke intends to file legal action and has vowed to continue to expose wrongdoings by senior police officers and Ministers of the government.
The PPP continues to underestimate the will and fortitude of the Guyanese people at home and abroad to rescue their beloved country from its executive lawlessness, victimization, suppression, and corruption. Guyanese want a country in which the government serves the people, not unnerves the people; in which the government provides, not divides; in which the government respects and not rejects freedoms and human rights.
Clearly, this current action by the PPP and the GPF involves transcending Guyana’s borders and being involved in repression of a Guyanese in another jurisdiction. It deserves to be investigated as a crime of transnational repression and the abuse of the Cybercrime laws to suppress free speech and political dissent. We, therefore, call on the US government to investigate this violation of the law and human rights.
