The United Nations (UN) will not play a role in legal matters coming out of last week's disturbances at the Office of the President, Resident Coordinator for UN agencies in Guyana, Richard Olver, said.
In a statement issued to the media yesterday, Olver said that the UN deplored the recent resort by some to violence and urged that all adhere to the rule of law scrupulously.
Stating that the UN was dedicated to the promotion of democracy and human rights, Olver said that the organisation promoted those values through advocacy and partnership. He said that the UN was in Guyana as an international organisation within the context of the Laws of Guyana and conducted operational activities in the country at the request of the government.
He dispelled reports emanating from some unnamed media houses that the UN was to take on a role in the legal matters.
The UN, he said had "been contacted by a number of persons on these matters." He said that at 9:10 am yesterday, television personality Mark Benschop, for whom the police had issued an arrest warrant in connection with the storming of the Office of the President, went to the entrance of the UN office in Brickdam, where his lawyers met him. He and his lawyers then went immediately to the Georgetown Magistrate's Court where Benschop proceeded inside the building, in response to an outstanding arrest warrant.
At Thursday's sitting of the National Assembly, Minister of Home Affairs, Ronald Gajraj, had told parliament that Benschop and Philip Bynoe who were seen with the protesters on July 3, had embarked on a crusade to involve international organisations based in the country to intervene on their behalf so that the rule of law would not take its course.
Arrest warrants had been issued for Benschop and Bynoe by the police. Benschop had made it known to several media houses that he wanted to turn himself in the presence of a UN diplomat. Bynoe is still at large.