Adrianna Younge should have been buried last week Monday. That funeral was postponed. To this day the 11-year-old girl is still to be buried. And according to Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum, investigations are still ongoing. We do know that the crime scene was disturbed from the moment the girl’s body was fished out of the pool. Then there was the fire to the hotel. That fire, many believed, destroyed whatever evidence the hotel might have contained.
Sgt Leonard McCoshen, an investigator has come from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and while the government has touted him to be highly experienced, there are reports that he is ancient. Someone sent a clip from a Canadian newspaper that suggested that way back when, he was described by the defence in a matter as being a desk bound officer and no longer the forensic expert. But he must have had some skills. The only problem is, what is he coming to investigate? The United States embassy in Guyana has said that the government never approached the US for help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation—the FBI.
What is clear is that this matter is not going away. Sleeping dogs will not be allowed to lie.
Two days ago when President Irfaan Ali was asked to comment on the matter he said that he is saying nothing more, that he is leaving all answers to people he described as politicians. He said that he has done everything that he promised. He had said that the findings of the pathologists who performed the post mortem on the girl’s body had said that there was no forcible drowning. It has since transpired that the pathologists made no such determination.
Many of his statements were challenged. His government was accused of a cover up. In fact, it has been public pressure that has resulted in many of the decisions that the government is moving to take. Few days ago, too, at the same forum at which President AIi was present, the Crime Chief said that crime analysts confirmed that the video camera trained on the pool was not working. But numerous videos surfaced from other sources.
There was one by Mikhail Rodrigues that purported to show that there was no body in the pool when he filmed the location. The police, according to the Crime Chief, have all the videos in circulation.This being the case, it is unclear why the police have not issued a statement on whether the girl was in the pool during the search. There is the argument that a body will take at least two days before it floats to the surface. Adriana’s body was floating mere hours after she was said to have drowned.
Meanwhile there have been related charges. Numerous people have been charged with inciting terror. More recently, a singer was said to have been charged for singing a song that Hindus found to be sacrilegious. Indeed, people should respect another’s religion but failure to do so should not be considered a crime. There are people who do not believe in a God. They have said many things about the Deity, some derogatory, but never have I heard of anyone being charged. There have been charges for people breaking into places of worship.
A person is entitled to his view. As a boy growing up in a Hindu community I was told that the hair on the head of black people was due to the fact that the Indian god, Hanuman, set his tail on fire and burned the head of the black man.
Wars have been fought over religion. The crusaders out of England went to various parts of the world fighting to establish or to re-establish Christianity. The Crusades were an attack on Muslims. In the end the Muslims won. There were at least eight Crusades. The First Crusade lasted from 1096 to 1099. The Second Crusade began in 1147 and ended in 1149.
The Third Crusade started in 1189 and was concluded in 1192.The Fourth Crusade got underway in 1202 and ended in 1204. The Fifth Crusade lasted from 1217 until 1221. The Sixth Crusade occurred in 1228–29. The Seventh Crusade began in 1248 and ended in 1254. And the Eighth Crusade took place in 1270. There were also smaller Crusades against dissident Christian sects within Europe, including the Albigensian Crusade (1209–29).
In India, there has been a history of clashes between Hindus and Muslims. There was the decision to partition the country after 1948 giving rise to the Muslim state of Pakistan. Pakistan was further divided to give rise to Bangladesh.
Even in the Christian world there are conflicts. There are the Protestants and the Catholics. And even among the Protestants there are numerous divisions as there are among the Catholics. In the Muslim world there are different sects of Muslims. In Hinduism there are also different sects. In a secular society like Guyana there should be no imposition of religious thought.
Here I must say farewell to my friend and former colleague Amna Ally. She was buried on Tuesday. We shared a political space. She will always be remembered within the ranks of the People’s National Congress, the party she served for many years. May she have eternal peace.
