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Feb 20, 2015 News
– conducts city walkthrough
By Sunita Samaroo
Three city wards became hives of activity yesterday morning as residents in
those areas milled around the pavements and even peeked through their curtains as a walkthrough was being done to retrace the final moments of the life of renowned political scholar, Dr. Walter Rodney.
An entourage of high-ranking officials, lawyers, senior police officers and ranks, reporters and photographers moved through Russell, Howes, Adelaide, Princes, John, D’Urban, Bent, Hadfield and Croal Streets, and the focus was on one man.
The centre of attention was the lone witness and brother of the slain Working People’s Alliance (WPA) leader, Donald Rodney. For about two hours in sweltering sun, the younger Rodney sibling took the Commission of Inquiry through the final moments of the politician’s life.
As they began, the eyewitness told those who first gathered at Howes and Russell Streets, Charlestown, that it was about 07:40 hours on Friday the thirteenth of June, 1980, that he and his brother set out to uplift a communication device.
He said after crossing over Russell Street, Georgetown, they pulled up at a grassy parapet on Howes Street, Georgetown; a spot he identified for those present.
Donald Rodney, who navigated the vehicle on the night of June 13, 1980, told Commissioners that he slipped out the driver’s side and made his way to the home of Gregory Smith, a Sergeant of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF).
His older brother, Walter, sat waiting in the vehicle.
Though he said the shortcut he used to get there was now blocked by new construction, Donald Rodney showed where he met Smith and collected a bag that supposedly containing “a familiar-feeling device”.
Smith, he claimed, gave strict instructions for them to go about the mission on foot, and according to Donald Rodney, he was told that he and his brother should walk with the device to Princes Street, then to a location opposite the Georgetown Prisons, located on Camp Street.
Smith indicated to the younger Rodney (Walter) that they needed to synchronize their watches and that the first signal could be expected at 20:00 hours.
Donald Rodney recounted that it was after receiving the specific instructions that he got back into the car and continued along Howes Street towards Adelaide Street, Charlestown, and proceeded until they went over Princes Street and parked on John Street, just near Princes Street.
The COI-related entourage re-entered their vehicles and drove along the said path, coming to a stop in front of The First Century Gospel
Mission Assembly building.
Again, residents around that Werk-en-Rust area came out as Donald Rodney stood in front of the church, explaining that it was there that he and Walter pulled over, turned off the engine
and waited on the appointed time.
At 20:00 hours, Donald said that there was a flash from the package and Walter remarked that it is “okay”.
The surviving Rodney recalled that it was at this point in time that he indicated to his brother the need to turn the knob on the box to the secondary location for the second test.
Afterwards they drove off again north along John Street, Donald remembered. Like the Rodneys did that day, the group got in their vehicles and went up to D’Urban Street, across D’Urban Street, continuing past the Georgetown Prisons.
They continued past Bent Street heading toward Hadfield Street, to the midway point where Donald remembered stopping the car. Where now stands the White Castle Fish Shop, there was a bakery. It was there, Donald Rodney recounted, that the political scholar met his demise.
Rodney recalled that they sat in a car parked on a grassy parapet, which is now covered in concrete and tiles belonging to the business entity, waiting for the second signal which never came.
The younger brother recalled that as he was looking through the window, he saw the dashboard lights come on and what he soon heard was a loud thud.
Rodney once again explained that his body was then forced against the vehicle door which burst open and he fell out. Regaining his balance, he realised that there had been an explosion.
Immediately he knew his brother needed help.
Covered in blood and without sparing a second glance, Donald Rodney recapped that he ran to the home of Dr. Omawale on Croal Street, approximately 300 yards – 878 feet to be exact. As he explained, the crowd marched along to the Croal Street, Stabroek location.
Where the Doctor’s house was now stands is the Caribbean Chemicals Limited building. It is there that Donald Rodney recalls running to the door, which either Andaiye or Karen De Souza, a longstanding WPA member, opened.
He recalled telling them that something terrible had happened, asking them to help his brother. He too was injured and it was Andaiye that later told him that his brother had died. He said it was later that he found out that the lower half of his brother’s body was completely blown off.
Donald Rodney had previously testified that he suffered lacerations to the throat, right thumb, puncture wounds with fragments embedded in his left arm, side, face and eye, along with a puncture wound to his right elbow.
Rodney testified too that as a result of the explosion, he also suffers long-term effects in the form of impaired vision and hearing, as well as nerve damage to his right hand.
It was after officials of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission completed taking measurements of the various locations and Donald Rodney, his lawyer and Commissioners Sir Richard Cheltenham, Queens Counsel Seenauth Jairam and Jacqueline Samuels-Brown poured over an outline mapping the route, that the entourage returned to the High Court Law Library where Rodney’s evidence in chief resumed.
It was there that focus shifted to him being charged with being in possession of an explosive device, and subsequently convicted and sentenced to serve 18 months imprisonment.
He testified that during his trial, when he gave his unsworn statement, Magistrate N. W. Jackman was not writing. The route highlighted in the Magistrate’s record of his trial contradicted the statement he claimed to give to the police and also his evidence before the commission.
The Magistrate’s record directs that after the explosion he would have been heading south on John Street, which is towards the jail instead of towards the home of the WPA member.
But his testimony of seeking refuge on Croal Street, was previously conferred when De Souza appeared before the Commission.
Donald Rodney said it was two days after that the said Magistrate convicted him, she was appointed a Commissioner of Title, a position equal by law to that of a High Court judge.
Cross examination of Rodney commenced briefly yesterday and is set to continue today.
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