The missing polygraph files
Editorial
Stabroek News
January 26, 2007
The issue of the missing AK-47s continues to haunt the public and though there have been numerous comments from the government and the public at large, not much more seems to have been done.
In the Wednesday issue of this newspaper, a headline screamed that the FBI-conducted polygraph tests have gone missing from the files that were intended for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Indeed, this is not the first time that records have disappeared from files, particularly in criminal investigations. It goes without saying that corruption exists in just about every level of society. We recall that when Eusi Kwayana brought private criminal proceedings against a man in whose domain the police found a quantity of arms and ammunition, the records of the weapons being lodged in the police station disappeared. The pages on which the records were made were torn out. Someone had to either authorise the removal of those pages or someone was approached with an offer he or she felt could not be refused and tore out the pages. In the court Mr. Kwayana sought to question the disappearance of the pages and got nowhere. Even the magistrate could offer him no reasonable explanation or suggest some recourse. This was just one dark chapter in the history of the legal process in this country.
In other cases the courts were often forced to reconstruct files after the originals disappeared, and in very few cases was anyone brought to book.
Even in the Deeds Registry one often found that records of transactions could not be found, much to the discomfort of people seeking to have issues regularised. And when this happens people would often end up with forged copies of property transfers. Right now, the courts are being asked to resolve issues involving forged transports, since each party is insisting that his is the genuine article.
And so we come once more to the issue of the missing files from the army records. The cost of any polygraph is exorbitant as was the case when the United States embassy responded to allegations that it had afforded the now dead George Bacchus an opportunity to take a polygraph test. The embassy also stated that in those days the tests were conducted in Trinidad and Tobago .
Things must have changed, because the FBI was able to conduct the tests here in Guyana since it did not have to transport the subjects out of the country. Nevertheless, the cost of the polygraph tests would have been enough to ensure that the findings were kept in the safest of places.
Having agreed to the security of the findings, one would have expected that a senior rank would have been in possession of these results. It is not clear whether duplicates would have existed so that a parallel file or files could have been created. Now there are reports that the only copy of the reports has disappeared and there has been nary a peep from the army. Generally, the army hierarchy would have issued a strongly worded press release critical of the reporting or the announcement. One must now ask whether someone had a vested interest in having those findings removed from the files. We would hate to convince ourselves that those implicated to date, under pressure, would have implicated others higher up the administrative chain. And if there is complicity at such a high level then one must wonder at the loyalty of the army to the state because the missing AK-47s, from all appearances, ended up in the hands of criminals. That the army managed to recover many of these weapons is testimony to the seriousness of some in the ranks and to their determination to avoid further embarrassment. It is also testimony to their interest in preserving life. An AK-47 in the hands of a skilled person could hold off a number of pursuers if the person with the weapon is properly sited.
Any investigation at this time should be concentrated on the person who held the files and the findings of the FBI polygraph tests. The investigation should then move on to the others who may have handled the files.
The nation needs answers and these answers must be provided quickly even as the weapons trail grows cold with each passing day.