Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 01, 2014 News
– admits to giving evidence based on “historical events”
Executive Member of the Working People’s Alliance, Dr. Nigel Westmaas, yesterday admitted that some of the evidence which he has come forward to give to the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry was merely “historical” events.
Dr. Westmaas, who credits himself as a “historian”, was another witness called yesterday as the Rodney Commission continued. Under cross examination by lawyer for the People’s National Congress, Basil Williams, Westmaas said that some of his evidence includes historical events which are “public records” and some from his personal record.
Westmaas, in his evidence in chief, said that party members for the WPA, he included, were subjected to searches. He explained that these “searches” were done under the then Security Act of the PNC government. The witness recalled once when his home was searched by the police who came looking for “arms and ammunition”.
Westmaas also denied that he had ever heard about any plot to arrest then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham. He said that something of this nature would have been inconceivable. Westmaas, who said that he joined the WPA in 1978, as an ordinary member, remembers being arrested three to four times. He said that he was however never charged for any offence.
According to him, the arrests were prompted after he was probably in the “wrong company”.
Westmaas said that the then PNC government had surveillance on members of the WPA. He based this assertion with a document known as the “Recognition Handbook” which purports to show information ranging from vehicle colour to license plate number of members of the WPA.
Westmaas also recalled yesterday that former President Janet Jagan had begged PPP members against joining the WPA. Westmaas will return to the witness box when the commission continues today.
Commissioners in the inquiry are quizzed with “examining the facts and circumstances immediately prior at the time of and subsequent to the death of Dr. Rodney in order to determine as far as possible, who or what was responsible for the explosion resulting in the death of Rodney”.
They would have to inquire into the cause of the explosion in which Dr. Walter Rodney died; whether it was an act of terrorism and if so, who were the perpetrators. Commissioners would also have to specifically examine the role, if any, which the late Gregory Smith, a sergeant of the Guyana Defence Force, played in the death of Rodney and if so, to inquire into who may have counseled, procured, aided and or abetted him to do so, including facilitating his departure from Guyana after Rodney’s death.
Since the commencement of the inquiry several former members of the WPA, among them Eusi Kwayana, Karen DeSouza, and Tacuma Ogunseye, have all come forward to give evidence.
In 1974 Rodney returned to Guyana from Tanzania. He was due to take up a position as a professor at the University of Guyana but it has been reported that this was prevented. He became increasingly active in politics, founding the Working People’s Alliance.
In 1979 he was arrested and charged with arson after two government offices were burned.
On June 13, 1980, Walter Rodney at the age of thirty-eight was killed by a bomb in his car, a month after returning from the independence celebrations in Zimbabwe.
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