PPP remembers July killings
Guyana Chronicle
July 15, 2004
THE People’s Progressive Party (PPP) yesterday recalled the killing 23 years ago of a Jesuit priest by a gang of political thugs on Brickdam, Georgetown, and said he and others who died during this month had helped the cause of freedom.
In a statement, the main partner in the governing PPP/Civic alliance saluted the “memory of these brave and heroic men who made the ultimate sacrifice in the cause of freedom, democracy and human dignity.”
“These individuals are now immortalised as the true symbols of struggle and defiance against tyranny and injustice”, it said.
The party recalled that Jesuit priest Bernard Darke was knifed to death on July 14, 1981 by thugs associated with the PNC during a peaceful protest action near the Brickdam Police Station.
Father Darke was at the time a schoolteacher attached to the St. Stanislaus College and a part-time photographer.
He was attacked and stabbed while photographing peaceful picketers being beaten by thugs associated with the now infamous House of Israel cult, headed by U.S. fugitive Rabbi Washington, at the time closely connected to the then ruling PNC.
The PPP recalled too that on July 16, 1973, two of its supporters, Jagan Ramessar and Bholanauth, were fatally shot by members of the armed forces while trying to protect ballot boxes from being carted away.
“The PPP also salutes the memory of Michael Forde who was killed on July 17, 1964 when a bomb, intended for Freedom House (PPP headquarters), exploded on him. He was at the time attempting to remove the bomb that was planted in the bookstore at the bottom floor of Freedom House”, the statement said.
It said that was a “dreadful period of our history when a total of 176 people were killed and 920 were injured. Over 1,400 homes were destroyed by fire.
“It is worth recalling that police investigations revealed that there existed at the time organised thuggery that was centrally directed. The Commissioner of Police, in a sworn affidavit, spoke of ‘the subversive and criminal activities of a criminal gang attached to a political party known as the People’s National Congress’.”
The party also noted that on July 22, 2002, Balram Khandhi, a school teacher and member of the Progressive Youth Organisation, the PPP youth arm, was shot and killed when someone opened fire during a post-PPP Congress reception at a secondary school in Rose Hall, Corentyne.
The young man was due to shortly leave for Cuba to pursue higher education, the PPP recalled.