The AKs nine months on
Editorial
Stabroek News
December 18, 2006
It was only recently that the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Guyana Defence Force, speaking at the end of the Standard Officers' Course, castigated errant members of the army for bringing the military into disrepute. He also told the Chief of Staff in no uncertain terms that he wanted all of the 30 stolen AK-47s found.
For an institution which in its proper functioning is synonymous with discipline it seems that the admonition of President Jagdeo and the benumbing lesson of the AK-47s theft are falling on deaf ears.
A mere two weeks ago, it is alleged that one soldier stole ammunition from a sensitive army installation and passed it on to another soldier who in turn handed it over to a forklift operator to sell. The court will decide this matter but the army will know full well if it lost ammunition from this installation and if it did there must be some serious reckoning over how this could have happened in light of the disappearance of the AK's and previous security issues pertaining to this particular installation. The method for securing the army's weaponry is patently in need of revision.
What emboldens the deviants in the army and any other institution for that matter is the feeling that there is no accountability at the top or anywhere below. And therefore one can get away with quite a lot especially if the inducements on offer are worth the risk. It continues to amaze the public that nearly nine months after the theft of the AK-47s, despite regular calls for it to make a clean breast of it, the army remains completely impassive and opaque on the issue of the stolen weaponry. The public has not been told by the army what type of inquiry was conducted in the aftermath of the disappearance, the declassified findings of the inquiry, the steps that have been taken to seal the truck-size holes in security at army headquarters, the personnel who should be held administratively and criminally liable, the measures being taken to properly secure army stores and the strategies contemplated for recovering the outstanding weapons. At one point the Chief of Staff, Brigadier Collins did suggest that the drug-indicted businessman Roger Khan would lead the way to the weapons. Well, the AKs, presumably the ones stolen from the army, have turned up with the usual suspects. Perhaps the Brigadier might now offer a re-evaluation on who might lead who to the weapons fount.
While its stony silence is completely unacceptable, it is clear that the army and its senior personnel are in self-preservation mode. But more surprising and galling is that the government is just as unresponsive as the army has been.
In the December 8 edition of Stabroek News, on facing pages, we ran two stories based on questions answered in writing to Parliament by Prime Minister Sam Hinds. One answer revealed that the government was still waiting two months on for a report from the Venezuelan government on the shooting to death of a Guyanese man by the Venezuelan army at Eteringbang. Caracas' intransigence on this matter is intolerable but so is this government's in relation to the inquiry into the theft of the weapons.
On the facing page, the Prime Minister answered other questions from AFC MP Raphael Trotman on the missing AK-47s. Mr Trotman asked whether the government was in receipt of a report on the weapons which the army said it lost and if the answer was yes whether the government was satisfied with the report.
Mr Trotman also asked whether the government would commission an independent inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the missing weapons and receive recommendations on how such an occurrence can be avoided in the future.
The Prime Minister responded by saying that the GDF had established a Board of Inquiry and a report was submitted to the Defence Board. Further, the Defence Board was examining the report in "conjunction with the pertinent and significant revelations emanating from a number of publicly known events in which a number of the guns were recovered". He added that the government is not yet at a point to make a determination as to whether an independent inquiry should be convened.
This was an astounding answer. Nearly nine months after the weapons disappeared, the defence board is still considering the report - it is not clear how long that report took to be compiled - and moreover the government is still to decide if an independent inquiry is to be convened. Aside from some convincing national security imperative it cannot be, must not be, that the government and the defence board are still deliberating on this matter. It is the height of unaccountability. This scandal of the AKs now straddles two administrations with the same players involved. Unless the government begins to hold itself and those answerable to it accountable then there will be no law and order; only disorder and chaos.
The end of the year approaches and sadly the only way in which the public might really know if the Commander-in-Chief and the Defence Board are satisfied with the army's conduct over the year is whether the annual tax-free bonus is announced. We shall see.