PNCR, police to meet over Buxtonians' complaints
Stabroek News
January 15, 2003
PNCR leader Robert Corbin is to lead a team of some of his party's top executives at a meeting today with Police Commissioner (ag), Floyd McDonald at Police headquarters, Eve Leary.
The meeting, scheduled for 1 pm is being held at Corbin's request to discuss the situation at Buxton. Corbin made the request after he visited and spoke with a cross-section of the residents of the village last week in the aftermath of an operation carried out on January 8 by the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) at Buxton, East Coast Demerara, at the beginning of an exercise named "Operation Saline II".
His letter said that the request was made in the context of the need for a national and co-ordinated strategy to be devised to address the present crime and security situation in the country.
In his letter to McDonald, Corbin related how residents and stallholders had complained that in their absence the doors to their premises had been broken down, the premises ransacked, items destroyed and other damage to property.
The reaction of the villagers to the action of the police and army, Corbin observed, is one of anger and frustration and that his assessment is that "the security forces have done much to alienate the community and create a hostile environment which would require skilful and professional handling if things are to return to normal."
Stabroek News understands that the other members of the team to meet with the Police will be attorneys-at-law Deborah Backer, Clarissa Riehl, and Basil Williams.
