US Ambassador Ronald Godard says the talks between President Bharrat Jagdeo and Leader of the Opposition, Robert Corbin have allowed for effective action to be taken in addressing the crime wave as the political division had led to crime being treated as a political football.

He says one factor that led to the rapprochement was that a large section of the society had been taken aback by the prospects of the country slipping into anarchy and that they had urged the two parties to work together. He says there is now the realisation that the best interests of the country would be served by the two major parties collaborating in advancing the economic well being of its citizens.

In an interview marking the end of his term as US Ambassador, Godard said that despite the severe political and criminal turmoil over the past three years, he was leaving hopeful that Guyana has embarked on a more certain future.

On an incident of crime which hit close to home, Godard says the operatives of the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US State Department Diplomatic Security Service worked closely with the Guyana Police to identify the principals involved in the kidnapping of US diplomat Steve Lesniak, who was the Regional Security Officer at the US Embassy.

Godard says that the US investigators had not submitted a report to the Guyana Police as the case was still open even though the principals identified in the kidnapping are now dead. They were Shawn Gittens, who was killed by persons unknown, Mark Phillips who was killed by the police and Shawn Brown, one of the five February 23, escapees who was killed by the police in a shoot-out in Prashad Nagar.

However, Ambassador Godard says the team would return to Guyana to participate in the debriefing of any other person who participated in the Lesniak kidnapping.

Lesniak was kidnapped from the Lusignan Golf Course on April 12 by three armed men and taken into Buxton, then the safe haven of the band of gunmen who had robbed and terrorised residents in the neighbouring villages and committed a number of robberies and killings in Georgetown. He was released later in the day after Lesniak’s friends paid over an undisclosed sum to the kidnappers.

Godard says the embassy played no role in the payment of the ransom as it is US government policy not to pay any ransom for the release of any of its citizens. However, he says neither the government nor the embassy had any control over what relatives or friends of a kidnapped person did.

The ineffectiveness of the police in bringing to justice any of the persons involved in the Lesniak kidnapping and in dealing with the crime wave which engulfed Georgetown and the lower East Coast Demerara led Ambassador Godard to voice the concern of the diplomatic community over the security situation.

However, even with the recent success in returning the rule of law to Buxton and the reduced crime rate, he is still cautious. He explains that it would take a while to determine the extent to which the society has returned to normality.

He says his comments on the security situation were prompted out of his responsibility to his staff and as dean of the diplomatic corps, and out of a concern for the security of the diplomats. He says the bandits’ safe haven at Buxton, because of its proximity to Georgetown and its environs in which most of the diplomats live, presents a clear and present danger to the diplomatic community.

He says his concerns had led to American citizens being alerted to the dangers in the consular information sheet.

About US assistance to the government in addressing the crime situation, Godard says most of the aid was targeted towards the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) to improve its operational efficiency and professionalism, and by extension its support to the Guyana Police. He says the joint operations of the GDF and the police played a significant role in lowering the incidents of crime and improving the rule of law in Buxton.

He adds that the assistance to the police was being given in co-ordination with the British government, which had taken the lead role in providing assistance to the force but that his government was looking at other ways to help.

Ambassador Godard says the US has recently been providing training in anti-kidnapping measures in Trinidad and has mounted other courses to which the police have been exposed including anti-narcotics operations.

Commenting on the contribution of criminal deportees to the crime wave, Godard says he has seen no evidence that the deportees were involved as all of the notorious bandits who were killed in confrontations with the security forces were home grown.

He says a recent report by the Caribbean Task Force on Crime indicates that in the region, the contribution of deportees was not as significant as it was thought to be.

Asked about his government contributing to the re-settling of deportees who are returned here after serving their sentences, he says it would be difficult to persuade the US taxpayers, some of whom would have been victims of the crimes committed by the deportees, to meet their re-settlement expenses. He observes that in some cases the convicted deportee would have spent a large number of years in the US during which time he chose not to become a citizen and would have been incarcerated at the taxpayers’ expense.

Godard notes that most of those returning are not criminal deportees but immigration violators though he concedes that the number of criminal deportees was significant.

He says programmes being implemented by USAID to stimulate the economy could provide opportunities for deportees if they are interested in earning an honest living.