Gya: Impartial investigation or bust

THE Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) has joined the list of groups that have rejected the Presidential Commission of Inquiry set up to investigate the alleged involvement of the Minister of Home Affairs in unlawful killings.

President Bharrat Jagdeo Friday announced the setting up of the Presidential Commission to probe allegations that Minister Ronald Gajraj was linked to or directed a ‘death squad’ that killed and/or tortured several people during the crime wave that rocked Guyana in 2002-03.

The Commission consists of Justice of Appeal Ian Chang, its chairman; retired GDF Chief of Staff and Deputy Commissioner of Police Norman McLean and decorated army veteran, retired Deputy Police Commissioner and current Chairman of the Police Service Commission Ivan Crandon.

The PNCR, the TUC and other organizations had been calling on the government to mount an independent investigation into the allegations, originally made in January by George Bacchus, a self-confessed informant, after his brother Shafeek died in a drive-by shooting.
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One day after the President announced the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry, the PNCR issued a statement rejecting the President’s move and saying it would not accept the results of the three-member body.

The TUC echoed the PNCR’s sentiments in a statement yesterday, calling the establishment of the Commission by the President in accordance with the provisions of the Commission of Inquiry Act, Chapter 19:03 a ‘slap in the face’ of Guyanese.

“The Guyana Trades Union Congress firmly believes that this unilaterally imposed inquiry is a contemptuous ‘slap in the face’ of the Guyanese people and the international community and strikes at the very core of good and accountable governance.”

“We posit the view that this imposition cannot and will not be regarded as an answer to the impasse over the death squad allegations,” the TUC statement said.