Stabroek News
April 21, 2001

The talks between President Bharrat Jagdeo and PNC REFORM (PNC/R) leader, Desmond Hoyte, announced for Tuesday will be held at the Office of the

President and the time is likely to be in the afternoon.

The venue for the meeting was relayed to PNC General Secretary and Hoyte's representative, Oscar Clarke, when he met Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Reepu Daman Persaud, who represents President Jagdeo yesterday at the Public Buildings.

Persaud and Clarke have been tasked with settling the arrangements for the meeting.

Tuesday's meeting was at the initiative of President Jagdeo who wrote to Hoyte asking him to meet to discuss cooperation in the development and future prosperity of the country.

Hoyte agreed to the meeting telling a Square of the Revolution rally earlier this month that the logic of the circumstances dictated that he should speak with the President but that he would need to do so with the full support of the party and its supporters.

On March 30, in a broadcast to the nation, he set out a number of issues, which he said the government should address and the urgency with which it did so

would indicate the degree of its seriousness about change, dialogue or collaboration in development.

The government has not made public its concerns, but President Jagdeo has made known his desire that the meeting with Hoyte should take place in an environment free from fair, intimidation and pressure and Persaud had reiterated this to Clarke in their two meetings.

However, Clarke told reporters yesterday that the decisions taken and the pace with which they were implemented would determine the environment that prevailed.