Dear Editor,

I read in your issue of April 19 "President Jagdeo says that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Denis Hanomansingh will be taking up the case of the death of Shaka Blair and he urged that the process be allowed to take its course."

Blair was shot on April 6, 2002. The government arms called him a criminal suspect and made certain allegations.

On April 16, 2002, before an East Demerara Magistrate, I swore to an Information on Oath, accusing Senior Superintendent Merai of the capital offence relating to the same Shaka Blair's death.

On April 19, His Excellency, perhaps not knowing this, announced what an independent official was doing about the Shaka Blair case and asked that the process be allowed to take its course. My Information on Oath is an even more formal process than the one he described.

With my layman's understanding of the Constitution, I cannot rely on President Jagdeo's assurances about what the DPP will do. Our lawmakers have placed the DPP under the Judicial Service Commission, but he is still 'under the control of no person or authority'.

My bringing of the main Shaka Blair suspect to justice through the court process and in due time, has several advantages:

1. It deprives any self- styled revolutionary or liberator of an excuse for getting physically at Senior Superintendent Merai, and seeks to have him answer the charge with the right of defence, which has been denied to some suspects in the society.

Obviously, I acted because I felt and still feel that a case can be made out in the proper forum.

2. It gives Blair's party a chance, through lawyers, if it chooses, to pursue his cause in an arena suited to that purpose.

3. It allows the same methods to be used, from another angle, as in the struggle in the 1970s to vindicate Arnold Rampersaud.

4.It tests the good intentions of all sides.

5. It allows for the presence of human rights observers.

Let me say that I confidently and entirely reject the growing belief that guns are better or more effective than non -violent struggle.

Frequent use of gunfire, fear of violence, and rumours of gun fire take away the youth of the younger people, especially of school age. Too many of them will fail to develop. In the name of the children, police and liberators, please desist from the gun.

My recommendation is that no side should rely on falsehoods and unfair spins. These have no foundation and will let you down. If you stick to the truth, who can really defeat It?