Dear Dr. Jagan,
Recently you announced retention of Mr. Laurie Lewis as Commissioner of Police. This is indeed a sad departure from your pre- election speeches and writings in your Party's newspaper, the Mirror. Time and again you castigate the police force for its political subservience to the Burnhan and Hoyte dictatorships, you lambasted the organization for being racially composed and prejudicial and, of course, you persistently pinpointed its two most notorious attributes - brutality and corruption.
As if this was not enough, the U.S. State Department incessantly fingered the Guyana Police Force for its human rights abuses and political patronage - even after your ascension to power, human rights abuses were highlighted. Incidents like the Archie Adams beating, Sister Doreen Rowlie's beating during a GUARD march, the 1990 treason accused (also taken up by Amnesty International) extra judicial shootings, Kick - down - the door robberies and a litany of atrocities were all alluded to in the State Department's reports. Heyday in the PNC.
Perhaps, it seems, you have paid a little or no heed to tbese documents or, on the other hand, you find it convenient to forget their contents. Whatever thought process, if any, you have used to arrive at the decision to retain Laurie Lewis, remains a mystery to a vast majority of Guyanese. For instance, the said individual once headed a clandestine organization called the National Guard Service whose source of funding and real function is yet to be made public, however, it is a known fact, that this organization's purpose was to spy on, infiltrate and disrupt opposition parties and meetings.
Today, it can be said, the dog that Bit the Guyanese Nation has now been sanctioned to protect it. As if this is not enough, you, the Head of State, declared in March 1995, at the Borough of Manhattan College, New York, that the commissioner had, prior to October 5, 1992 pledged dedication and allegiance to the PNC (and not the Constitution). Your decision can only be seen as a back somersault and a case of profound hypocrisy. More correctly it is a blatant betrayal of your very own supporters.
Even your Home Affairs Minister, Ferose Mohamed, indicated his diffficulties in implementing new (and even existing) measures in the force. Notwithstanding, he lamented how t h e commiss ioner frequently became annoyed at his requests and sometimes do not return his phone calls. I was in his offfice, on one occasion, when this happened. How can a man who displays such arrogance, unbecoming of a public official, be showering with praise and glory, a man who has yet to qualify himself in the field of law, is the chief law - enforcement officer.
Let us look at some relevant facts pertaining to the commissioner's per formance.
1. In 1993 the RCMP indicated that top police officers were involved in smuggling aliens into North America and yet, to this date, no investigation has been launched. Well it is too much to expect the police to investigate and prosecute themselves. The National Geographic Magazine pinpointed Guyana as a major drug transhipment point in 1991.
2. The national airline, GAC, presently owes more than $300M to the U.S. Federal Government as a result of narcotics discovered on its aircraft on more than six occasions at the JFK Airport. (Airport security falls under the jurisdiction of the police force).
3. Never in the history of crime in Guyana has there been so many unsolved murders - Monica Reece, Herman Sanichar, Lloyd Bacchus, Chandrapaul, Marlon De Abreu, Dereck Wharton all beg from their graves for justice. Amidst all this you have showered praise on the force!
4. A year ago the Rodney files disappeared - then reappeared - when the International Commission of Jurists was due to review evidence. One does not need a University Degree to deduce that many in the police hierarchy do not want an investigation into the WPA founder's death.
5. The 100 passports stolen from the Immigration Office were never recovered (however a few did turn up with visas) likewise the $250,000.00 National Guard Service payroll, hijacked in 1987 during Laurie Lewis' leadership of the said organisation.
6. Many high profile police cases, such as the Loo Lands 300 pounds cocaine drop, have been thrown out due to a lack of evidence.' One has to be totally illiterate or naive to believe this form of reasoning' for it is obvious beyond contradiction that devious forces are in play between the judiciary and the police force. It is well worth mentioning that since your assumption of office, not a single new judge or magistrate has been appointed. You seem to rely on the judgement of the past regime - a case of cutting your nose to spite your face.
7. The beating of picketers during the OMAI cynide spill protest and the recent fiasco at the University are clear indications that the police force functions like a state within a state its officers operating without any fear of retribution, enjoying a buddy buddy' protection. In fact, the Police Complaints Authority require police personnel to investigate complaints against fellow officers - a clear case of trying the Devil's case in Hell. Your silent consent to this absurdity.
8. The October 5,1992 (Election Day) looting was allowed to continue for hours resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars losses from the predominantly Indian owned stores. The police after looking on for hours, were only told to intervene after the Commissioher received instructions from the leader of the PNC. The obvious inference is that the force was reluctant to act as a professional body. Had it done so, the looting would have been minimal and the looters arrested.
9. The Commissioner, in 1994, launched a bicycle patrol to combat crime in the city. A backward, thoughtless act indeed in an era of high speed car chases! Yet you expressed satisfaction over his performance.
10. Community Policing Groups remain unarmed, quite a contradiction to your earlier clamour. Another profound retraction is the non-existence of expatriate inputs into the police force as is the case with Customs, Guysuco and Guymine. Perhaps Laurie Lewis advised against this measure.
I know you are approaching 80, an age when senility can supercede prudence and rationale, nevertheless, you so have ministers and advisers to guide you. Does Mr Clement Rohee, Gail Teixeira, Harripersaud Nokta, Feroze Mohamed and company not recall how they were all arrested and brutalized at the hands of the police force which Laurie Lewis headed? Do you remember how you were not allowed to use the VIP lounge at the Timehri International Airport? Have you forgotten Hardat Ramdass, your staunch supporter who endured four days of torture in a police dungeon in 1992? Have you forgotten the Kick-down-door bandits in which your supporters were the main targets? Have you forgotten the litany of police atrocities and a lack of response of the police administration which Laurie Lewis and his deputy Sultan Kassim headed. Surely your comrades in the Kremlin now are too busy to look in your direction.
This is indeed a sad day for the Guyanese Nation which has painfully, yet perhaps faithfully, endured your unholy marriage with PNC elements and institutions of torture and human rights abuses. ln the like manner that your one-time colleague, the late Forbes Burnham starved the nation for basic foodstuff, you are depriving this nation of common justice and I can only assume that you prefer the old hands that are in harmony with your Stone Age type mentality. Or on the other hand, you may just be carrying out your part of the deal you probably brokered with the Carter Center in not cleansing the armed forces.
It seems as tbough our lean and clean motto has been obliterated by the glow of power and the bombardment of corruption in your administration, but let allow one to point out that when one wants to prune a tree the top is where you start. Remember, as Confucius stated 2000 years ago, the longest journey begins witb the first step and now is a golden opportunity to erase those inherited structures that contributed to the demise of the Guyanese nation.
Take the tide now my respected friend for you may not have another chance to pass this way again. In this regard the decent citizens of our beloved Guyana will forever be grateful to you.
Sincerely yours,
Leyland Chitlall Roopnarine