According to the Government Information Agency (GINA) an editorial in GIHA’s newsletter, Izzat, stated: “The real tragedy is that the PPP/C, to whom the Indian population looks for help, denies their suffering. The Government has only admitted that there is a drugs and crime problem…the hard place is that the Government itself holds out little hope for the Indian Community. No regional or international organisation or any member of the diplomatic service will be appraised of their true situation as targets of ethnic violence at a bilateral level. Their suffering is not ever recognised or addressed.”

According to GINA, this statement falsely indicates that the Government does not care about persons who are attacked by criminals.

President Bharrat Jagdeo and his ministers, GINA said, have shown their willingness to assist any person or families, who have been victims of criminal violence. The news agency added that there must be some rationale applied when the Government provides assistance to victims of violence. Firstly, it is impossible for Government to assist everyone who has been attacked or robbed by bandits.

GINA pointed out that Anita Singh, whose hair was cut off during a robbery at her home on August 7 last year, was provided with counselling and other forms of assistance by the Probation Department of the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security.

The family of businessman, Basil Singh, 50, who was killed in his grocery shop in Annandale on January 8, 2003 met with President Bharrat Jagdeo in an effort to explore ways in which the Government can assist the family, GINA reported.

Mrs. Idris Chester, who lived in Buxton, was also given assistance when her two houses were torched because she was allegedly perceived as a police informer. Minister within the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, Ms. Bibi Shaddick, arranged for Mrs. Chester and her family to be placed in a safe house until a house can be rebuilt for them. Counselling sessions were also arranged for the family, GINA added.

Families of policemen who were killed in the line of duty have also been provided with assistance. The relatives of the fallen policemen have benefited from a welfare package which includes a one-million dollar disbursement.

Information Liaison to the President, Mr. Robert Persaud, has rejected a claim by the New York based newspaper `The Caribbean New Yorker’ of November 1, 2002 that the Government of Guyana has rejected tangible assistance offered by the US, UK, and Canada.

According to Persaud: “To say that the article is offensive and scandalous is to understate the obvious. To say that it impugns the integrity of the diplomatic community of Guyana is also to be guilty of an understatement. No such offer was ever made, or, in the context of international relations, is expected to be made. President Bharrat Jagdeo, has never, in private or public, made distinctions among Guyanese people. On the contrary, on numerous occasions, he has been “at pains to state in unambiguous words, that all the people of this country, whatever their origin and their ethnicity, are equally Guyanese.”

President Bharrat Jagdeo, speaking on the crime situation said: “Based on the request by the Government of Guyana, the British Government conducted a series of studies on the criminal justice system…In this area, I have been personally involved in the meetings with senior British Government officials and top officials of Scotland Yard,” GINA said.

In Annandale, a village inhabited predominantly by Indo-Guyanese, there are ongoing security measures being implemented, one of which is the setting up of barricades separating Buxton and Annandale.