The past few weeks offered heartbreak for so many, but they were also revealing. Some things happened that would not have happened in most countries. In the most dictatorial countries, though, these things would happen. In those countries, people who protest would find themselves being confronted by the military arms of the state. Sometimes they would face violence from the armed sympathisers of the government. Guyana is hardly any different.
The first of the recent incidents was the arrest of the Opposition Leader. He has been under the gun for a very long time. Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed’s woes date back to the time he entered the political arena. His political party emerged as the largest bloc of the opposition. That achievement must have been heady because his supporters talked about destroying one of the major political parties in the country, the People’s National Congress. That ruled out any possibility of a joint opposition. Mohamed was riding the crest of euphoria until the government turned on him. The authorities first withdrew his firearm licences.
He then became a marked man. His vehicles became unlicensed because, as the government said, of the clauses and conditions of the extradition warrant. The situation became worse. He happened to drive past the home of the chief witness in the extradition hearing, Supt Prem Narine. The allegation was that he discharged a firearm outside the home. He reportedly had a .32 pistol that had no more than four rounds. Initially, the video evidence of the confrontation was said to be unavailable. However, the video evidence got into his possession.
The police who happened to be spearheading the operation against Mohamed found the weapon under the accelerator pedal. And the discovery was made after the vehicle was searched and nothing was found. Mohamed has not been charged with a firearm crime. His release of the video evidence has led to a charge that has been unheard of. He has been charged under the Cybercrime Act and remanded to prison.
The government really wants him to be in prison because the prosecutors in the extradition hearing actually petitioned the magistrate to revoke bail. That petition has been denied. There is now a move to charge Mohamed with a murder that occurred some five years ago. Murder is bailable under certain conditions, but those conditions would not apply to Mohamed.
And in prison Mohamed is complaining that the conditions are so horrible that he has concluded that the government wants him dead before the next general elections. The prison authorities have denied the allegation. They have taken pains to explain the conditions under which Mohamed is being held. He is in solitary confinement for a bailable offence.
There have been sporadic protests. Had he and his supporters not set out to exclude a powerful member of the opposition, his situation would not have been as bad as it is. Yet the very opposition party cannot ignore Mohamed’s plight because the same plight could befall them as the government becomes emboldened.
Meanwhile, the police continue to be the shield and the sword of a government bent on protecting its own. Deputy Commissioner Fizal Karimbaksh is at the centre of a rape allegation that has been filed with every section of the Guyana Police Force. There has been a comedy of errors. Any other person would have been charged by now and remanded. The victim is a senior member of the Guyana Police Force.
Instead, the accused remains on the job as though nothing has happened. He continues to head a major division of the Guyana Police Force. Any police rank can investigate such an allegation and spearhead criminal charges. This has not been the case. Karimbaksh is one of the anointed.
When the established Police Service Commission refused to promote him, the government dismissed the commission, set up another commission that was malleable, and promoted Karimbaksh. And weeks after the report of the rape, two policemen have been remanded because they allegedly made available to Azruddin Mohamed a recording of reported shooting outside Prem Narine’s home.
A similar situation occurred when another senior police officer was sanctioned by the United States government. Senior Superintendent Himnauth Sawh of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) was sanctioned by the United States government for his role in a major North West District drug operation. According to U.S. authorities, Sawh used his position as the Divisional Commander of Region One to protect and ensure safe passage for Colombian and Venezuelan drug traffickers moving large shipments of cocaine through the region. He remains on the job. He is another anointed.
But the most distressing happening saw the death of a healthy young man in the Vreed-en-Hoop lockups. He was beaten to death. The post mortem revealed horrible injuries. This man, Gavin Douglas, was handcuffed with his hands behind his back. He died of hemorrhage in the abdominal cavity; he sustained trauma to the brain; and the pathologist removed two Taser pins from his body.
Douglas was arrested on suspicion of having committed an armed robbery. The police wanted to place him in the lockups naked. He refused. There are reports of a physical confrontation. One is left to wonder whether the man was handcuffed before or after the confrontation. A policeman came forward with a story that has many holes. His premise was that he was being made a scapegoat.
The cover-up into Gavin Douglas’s death began almost immediately. The police hierarchy said that four policemen were placed under close arrest for the death in the lockups. In reality there were six culprits. Already people do not trust the police. Situations like these only reinforce the distrust.
