Don't let drug lords take over
-President tells army top brass -slams US on drugs, rights reports
By Oluatoyin Alleyne
Stabroek News
March 9, 2007
The GDF top brass: Commander-in-Chief, President Bharrat Jagdeo (centre in front row) and Chief of Staff, Brigadier Edward Collins (sixth from right), pose with GDF officers after the opening session of the army's annual officer's conference yesterday. (K
President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday told the top brass of the Guyana Defence Force not to allow criminals and drug lords to take over the country and launched a broadside against the US on a number of fronts.
He said the US is the biggest consumer of drugs and one where money laundering is rampant and yet it wants to lecture countries like Guyana about such issues.
President Jagdeo said that over the last ten years criminal threats have evolved and as a result the policing and joint services techniques must also evolve with the changing nature of crime.
"We can't allow the drug dealers, we can't allow the criminals to take charge of this country or create that image that would slow down development… If we work hard at this we would be able to realise a fuller and better life for our people," the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces said. He said he has seen the joint services evolve over the years as there was a time when protocols between the army and the police were not understood but now they work cohesively to fight crime.
In addressing the opening session of the Annual Officer's Conference of the GDF, the President also spoke of Latin America, unfair media coverage and poverty among other issues, but made no mention of the 30 AK-47s that went missing from the army's headquarters, Camp Ayanganna last year.
Commander-in-Chief, President Bharrat Jagdeo takes the salute at yesterday's opening of the army's annual officer's conference at Camp Ayanganna. (Ken Moore photo)
It is around a year since the weapons went missing and more than half have still not been recovered. Further, no one has been held accountable for the disappearance of the AK-47s and five pistols.
In a speech that lasted for over an hour, the Head of State opened his criticism of the US by referring to the two recent reports issued by the US State Department on drug trafficking and money laundering and human rights issues in Guyana.
Hypocritical US
"If you look at the assistance we get from the US Government… for the past seven years the direct assistance to fight drug trafficking is about US$20,000 a year… A permanent secretary earns more than US$20,000 a year and that is what we get to fight drug dealers, drug traffickers and money launderers." He mentioned that Colombia got several billion dollars. According to the President, Guyana's debts had to be paid.
"So we need help and this [the drug trafficking problem] is an international problem, but even with our limited resources we have been fighting drug dealers. But let me say this to you… what I find very hypocritical and this is the image issue again, is that a country issues a report about another country then that report goes around the world. But… which is the biggest consuming nation in the world? The United States of America. All of the drugs from Colombia, and from Guyana and from Trinidad and from Suriname and from all around; the heroin from Afghanistan - a significant part of it goes to the United States of America."
The President said it meant that the US's border systems are failing, as it could not stop drugs from entering the country. "And they are telling me to stop the big borders that we have where people don't even live. They can't stop it [the drugs] going in, that is one. Two, it is sold in the streets; this huge bulk of drugs is sold in the streets of the United States of America. So [US] law enforcement, better equipped than ours is failing…," the President said, by this time to a lot of smiling and nodding from army officers.
President Jagdeo concluded that if the drugs are being sold on the US streets then money has to be collected, "so which system has the greatest amount of money laundered? Which country? It is the United States of America. They consume the most drugs, their law enforcement on the borders is failing, the drug is sold on their streets, people pay for the drugs and then it is laundered there. And then they lecture me… and we get $20,000… You never see a report on drug dealing in the United States of America."
Roger Khan
The President said that in last year's report the US said the government gave Roger Khan, who is now in the US on drug charges, a forestry concession. "Absolutely untrue, I met with the US Ambassador, he said they got it from the newspaper, they promised to correct it this year. So guess what happened this year, they said the controversy… surrounding the granting of a timber licence, not that we made an error… and they said we promised to pass legislation to screen people who would go into the forestry sector…
"I didn't promise that. I don't know who promise that, but I am not passing no legislation… If you can find the persons who are doing the laundering or the trafficking (fine) but not to screen investors. They want us to screen investors here, something that they don't do. Anyone can walk into the US and invest… [but] we must screen our investors… anyone coming here… Of course due diligence, you have to take due diligence but I am not going to pass no laws that makes us lose competitive positions versus the developed world. Why should we do that here in the developing world?" he questioned.
Jagdeo waded into the part of the report that said that there is some "perception of corruption" in the country. "If you go to the (US) General Accountability Office, just type in GAO… and Google it and read some of the back reports you would see billions of dollars every year that they can't account for in the US government… Billions of dollars of corruption in procurement in Iraq. Here we have an audited report that goes to the National Assembly, it makes public debating…"
"But to talk about perception of corruption, I can say that the US is considered to be the most perceived country too because of these things…"
He pointed out that when Transparency International goes to the US it would assess that country on the index based on 41 indicators including statistics but when it came to countries like Guyana they are assessed only on three indicators.
"Let me tell you this… perception index not the corruption index; it always has been a corruption perception, and guess what our three were, one report was done by Clive Thomas. Clive Thomas is an opposition leader. Another report came out of a group that visited for two days, talked to some businessmen, flew out back and the third report was a report they took [from the World Bank] that is how we get on the index…"
He said in Guyana, depending on which private sector agency you talked to, you got a different view. "You have an old private sector that all they want from me is concession and if I don't give them concessions they cuss me… 'Jagdeo doesn't know what he is doing'. They harass us all the time but they are not going to get it; this country is committed to opening up. And I would help the new emerging private sector, not the fossils who grow up in the past and want to live off government patronage. I am not helping them," Jagdeo said to rousing applause.
Human rights record
However, the President said, Guyana has a good relationship with the US as the country gets help to fight HIV and AIDS, it has substantial markets in that country and a lot of Guyanese live there.
"So we are obligated to have a great relationship with that country and we have been receiving some assistance in other areas. But it's the lectures, it's the lectures and then we have a local media corps that will never ask the US ambassador… or someone else about the four or five hundred people that they have and have not charged for five six years in (Guantanamo) prison, who don't have a status…
They would hound us if we have a single incident here but they would never ever go and ask about that and they compare us and they would make this place [the US] the paragon of virtue because of human rights...
"They don't have any right to comment on us here because I feel we have an infinitely better human rights situation here.
We don't profile [people] because of how they look… we don't do that…,"
Jagdeo then said if one should look at the government structure in the US, there is just one black senator even though the African-American population is 13% and there is no African-American representation in the executive arm of the government.
"I am not anti-American, no one should ever see that, what I get concerned about is the lectures and some of our people imbibe these lectures and they feel bad about themselves and they think we are doing badly here. And our media, some of them, just swallow because they are too lazy. Some of them are too lazy to do any work, to read and they just swallow and reflect it… too, too lazy," the President said to clapping and laughing from the officers.
Buddy's
He then spoke about a number of rumours that were circulating during the Rio Group summit that included, Buddy's International Hotel cracking in half, sinking two inches, the Vice-President of Peru falling down and two persons drowning in the pool. He said he made it clear about the assistance to the owner of Buddy's.
"Our assistance is because the ICC said if you don't have 120 rooms in that hotel, you can't host the event. The media knows that… ask Ken Gordon and Chris Dehring if it is true. So we are obligated to them. If we didn't have that hotel we couldn't host the event."
He said that the assistance to Buddy's has been made a race issue, but behind Buddy's Desiree Arthur and Bobby Smith, hard-working decent people, are building a hotel and the government has bought rooms at the facility too for cricket. "They may not be able to complete it, but we wanted to assist and we would assist them to complete the hotel because it is to… improve the hotels in this country. After that we can host any event."
"They said I own 51% of Buddy's now. That's the rumour going around and I don't care. I want you ask you… if you are positive you can overcome anything in this world, so don't contribute to this… go beyond what is written. Don't just read Freddie Kissoon and a couple of others… and take it as gospel. That is not gospel that's rumour-mongering."
The President said the military and the country need to understand what is at stake in the world. He said the international media image about Africa is always negative because all they talk about is famine, drought, genocide and tribal war. "I have gone to Africa. Africa is a wonderful place, you see many, many positive things…"
He said he sees such negativity as a new form of enslavement, "…enslave us through our minds so that we form our opinions about ourselves from their sources of information."
He said this would make the undeveloped world look to the developed world for solutions to problems, as they would feel that all they can generate is problems.
"So I think fundamentally, and I have been arguing this at several of the forums that I have gone to, we need to have international media sources that are more balanced. I see China is doing a bit of that, getting their views out… and there are some TV stations that are popping up now that may give you another side…"
Prior to lambasting the US and the media, the President spoke about government's efforts to further develop the country and about the whole issue of poorer countries' debts to rich nations. He spoke about the country's tax, the improved education sector, eco-tourism and the blossoming oil exploration sector. He touched on the ills of the world in the sense that there are so many poor people in the developing world and instead of the developed countries trying to help, they are instead lamenting about leaders who are championing the rights of the poor. He said a fraction of the US$5 billion spent in Iraq by the US can do a lot for the poor in other countries.