PNCR Leader Robert Corbin has condemned the police’s handling of an illegal march on Wednesday by striking sugar workers and the treatment of television personality, CN Sharma.

At the PNCR weekly press briefing yesterday, Corbin, who returned on Wednesday from Miami where he went to pay his party’s respects to the late former First Lady Viola Burnham, said that he was shocked to see on TV, Sharma being manhandled and bundled into the back of a vehicle. The police were operating as though they were preparing for war, he said.

He said the police actions were highly unacceptable and that attempts to deny Guyanese the right to protest would be met with strong opposition by the PNCR. He said that the rights of citizens to protest were guaranteed by the constitution.

Corbin felt that the march was probably the most suitable way for the sugar workers to express themselves after they had tried to make known their grievances for over week. He noted that the workers had been clamouring for attention and even picketed Freedom House after they had expected their bargaining agent, the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union (GAWU) to come to their rescue.

Corbin said he had paid Sharma a visit yesterday morning and the leader of the JFA party related that he was thrown into a dark, smelly cell which was not fit for humans.