PNCR concedes Buxton haven for criminals
Says force won't work, root causes have to be addressed
Stabroek News
April 26, 2003
The PNCR yesterday conceded that Buxton is a haven for criminals but says that force won't provide a solution as the root causes of crime have to be addressed.
It was the strongest recognition to date by the party that Buxton - one of its strongholds - has been in the grip of criminals.
The party also wants President Bharrat Jagdeo to explain what he meant by saying he wanted the village "cleaned out". The party made this request at its weekly press conference yesterday in response to Jagdeo's speech on Thursday at the Annual Police Officers' Conference.
General Secretary of the party, Oscar Clarke, conceded that Buxton was a haven for criminals pointing to the fact that bodies of wanted men were often found in the village.
However, he said that the President should make it clear that he meant cleaning out the criminals and not the entire village.
In a response, Information Liaison to the President, Robert Persaud, said the statement meant "the criminal elements hiding in and operating out of Buxton will have to be apprehended and brought to justice."
The press release from Persaud said that not only would this action yield more positive results for the security forces in their fight against crime, but would also allow for the liberation of decent law-abiding residents from the criminal siege which had made their historic village a criminal safe haven.
He said that all Guyanese were concerned about the fact that Buxton was a safe haven for criminals and wanted the security forces to deal with this situation appropriately.
"The entire PNCR leadership must follow their leader (Robert Corbin) and take a more enlightened stance on the fight against crime. All parties should support efforts to end the criminal safe haven in Buxton or any other place." He refuted the PNCR's view that the President's statement was ambiguous.
But the PNCR asked if the President had forgotten that Buxton had assumed its present demeanour in response to irresponsible, "reckless and illegal policing and extra-judicial killings, which traumatized and radicalized an entire village". The party wondered if the government had not learnt lessons from its previous blunders in dealing with the Buxton situation.
According to the party the situation had complex causes, not the least being the social and economic decay the community had experienced. It was not by chance that Buxton was the first village that the PNCR determinedly placed on the list of depressed communities for priority attention.
The party is hoping that the proposals by its late leader, Desmond Hoyte and the present initiative by Corbin, be featured prominently in dealing with the village problems.
The party said while it could not condone the criminality among some that had resulted from "this socio-economic, cultural and psychological dynamic", there could be no justification to treat the situation as one which required only a policing response and at that, "a violent response."
"Further, we firmly believe that there is no `one-stroke' solution for addressing the Buxton problem. Buxton cries out for hard socio- economic, cultural and psychological analysis and solutions of that ilk. In that regard Buxton only epitomizes the general state that pervades the country. But alas the PPP/C seems incapable or unwilling to proceed with such a studied and comprehensive response."
The party said while it stood ready to collaborate in addressing the socio-economic problems of the various communities and the country at large, including fighting crime, it would not stand idly and condone the "proposed annihilation of an entire village and its people."
"Crime can only be alleviated if the causal factors are identified and dealt with. Any other approach will only result in an escalation of crime and deepening of the national crises. To this end the PNC Reform calls on the Government to urgently address the root causes."
