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Teixeira slams GHRA for linking the Rodney CoI to electioneering By Telesha Ramnarine
PRESIDENTIAL Advisor on Governance, Ms Gail Teixeira, has said she finds it “unfathomable” that the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) has refused to bring whatever documents, evidence, and opinions it has to the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) that was set up into the death of brilliant Guyanese historian/politician Dr. Walter Rodney. “It is unfathomable to me. Rodney was a most outstanding leader that this country produced,” she told a post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the President in Georgetown, yesterday. The GHRA said this week that it is unwilling to give evidence in the inquiry, noting that at a time of much speculation over general and regional elections, the proposed CoI could be read as the worst form of electioneering. “The GHRA is of the view that the proposed CoI into the death of Dr Walter Rodney has greater potential for reviving, rather than healing, ethnic division in Guyana. Should this indeed be the outcome, it would be a travesty of Dr Rodney’s major contribution to Guyana,” the human rights body has said. But a notably annoyed Teixeira told reporters following the conference: “Personally, I was around in that period, and I know about the marches across this country. Nothing can match what happened in that period in terms of racial unity, political unity of the opposition parties. Here is a man blown to pieces and we have to get into academic exercise of[the] GHRA talking about electioneering and racial unity? For people like me, who lived in that period, this is offensive. It is personally offensive. “Why wouldn’t we want, as Guyanese, to be able to investigate the murder of Dr Rodney and to be able to come out with a report that finally makes a judgment on it? Maybe there are reasons why some organisations are hesitant about dealing with this issue. I don’t understand where the link with elections is, nor do I understand the issue of racial division. I cannot deduct mentally and intellectually a link between the Commission and the issues of elections and racial division. My brain is not able to do that intellectual gymnastics right now,” she declared. Teixeira informed that this CoI is distinct from any other because it is one in which all persons coming before it are immune. “They are granted immunity. So if someone comes and says I was the person who made the bomb and I put it there, they will be granted immunity. That was the request of the family; to bring closure to this issue. All the family wants is truth.” The family of Rodney made it very clear what their specific requirements were, and the non-involvement of any partners other than their agreement with the Government. A number of organisations and individuals have indicated that they wish to come before the CoI, Teixeira informed. Meanwhile, President Donald Ramotar approved the establishment of an international CoI into the assassination, 33 years ago, of Rodney. The announcement was made on the 33rd anniversary of Rodney’s death by Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon. Luncheon had said that the Administration had noted the inconclusive results of past inquiries into Rodney’s demise, and the fact that Rodney’s family wants the matter to be dealt with in a manner that would end all the speculation. Rodney had been a strong critic of the former People’s National Congress (PNC) Government led by the late President Forbes Burnham. He died when a remote-controlled bomb exploded in his lap while he was sitting in a car with his brother Donald at the wheel. Ex-Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Sergeant Gregory Smith was identified as the army’s electronics expert who gave Rodney the explosive disguised as a ‘walkie talkie’, and the latter was testing the device on specific instructions from the former. Upon Rodney’s death, Smith fled to French Guiana, where he remained until he died several years ago. Rodney, who campaigned against capitalism, argued for a socialist development template. The Jamaican Government led by Prime Minister Hugh Shearer had banned Rodney from that country in October 1968, because of his advocacy for the working poor of Jamaica, and that had led to riots which eventually claimed the lives of several people and caused millions of dollars in damage. Rodney is survived by his widow, Dr Patricia Rodney, and three children, who, in 2004, donated his papers to the Robert L. Woodruff Library at the Atlanta University Center in the United States (U.S.)
GUYANA CHRONICLE Saturday March 8, 2014
AG claims judiciary better, more resourced than ever AT T O R N E Y- G E N E R A L (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr. Anil Nandlall yesterday responded to the APNU (A Partnership for National Unity) call for the Government to further fortify the judiciary, rejecting comments by Opposition Parliamentarian, Mr. Basil Williams. The latter, Shadow Minister of Legal Affairs, in a Kaieteur News article the day before said if President Donald Ramotar is
serious about strengthening the judiciary, then he should do all that is necessary to ensure that the Fiscal Management and Accountability (Amendment) Bills 2012 and 2013, which were passed by a majority in Parliament, are retabled and assented. Nandlall, at the commissioning of the Wales Magistrate Court, West Bank Demerara, declared that the judiciary is better positioned and more resourced that it has ever been.
He added that the independence of the judiciary is assured, as long as the current Administration holds the reins of power. The AG referred to the fact that as a demonstration of the People’s National Congress (PNC) dominance over State institutions, its party’s flag was flown over the Court of Appeal prior to 1992. According to him, this practice undermined public confidence in the impartiality of the
Guyanese judiciary. Nandlall emphasised that considerations of the success of the judicial system to date, must be considered in an historical context. He posited that the successes of Guyana’s judicial system, as seen to date, will ensure that the country does not revert to the “unfortunate” days of the past, but maintained that the facts must not be forgotten.
Three burglary defendants on $75,000 bail each THREE men charged jointly with two counts of break and enter and larceny committed at separate homes in Fort Ordinance Housing Scheme, were each granted $75,000 bail by New Amsterdam Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus yesterday. Byron Van Lewin, Basheer Kursattie and Adrian Rambarack, all residents of
the Fort Ordinance Scheme, are alleged to have entered the dwelling house of Colin Caesar and stolen six tablets, an internet router, an HP laptop computer, a digital scale, gold jewellery and cash all valued $1,235,000. Police said the virtual complainant, a school bus contractor, had secured his home on December 9 and left for work.
But on returning at 10:30hrs, he observed that the premises had been broken into and the items missing. Meanwhile, on January 9 last, 16-year-old Chandanie Panday departed her secured home, as customary, to sleep at her brother’s place three houselots away. On her return the following morning though, she found
that the padlocks on her gate and door had been removed and her parents’ home was ransacked. Subsequently, she missed her notebook computer, a home theatre, a Sony digital camera, gold jewellery and clothing, all worth $820,000. The defendants have since denied the charges and are expected to return to court on June 24 for trial.
Police arrest reputed wife for death of West Bank Demerara miner -had cuffed a glass window in his rage and had bled considerably
By Michel Outridge THE reputed wife of Dennis Harris, 44, a miner of 1525 Onderneeming, La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara, is in police custody assisting with investigations following his death early on Friday morning. The detainee’s daughter, Samantha Wray, told this publication that she was at home with her three children including her newborn baby when her mother, Yonette Grumbs, 45, and her stepfather Dennis Harris returned home after midnight from a birthday celebration of Harris’s grandfather, held in the same village. She explained that her stepfather was under the influence of alcohol, because, when he arrived home he began, as usual, to quarrel with her mother and behave in a loud and disorderly manner. After a few minutes, he was locked outside the house after he picked up a scissors and pointed it at her mother, saying he would end her life. In a fit of rage, he punched
Yonette Grumbs has been arrested for murder. one of the front glass windows of the house and sustained a gaping wound to his hand. Thereafter, he went to a relative’s house a block away from where he was
transported to the hospital. Samantha Wray said they did not even know Harris was dead, until the police showed up at their door at about 03:01 hrs, saying they had come to arrest her mother for Harris’s murder. Yonette Grumbs, mother of three, was transported to the La Grange Police Station and later taken to the Den Amstel Police Station, where she is currently being held pending the outcome of a post-mortem to be performed on Dennis Harris. Wray said that had they not put Harris out of the house, he would probably have killed them all, since he had been very abusive to her mother and had often threatened them on several occasions. She added that Harris used to ill-treat her mother, herself, and even her small children, but she abided with the situation only because her mother had loved Harris and he had returned home from the interior on December 23, 2013. Wr a y s a i d h e r m o t h e r ‘hooked up’ with Harris seven years ago and had since changed
and would not listen to reason despite the way Harris treated her. She would frequently be subjected to violent abuse from Harris, who would often beat her in front of Wray, but Wray could not intervene because whatever Harris said was ‘gospel’ to her mother. Wray said they had had to relocate from Beterverwagting and Sophia respectively because of the way Harris had behaved; and, in fact, it was only five months since they had moved into the new location. She noted that even before her mother and Harris had left home on Thursday night, they had been arguing; and they had returned home arguing. Harris is believed to have severed a main artery in his hand when he had cuffed the glass window, because he had lost a considerable amount of blood; and that was probably the cause of his death. Harris had been totally uncontrollable at the hospital, and had even verbally abused the medical staffers who were tending to him.
C.J. grants six a total of $1.19M bail By George Barclay ACTING Chief Justice Mr. Ian Chang yesterday granted the under- mentioned six defendants bail in the sum of $1,190,000., pending determination of their cases. For trafficking in narcotics, Shameer Aabbiulla was granted $300,000 bail.
For unlawful & malicious wounding, Rudolph Ramnarine was granted $40,000 bail, and Colin Mansonhing was granted $250,000 bail. For robbery with violence, Vickam Kowlessar was granted $100,000 bail. For robbery under arms, Corwin Estwick was granted $300,000 bail, and Colin Mansonhing was granted $200,000 bail.