No moves on inquest into Shaka Blair killing
Stabroek News
June 11, 2002
Six weeks after President Bharrat Jagdeo announced that the Director of Public Prosecutions would have taken up the matter of the killing of Buxton resident Shaka Blair, no further word has been said about the matter.
The President had made the statement at a media conference during which he had also announced, among other things, the impending appointment of Deputy Commissioner Winston Felix to the office of Commissioner from next year. He had urged that the judicial process be allowed to take its course.
However repeated efforts to ascertain whether the matter would be brought before the courts have drawn a blank.
Blair, 34, a resident of Middle Walk Road, Buxton was shot at his home in suspicious circumstances on the morning of April 6 by a party of policemen belonging to the Anti Crime Task Force — Target Special Squad called ‘Black Clothes’.
This action sparked angry reactions from residents of that village, who dug up and blocked the railway embankment road at several points restricting vehicular traffic in demonstration of their opposition to the actions of the ‘Black Clothes’ police.
Subsequently, in the midst of a protest march and picketing exercise, Minister of Home Affairs, Ronald Gajraj, at a meeting with a delegation from the PNC/R and relatives of the deceased, had given the assurance that the matter would have been dealt with expeditiously.
However, since the post mortem and subsequent burial of the Buxton resident there has been a deafening silence on the matter. It was raised again in a recent Government Information Agency (GINA) sponsored programme ‘Answers’ in which Gajraj acknowledged giving the assurance.
He had also indicated that the matter had developed other dimensions essentially court matter filed by private citizen, Eusi Kwayana and the subsequent high court action following the withdrawing of his private murder charge in the Vigilance Magistrates’ Court by the DPP.