Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 04, 2008 News
The Alliance For Change (AFC) has called on the Government to conduct polygraph testing on those Joint Services members who were in Lindo Creek at around the time that the eight miners were killed.
At a press conference held yesterday, Chairman of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan, said that since there seems to be a lot of speculation as to who killed the miners, then the Joint Services who were in the area when the incident occurred should undergo a polygraph test.
“It is necessary as part of this investigation to do a polygraph test of those policemen who are saying that they were at Lindo Creek and they didn’t do it,” Ramjattan said.
The AFC Chairman noted that it is an important aspect of the polygraph test that the President is using in relation to Customs officers, and the same should be done for members of the Joint Services.
Ramjattan said that, as is the case of the Customs officers, the Government should source an expert to do the test and ask the relevant questions relating to the massacre.
Meanwhile, to date, the administration has not received an official response from the United States Government on the request for forensic experts to render assistance in the investigation of the murders of the eight men.
According to the AFC, no official response may be forthcoming from the United States Government due to the fact that the US may have lost confidence in Guyana’s security sector.
AFC Leader Raphael Trotman said that in some instances there is no cooperation by some members of the Force as it relates to cases being investigated by the US.
“I know for certain that efforts made to cooperate with drug busts and extraditions have not gone down well, and the belief is that some officials within the security sector cannot be trusted and are not cooperative. There is no reciprocity, and in some cases information was leaked,” Trotman said.
He also noted that “there are indeed serious issues of confidence, and there is no effort being made to rebuild that confidence.
The AFC has expressed concern that, as a point of interest, it has to be noted that for a Government to refuse or to display little eagerness whilst processing the request raises serious questions about the level of the friendship indeed, and suggests that it is not as amiable as is being made out.
The party also supports the UK forensic team that was secured by the lawyers of the relatives of the victims of the Lindo Creek massacre.
“This is a premier forensic team based in the United Kingdom and utilized by the security forces there. Its credibility cannot be disputed. We support this effort, and call for the Government to prove its sincerity and bona fides by financing the arrival and work of this British Team”, the AFC Leader said.
The party believes that the longer the administration takes to conclude the investigation on the matter, the more members of the public will continue to speculate on the matter.
“Secrecy is the ground for speculation. The longer you take to break that silence, the longer you take to break that secret, you will have the entire country coming to the conclusion that the Police Force and the Joint Services that were there, indeed were involved,” Ramjattan said.
The party said that the Government must make it their priority to get as many experts as possible on the case, so that some amount of closure can be given to the families of those killed.
The Alliance For Change is also questioning the preservation of the evidence and clues at the scene of the crime.
It was noted that, with the delay of the foreign forensic experts, there may be evidence that will be deliberately contaminated in the area.
However, the party is still confident that even if the evidence has degraded, the experts may still be able to pronounce on whether or not any clues were contaminated.
The AFC has also expressed its concern that, although it has been two weeks since the incident occurred, there is still no official and independent investigation taking place to find answers to the many questions surrounding exactly what transpired.
“There is obviously a total breakdown of the security and justice system of Guyana, to the point that there are no clues and always more questions than answers. Information received by the AFC is that for the first quarter of the year alone, and in Division A, we have had over 400 armed robberies, of which only one-tenth have been solved. There is little wonder why the public’s confidence is so low,” the AFC said.
The AFC Leader noted that the Government is dragging its feet on the request made by the party to have an inquiry into the massacre.
When this request was made by the Alliance For Change, President Jagdeo had not fully committed to having an investigation into the incident, as he had noted that if an inquiry is to be done for the Lindo Creek massacre, then similar cases will have to be made out for the Lusignan and Bartica killings.
In this regard, the AFC said, the party does not object to an inquiry being carried out on those two killings, but stressed that the Police have already made pronouncements on the killings and have identified the perpetrators; whereas, in the Lindo Creek massacre, it is still not clear as to exactly who carried out the gruesome act.
If an inquiry is to now be launched into the Lusignan and Bartica massacres, then, according to Trotman, it would undermine the credibility of the Guyana Police Force, which has already concluded who carried out the killings.
However, Ramjattan said that putting the killings together in one investigation would not be appropriate. He noted that the facts and circumstances relating to the case are different.
“It is a red herring being thrown in to avoid a commission of inquiry, specifically on the Lindo Creek massacre. This red herring also is going to create more speculation as to why they don’t want to deal specifically with something that has serious allegation of the Joint Services participation,” Ramjattan said.
The Alliance For Change says that the relatives of the eight victims deser
ve closure and the right to hold funerals, and the nation likewise is entitled to know the truth.
“We cannot wait any longer, and in fact will be forced to conclude that if nothing is done there is a deliberate act to cover up this dastardly act so that the perpetrators are never known”, Trotman said.
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