Hinds, Kwayana say: 'You can't be wrong and strong'
Stabroek News
July 16, 2002
Two Buxtonians have condemned all violence and those perpetrating, inciting and using it, regardless of who they are whether friend or foe, their fellow villagers or otherwise.
In an statement, published in today's letter to the editor column on page six, Eusi Kwayana and David Hinds, who are currently in California, USA, said that on June 30 they were involved in making an appeal on tape to end the violence but before it could get here the situation changed for the worse.
In the joint statement, they said there was no excuse for those who were attacking others, especially Indians, passing through the village or living near to the village.
They warned that entering people's homes, beating them up and robbery carried stiff penalties and that those involved in these attacks were setting themselves up for punishment of one kind or another. They were also making the whole village seem guilty. Their sisters, children, friends, cousins were all marked as people supporting robbers.
Stating that for one year now, they had been opposing those who brought "this robber culture" to the village, Kwayana and Hinds said that the killing of Shaka Blair served to provide "the cowards" with a ready made martyr.
The main aim of the "the cowards," they said was to protect the five escaped prisoners and they found many Buxtonians to use.
Stating that they heard abroad that the robbers gave money to the poor, they stated that what the guilty ones were doing was not "Rasta culture," but "robber culture. Only drug runners, sex traders and arms traders behave like that."
Kwayana and Hinds said that those involved have put all their fellow villagers to shame, made Guyanese of African origin appear like barbarians and helped to give the worst possible pictures of themselves. They said, "You cannot be wrong and strong."