ETHNIC imbalance in Guyana Police Force (GPF) and Guyana Defence Force (GDF) has its genesis in the pre-independence era, General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Mr. Donald Ramotar said at the Disciplined Forces Commission (DFC) hearing yesterday.
“It is the People’s Progressive Party’s contention that the current situation (with regards to ethnic balance) in the Disciplined Forces is colonial in its origin but aggressively cultivated during the years of the People’s National Congress Administration, from 1964 to 1992,” he said.
Clarifying and defending his party’s submissions to the commissioners, Ramotar said the records show that ethnic imbalance was a historical feature during colonial times.
He maintained that the period under the PNC fostered ethnic imbalance in the Disciplined Forces, by promoting actions that discouraged entry to Indo-Guyanese and not discouraging what prevented their recruitment and retention.
Ramotar was testifying before Justice of Appeal Ian Chang, Senior Counsel Charles Ramson, retired Brigadier David Granger, other-attorney-at-law Anil Nandlall and Northern Ireland human rights activist Maggie Beirne, in the Supreme Court Library Compound, South Road and Wellington Street, Georgetown.
The Commissioners were appointed to undertake the inquiry in accord with the joint communiqué signed by President Bharrat Jagdeo and Opposition Leader Robert Corbin.
Answering questions from the panel, Ramotar declared that the ethnic imbalance was further perpetrated, deliberately for political reasons, by the PNC.
He also said there are records to prove that the Disciplined Forces pledged allegiance to the PNC when it was in Government.
The PPP General Secretary advocated more inclusivity in the Disciplined Forces, urging representation, as far as possible, of the demographic composition of the society.
Ramotar called, too, for greater public awareness of licensed firearm holders and said, not everyone who applies should get. Priority should be given to businessmen and farmers, especially those in the interior involved in hunting and farming.
He said the PPP is concerned, as well, that citizens should be made aware of their rights when arrested and detained.
On the issue of extra-judicial killings, Ramotar said the incidence had its origin when the PNC was “becoming more and more unpopular” and resorted to the use of force.
He mentioned Dr Walter Rodney and Father Bernard Darke, who, among others, were killed during PNC rule.
Ramotar said, though, that, while there were claims, no solid evidence was being put forward as proof of the involvement of talk show hosts and hostile media in the extra-judicial killings over the past 15 months.
He said it is alarming how quickly policemen are tried, judged and found guilty of such crimes, the next or same day, without concrete evidence.
Ramotar said the PPP would be against any kind of execution by the Police but will resist attempts to cast a blanket accusation at them.
During his testimony, he was asked, as well, about the Coroner’s Act, community policing and the Police Complaints Authority.