ACDA calls for probe of 'phantom force'
Stabroek News
December 3, 2002
The African Cultural & Development Association (ACDA) is calling for an immediate investigation of what it terms the "phantom force", an apparent reference to yet unidentified gunmen blamed for recent killings and armed assaults in Georgetown and on the East Coast of Demerara.
The organisation in a press release said that it had not escaped its attention that since the events of October 28 (when seven men died in shoot-outs, including two Mash Day escapees, and police unearthed a large arms cache in a rented house in Lamaha Gardens) a "dark new dimension with evidence of improper collaborations have been exposed to the observing public."
"We have observed since then," ACDA said, "that two heavily armed assault groups have entered the Buxton area with the intent to murder, maim and strike terror into villagers."
And according to police releases these persons are not police or Guyana Defence Force personnel, the association said. It also said that the death announcement of one of the persons from the so-called "phantom force" had linked him to known persons in organised crime.
