Guyana Chronicle
April 10, 2001

CHAIRMAN of the main Opposition People's National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) and attorney-at-law, Mr Robert Corbin and Chairman of the Reform component of the party, Mr Jerome Khan were yesterday arrested by police when they refused to remove from the entrance of the Office of the President in Georgetown.

The two and other supporters of the PNC/R were protesting against the re-appointment of Dr Roger Luncheon as Head of the Presidential Secretariat.

The party began its protests outside the Office of the President last week.

Corbin and Khan were reportedly ordered released by a judge late yesterday.

The group of PNC/R supporters yesterday gathered at the Vlissengen Road and Regent Street and New Garden Street entrances to the Presidential Secretariat, chanting and singing hymns for a while, when police officials arrived on the scene and ordered them to disperse.

When the officers tried to remove Corbin and Khan who were standing at the main gate, the supporters started pelting stones at them.

A police officer was also injured during the fracas.

The police retaliated by firing pellets and everyone scattered for cover.

A middle-aged man was hit by pellets in his back and behind his ear, while a 74-year-old icicle vendor was hit in her foot.

Bleeding profusely, the man's shirt was taken off by some of the women, and raised in the air.

Corbin, Khan, the middle-aged man, and the elderly woman were arrested and taken away in a waiting police vehicle.

When Corbin and Khan were handcuffed and taken away by police, the crowd became very angry.

Some women shouted, "How could dey do dat!", while others verbally abused the police officers on the scene.

Earlier in the morning, Corbin lay down across the entrance of the Office of the President and some female protestors threw themselves on top of him, in agreement with the move, while others cheered him on.

Police barricades were removed and placed further up New Garden Street preventing the protestors from blocking the entrance of the Presidential Secretariat.

By this time, most the protestors had gathered at the nearby Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) headquarters and ordered traffic to use the New Garden Street entrance.

Things nearly got out of hand, when an irate driver who refused to use that entrance, confronted the crowd of mostly women, some of whom had hit the trunk of the car.

They also overturned a car which was proceeding along Regent Street.

The protestors diverted their attention to the Ministry of Agriculture urging employees to leave the office to join them and a few were seen leaving shortly afterwards.

Officers of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had to intervene when the protestors made their way into the adjoining Ministry of Agriculture building.

They cleared the area, and in doing so, no one was injured.

Meanwhile, Mr James Mc Allister, executive member of the PNC/R condemned the actions of the police in manhandling his two colleagues.

He said it appeared to him that Corbin, in particular was singled out by the police, because they went directly and arrested him.

"the members of the crowd objected to this, and there was a confrontation with the police, and then the police became very, very violent and they began to hit people (in) all parts of their bodies with batons and then they started to fire shots", he stated.

"Our intention right now is to shut down the town, right now," he told reporters.

Rampage halts business in city
- several injured as Police, protestors clash

BUSINESS activities on Regent Street and other parts of the capital yesterday halted when persons demonstrating against the re-appointment of Dr Roger Luncheon as Head of the Presidential Secretariat took to the streets.

Within a few minutes, stores on Regent Street were closed and persons hurriedly made their way out of the path of demonstrators who became involved in several fierce confrontations with the Police.

Police ranks fired pellets into crowds and several shots into the air to disperse persons who had started marching along Regent Street after they were forcefully removed from the vicinity of the Office of the President.

Earlier, the protestors were stationed at the two entrances, Vlissengen Road and New Garden Street, to the Office of the President and Police were subsequently called in to remove them.

The group, which had started protesting Luncheon's appointment last week, grew substantially as the demonstration continued yesterday.

Some derogatory remarks were made against Luncheon who held the position since the re-elected People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) first assumed office in October 1992.

The People's National Congress/Reform (PNC/R) has organised the protests against his re-appointment, claiming that the post must be headed by a public servant.

Police yesterday quickly broke up a small group of protesters, gathered at the Vlissengen Road entrance of the Office of the President, at about 10:00 hrs.

They joined others who were protesting at the main New Garden Street entrance but this crowd was also dispersed by Police who fired pellets.

Several persons were reportedly injured during the shooting. They said they were being denied their democratic right to protest and that they were demonstrating peacefully.

But there were several reports of persons being injured by protesters and business places came under attack during the rampage on Regent Street yesterday.

Sears, at the junction of Alexander and Regent Streets, will have to replace some broken windows. Security guards on duty had to summon help from armed officers to break up the group of persons who had started stoning the hardware store.

An electricity post, a `stone's throw' away from this store was also set on fire and concerned citizens immediately put out the blaze.

Officials said luckily for Sears, the bottom flat of the building had been secured with ply boards for the past few weeks to guard against such attacks.

During the confrontations with the Police and protesters as they moved off from the Office of the President, a motor car belonging to the Chief Administration Officer of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Major Claudius Vaughn, was damaged.

He said the car was parked on South Road when the crowds had started stoning the building. Its back windscreen, valued at about $50,000, was shattered.

Vaughn said he made a report to a city Police station and noted that while it is the people's democratic to protest, he deplores their violent actions since damaging people's property cannot be considered as peaceful protesting.

An official of the ministry was also hit by one of the stones thrown into the ministry's compound. She sustained a minor wound.

The office of the weekly publication, Catholic Standard, at South Road and Wellington Streets also came under attack by the protesters.

Mr. Colin Smith, Editor of the Catholic Standard, explained that there was a photographer in the building taking shots of some of the scenes when the group started pelting it, breaking several windows. A door was also damaged.

According to Smith, the protesters were reacting to a rumour that talk show host, Mr Kwame McKoy, was hiding there. They began shouting for McKoy as they stoned the building, Smith said.

As the standoff between Police ranks and protesters continued, employees of many stores along Regent Street were seen peeping through steel grills and barriers to catch a glimpse of the situation.

Shoppers and vendors were locked in Bourda Market and stalls were quickly shut as people hurriedly secured their business places.

As the protestors moved along, they branched off into several streets and eventually a fire was set on Wellington Street. However, this was quickly noted by ranks on patrol who immediately put it out and arrested those who allegedly set fire to the rubbish.

Those arrested were ordered to remove the trash from the street before they were taken to the lockups.

There was a build-up of traffic along Regent Street and other parts of the city as barriers were erected and traffic diverted.

Protestors themselves engaged in diverting the traffic, especially those who had stationed themselves in the vicinity of the Brickdam Police Station to protest the arrest of two PNC/R members, Chairman, Mr Robert Corbin and member, Mr Jerome Khan.

Business places around the city had remained closed for the past few weeks following post-elections disturbances on the East Coast Demerara when Police used tear gas and fired pellets to disperse protestors who set up barricades and burned tyres on roads to stop the flow of traffic.

Store owners were also forced to shut their doors when protestors of the PNC/R went on a rampage through city streets during the party's legal bid to block the swearing-in of President Bharrat Jagdeo.

Barriers were erected on buildings around the city and there were hardly any signs of activity.