The People's National Congress/REFORM (PNC/R) is condemning what it terms deliberate activities undertaken at Buxton on Monday to disrupt the orderly and peaceful conduct of the funeral programme it organised for the late Shaka Blair and has issued its version of what transpired.

As the funeral programme was nearing the end, the police said that mourners pelted them and opened fire forcing law enforcers to retaliate. Several persons were injured by police pellets and bullets and the ensuing teargas-filled charge by the law enforcers caused mourners and others to run and dive for cover. Those who attacked the police also dug up part of the east coast main road and traffic was impeded. The army had to be called out to help restore order.

The PNC/R noted that the three events it organised to focus attention on Blair's killing were "generally incident free" and required minimal involvement of the Guyana Police Force.

"This fact confirms the often-stated position of the PNC/R that whenever problems arose at PNC/R events, they have been largely due to external interference, if not provocation and the unprofessional intervention by certain elements of the GPF."

The release said that the party had requested and obtained permission from the GPF to use an agreed route for the funeral procession to Buxton. The PNC/R was also required to be responsible for the control and organisation of the procession and the party asserted that it carried out its undertaking effectively and efficiently with minimum involvement of the GPF.

According to the release, the funeral procession to Buxton was orderly and incident-free, and the party observed that there was need for only one police vehicle which followed some distance behind the procession and a few traffic ranks who diverted traffic at some points along the East Coast public road to avoid the public being unduly delayed by the procession.

The party said further that on arrival at Buxton the casket was taken by pallbearers through the village at the head of the large procession, first to the home of the late Blair, then to the railway embankment where a short programme was conducted without any incidents and then they moved to the St Augustine's Anglican church, also without any incident.

However, the police rebutted this in a press release Monday evening stating that a plain-clothes policeman who hails from Buxton was attacked and assaulted by two persons at about 3:40 pm, one of whom also lashed him with a gun while he was on Buxton Middle Walk Dam with his daughter. Shortly after, the police release stated, the sound of gunfire was heard from a location south of Buxton main road but closer to the railway embankment.

The PNC/R related that the service at the church was almost concluded when the programme and the solemnity of the occasion was disrupted by the sounds of gunfire from the direction of the Vigilance Police Station. At that time the majority of persons attending the funeral were either in the church, the church compound or immediately outside on the road leading to the church, the release said.

"We were not at that time aware of all that had transpired. However it was clear that the activities which were transpiring had nothing to do with the PNC/R programme."

The party stated that it had been able to confirm that somewhere in vicinity of Vigilance Police Station someone in a small crowd released some firecrackers which was followed by the firing of live rounds into the crowd by the contingent of police.

The police had stated that at about 4 pm a crowd of about 300 persons approached the barriers established at Brush Dam, west of Vigilance Police Station in a hostile manner. The police discharged one round in the air in an effort to disperse the crowd but person or persons within this crowd fired at the police.

According to the party release, a young man was shot on the Public Road in this incident while the funeral service was still in progress and the news of this quickly spread to the church arousing a great deal of unease, anxiety and anger among the congregation which was later brought under control by PNC/R organisers. The party press release said that it was alarming that though the GPF had appealed to it to maintain order and control during the procession, the police did not see it fit to approach PNC/R officials to alert them of any concerns they had over the behaviour of the crowd. The police release had stated that a group of persons from the crowd of 300 later proceed to dig two ditches at Friendship, one about six feet wide and the other three feet wide across the road.

PNC/R officials observed when departing Buxton on Monday after the funeral that several contingents of the Tactical Services Unit (TSU) had been mobilised and were at the ready both in Buxton and in the neighbouring village of Annandale, thereby generating tension and unease in the area, the party said.

"While it is not our desire to direct the GPF how to conduct their work or to interfere with their methodology, it is difficult not to arrive at the conclusion that there was a deliberate plan to create the disruption of our programme".

"One would have expected that with such a massive procession where so many participants had journeyed from Georgetown and villages along the East Coast to Buxton, the GPF would have been anxious for these persons to return to their homes with the least possible delay and disruption. The placement of roadblocks and diversion of the traffic merely served to create chaos and confusion," the party stated.

The PNC/R is calling on the Commissioner of Police, Floyd McDonald to make a full, factual, frank and truthful public disclosure on what transpired on Monday. The party also condemned certain unknown elements who it said capitalised on its mobilisation to distribute during the procession a pamphlet entitled "Shaka Lives" and disassociated itself from its contents. "This pamphlet was not published or circulated by the PNC/R or any of the persons associated with the organising of the funeral programme." The pamphlet, purported to be written by the five February 23 prison escapees, said inter alia that they would not leave the country but would "stand and fight for the African-Guyanese nation just as the sea bandits Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake and Sir Henry Morgan fought for England and were honoured by the Queen".

The party said further that it believes that the "recent developments are part of a wider plan conceived ... with the intention of provoking racial tensions and fomenting unrest in Guyana in order to deliberately create a smokescreen to divert attention from the dismal state of the country's economy".

It condemned what it said was the attempt to create racial division in Guyana for the furtherance of narrow political objectives. "We call on our supporters not to be misled and to eschew all attempts to create conflict in our society", the PNC/R added.

The release said that the PNC/R had condemned violence in the past and does so again. Moreover, the party maintained its call for the immediate arrest of the alleged killers of Blair, demanded that the government take immediate steps to disband the Target Special Squad as it is organised at present and renewed its call for the government to provide adequate resources to enable the GPF to discharge its responsibilities in a professional manner.