Black Militancy/Crime

“There is ample evidence now that there is in existence a group of African Guyanese militants who are conducting an armed struggle…It is a development which has thoroughly alarmed all who still believe in democracy, an open society and the rule of law and can only do the most serious damage to ethnic relations, involving as it does repeated attacks on and murders of Indians, most recently involving teenagers who said they were paid for the job.”

    —Stabroek News (SN) editorial, November 5, 2002.

“The Company of black freedom fighters demand system of Government and distribution of the national wealth that ensure the protection of our human rights and provide equal opportunities for the development of Black business. We demand government expenditure not only in cricket and squash where Indians and Portuguese predominate but in activities in which African-Guyanese predominate such as athletics, football, boxing, basketball, music and art.”

—Signed 1,000 Black Men (on flyer circulated at funeral of escapee, Andrew Douglas, in August month end, 2002).

“You are either with them or against them and they are now making this out to be a race issue. I believe Indian people have to band together now. We have to seek security in our own way and I see myself being singled out because I'm an Indian leader and nothing else.”

    —Manzoor Nadir, Minister of Tourism and Leader of TUF, after his home is attacked on April 24, 2001

“The criminal conspiracy and the anti-Indian network in Buxton have merged. This is what Guyanese must understand…”  

—Frederick Kissoon, UG professor, SN, October 25, 2002

“At a news conference at State House in New Amsterdam at the end of a two-day Cabinet outreach in Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne), he [President Jagdeo], said he sees the criminal situation in the country as purely criminal, and not racial or political.”

—Chronicle article, June 2, 2002, reported the President saying crime not influenced by race or politics.

“What has this got to do with the stripping of innocent young girls in the streets who are neither PPP or PNC? What has this got to do with attacking parents in front of their little children?”

—Frederick Kissoon, UG professor, commenting on anti-PPP feelings and anti-Indian violence.

“…The President gave the distinct impression that everything is being tried or has been tried and that he has done his best. The President was on the defensive throughout.”

—Guyana Indian Heritage Association (GIHA), after a “disappointing” meeting with Pr. Jagdeo on crime affecting Indians.

“Indians were not responsible for the enslavement of Africans. Get that straight. Moreover I am the person who in 1964 after Buxtonian casualties took charge of the defence of Buxton Friendship. I can say that we feared an attack from our neighbours in Annandale, but they did not ever attack or attempt to attack. Get that in your pipe and smoke it.”

     —Eusi Kwayana, on the “terror camp” in Buxton, SN, Sept 7, 2002.

“…Cutting off of somebody’s hair in my opinion is worse than rape.”

—PPP/C Minister Bibi Shaddick, commenting on the Anita Singh incident on August 13, on national TV. Ms. Singh’s long hair was shaved by a bandit who used a knife and told her he despised “her kind of people (i.e., Indians).” [Editor’s Note: The comment was, of course, ridiculous.]

“In the past, each of us has made statements condemning African Guyanese atrocities against Indian Guyanese, and we condemn them even more strongly now, as the violence becomes more brutal. A similar though less brutal violence has begun to spread to African Guyanese victims. We warned before that in the end, crime and violence know no race.”

  —Andaiye, David Hinds, and Eusi Kwayana on September 1, 2002.

Invasion of Presidential Complex & Anti-Indian Attacks

  “…Break down the gate, go in and take over, the guards cannot shoot.”

—Mark Benchop, according to Senior Magistrate Chandra

Sohan (during treason trial), quoting testimonies of 3 witnesses.

Mr. Benshop was using a loud speaker (Chronicle, Dec 3, 2002).

PNC Vice Chairman Justifies Violence against Indians:

“We have had some unfortunate incidents but I don't know that social development is ever without price. Whilst I do not look forward to paying a high price the fact is in the long term these things add up to the general good of the society.”

“You must also bear in mind that you might go to the doctor and you might not want to take an injection because it is painful. Certainly when it is taken there is that moment of pain but then there is that period of happiness thereafter. What I find is that even though these instances may be painful and costly, the accumulation of all these interactions and conflicts may result in a state of affairs, which is far better than that which existed before.”

—Vincent Alexander, PNC Vice Chairman, justifying violence against Indians on July 3 when told by Stabroek News,  “Terrible things have reportedly been done to Indo-Guyanese.” (SN, August 14, 2002.)

“After July the third’s long day of agony, savagery, and senseless sadism, the PNC has to have a retreat. And two items can be found on the agenda. One is to decide whether to continue to remain as a mainstream party…the other on the agenda has to do with…its transformation into a nation insurrectional military outfit whose ideology is to overthrow the Guyana Government.”

          —Frederick Kissoon, Kaeiteur News, August, 2002

“Mr. Bernard descends to the level of the terrorist who holds a gun to your head and says “hand over or else”. In Guyana, the Indian community knows full well what the “or else” means. The statement not only exposes the PNC/R’s complicity in the ethnic violence but serves as a warning from the horse’s mouth that there is more of the same to come.”

—Ryaan Shaah, of Guyana Indian Heritage Association (GIHA),
accusing Deryck Bernard, PNC Executive, of condoning July 3^rd
racial violence in press, in SN,     July 2002. (See below)

“On that account I plead guilty without excuse, apology or extenuating circumstances.”  “I have no sympathy whatsoever to offer.”

          —Deryck Bernard, responding to Ryaan Shah (above), on
          condoning July 3^rd violence, SN, July 2002.

“…(He) has allowed himself to appear as an apologist of race hate and violence.”

  —Kit Nacimento, former PNC Information minister,
on Deryck Bernard’s comments on violence, July 2002.

“What I have seen on 3rd July was horrible, Indians on the streets were beaten up, girls were stripped naked, they had to perform sex in front of the full view of an African mob, men were mercilessly beaten up and stores looted. Yet there is no word from the so-called Indian ruling party.”

—Suresh Pillai, a documentary filmmaker and writer from New Delhi, India, in G/town, on July 12.

"The party has to be brave enough to accept some responsibility in terms of the loss of life and all the persons affected; they are consequences which flowed and therefore we cannot pretend we were in no way involved. The entire episode is regretted, particularly the loss of life and property."

—Raphael Trotman, PNC/R Executive member, in SN, July 2002.

“…Africans will have to accept that the PNC’s type of representation gets them nowhere. The PPP has proven itself weak and cowardly and cannot command the respect needed to deal with the PNC. The PPP, incredibly, even today insists that it represents African Guyanese.”

“All Guyanese, and not just Indians must now accept that the security forces as presently constituted cannot offer them the security they know they need. We have to agitate for a balanced force but immediately Indians must take whatever means necessary to defend their families and their properties.”

—Ravi Dev (ROAR), SN, July 7, 2002.

“The worst sin that leaders can commit is to manipulate innocents and the marginalised in our society to be cut down by bullets while they fiddle the same old tunes in the safe havens of their political lairs, while their puppeteers, across the entire spectrum of our political landscape, use their access to the media houses and their mobile loud speakers to manipulate others, but then beat a cowardly and hasty retreat when the going gets tough.”

—Major General (retd.) Joseph G. Singh, in appeal to politicians in July 2002.

“Was the violence on Wednesday orchestrated? - Because like January 12, 1998 and other days, all of a sudden the place returned to ‘normal’ until the next ‘protest’ which nurtures the bandits. There have been days when protests have happened and people have managed to feel safe and not under threat. Why was July 3, 2002, like January 12, 1998, different?”                                                                                     

—Vidyaratha Kissoon, of Help and Shelter, July 8.   

“…Our main purpose in writing this letter is to condemn out of hand the racial attacks against Indo-Guyanese and some others on Wednesday, similar to those during other 'protest' actions: the robberies, the beatings, the verbal abuse. Several of us, Afro and Indo Guyanese, went to the car parks on Wednesday afternoon after the violence broke out-some of us seeking transport ourselves, others to observe and to try to help women who were stranded-and this is what we saw: Afro-Guyanese women who were nervous and apprehensive, and Indo-Guyanese women who were terrified.”

          —Karen De Souza, Red Thread, SN and Chronicle, July 9, 2002.

By or about the PNC/R

by H.D. Hoyte:

“You control the press. You control the newsprint; you can therefore, to suit your own purposes and agenda, abridge other people's statements and alter precise meaning by claiming to paraphrase them. And you can move the goal posts at will in replying to objections taken to inaccuracies in your reporting. So be it…My stand on Buxton is clear. I do not resile one inch from anything I said or any position I took in my speech at Buxton on 10th October, 2002”

—To Stabroek News, after the paper commented on his speech in Buxton on October 20, 2002, in which the leader claimed that Buxton was not a crime camp and its “cause” was just.

“…The police have no authority over the site (the 1763 Monument Square in Georgetown) and their actions of barricading the square and placing guards armed to the teeth around the site is provocative and a matter of grave concern.”

 —At PNC/R press conference at Sq of the Revolution on July 20, 2002.

“This pressure must continue until this government fall.”           

—On removing the PPP/C Government from office, early 2002.

“If the slogan ‘slow fire’ upsets you, so be it: it remains. You can attribute whatever interpretation you like to it. Opinion is free. It is clear that you over-estimate your own importance…In this connection I would not use the elegant language of retired Chancellor Kennard in telling you where to go, but the sentiment is the same.”

—To Stabroek News, after it’s editorial on the inflammatory
“slow fire” slogan enacted by Hoyte. SN, June 21, 2002.

“I recently had the misfortune to see the Attorney-General of Guyana, Mr. Doodnauth Singh, S.C., on a government-sponsored programme on the state-owned television station, GTV 11.”

—See SN, August 24, 2002.

“…Today it is fashionable for some idiots to say that Buxton is a criminal village. Buxtonians are criminals, Buxtonians are violent people...The People's National Congress and I reject this gross defamation of the character of the people of Buxton/Friendship…You ask for bread and President Jagdeo offers you lead!”

—During his speech in Buxton in October 2002, reported in SN.

“An adjusted system of governance for our country—whether we call it ‘power-sharing,’ ‘shared governance,' ‘inclusive governance’ or any other name—appears to be an idea whose time has come. It could hardly be claimed that our present arrangements are working in the best interests of the country and its citizens.”              

     —During his address to the PNC Congress on August 16, 2002.

“The Government's response to BK International...appears to be quite unconvincing; we are probably witnessing a farce.”

—Commenting on the dam breach at Cane Grove, ECD that occurred in November 2001.
Comment made in May 2002, after report on breach issued.

“Every time PNC/R stages a protest some media automatically qualify it with the adjective ‘violent.’ I personally have led some of the largest demonstrations ever seen in this country in which there was not a single untoward incident.”

“PNC/R therefore rejects, as being utterly false, your allegation that ‘it has used or tolerated... criminal elements in its protests.’ Your call on us ‘to completely eschew the use of political violence’ carries the implication that violence is an element of the Party's philosophy. We reject this also.”

—Responding to a Stabroek News editorial on PNC protests and criminals, May 18, 2002.

“Sammy we gon bun you down!”

—PNC demonstrators marching on June 13, 2002, led by D. Hoyte,
as they passed the residence of Prime Minister Samuel Hinds.

“It is true that Jesus is reported to have said to those who are abused and ill-treated that they should turn the other cheek. In this real world of ours, a person has only two cheeks or, depending on one's view of the human anatomy, a maximum of four!”

—See SN, May 18, 2002.

“The view that once you hold crooked elections and get your friends to endorse them you have democracy is not new to Guyana. Neither has the end product been any different.”

 —Deryck Bernard, PNC MP, accusing the PPP of rigging the 2001 general elections, SN, May 17, 2001.

 “I am Robert Corbin you talk about on television, we will get you at the appropriate time and make you an example.”

—Allegedly said by Robert Corbin, PNC Chairman, to Kwame McCoy, talk show host known for anti-PNC criticism, who claimed that Corbin threatened him in the Georgetown Public Hospital. Corbin has denied the allegation.

"This is a national scandal which cannot go unnoticed."

       —Robert Corbin, on the February 23 jailbreak of five escapees. 

“Civil society in Guyana is a grave disappointment. They become interested in dialogue when it threatens their businesses or security and abandon their interest as soon as things look peaceful.”

    —Deryck Bernard, PNC MP, see SN, June 5, 2002. [Editor’s Note: In June, when the editor of this     site, Mr. R. Rampertab pointed out to Mr. Bernard that this statement in these times could be taken     wrongly to mean, “if we want progress, we have to destabilize civil society,” and that “civil society”     was not being attacked so much as Indian society, the MP responded by accusing Mr. Rampertab of     being a racist.

"I was the biggest critic of the PNC during the Burnham era...”

—Stanley Ming, PNC/Reform executive, in a press conference, May 9, 2002.

“We stand firm that it is our business to expose...oppose...and depose...them (the Government). We will continue to do that and we see nothing wrong with that. We are not saying that we will do so by force of arms.”

—Raphael Trotman, PNC/R Central Executive member, on overthrowing the PPP/C government, June 2002.

By or about the PPP/C

by President Jagdeo:

“We cannot be held to ransom by any politician. You cannot put a price tag on peace. A lot of people have also rejected this proposal.”

—Responding to D. Hoyte’s request for $250M for Buxton in his October 20 speech.

“Whether the Police are here or not, I am here…I know how people feel when they are robbed and raped; I know the anger.”

—To the people at Albion, after they rioted and stormed a police
station in 2001, due to lax police response to the crime wave.

“Seventy-five per cent of the people on government payroll are Afro-Guyanese. You do not see them being dismissed every day, or about 10,000 people being laid off at the same time.”

—Refuting claims of anti-Black racism in public service. (SN, May 17, 2002.)

“If Stanley Ming was to go and look at the budgets, he would see that in the 90s the Army was getting $400,000, and that was when the exchange rate was already $126 to US$1. It moved in 1991 to about $1 million for capital equipment.”

—Responding to PNC/R Ming’s criticism of PPP vindictive policies and the army and police and capital received. He went on to state that during the PNC regime, at the same time, one person working at the Foreign Affairs Ministry was making $12 million, or 12 times more than the army's capital budget per year.  (SN, May 12, 2002).

There is a need for a “lawful intifada against the criminals and those who want to destroy and divide our country…”
    —Robert Persaud, Information Liaison to Pr. Jagdeo, to PYO members, August 27, 2002.

“The elitist practice of a selection of the presidential candidate by a few leaders, rather than the larger party membership, of such an important position is an outmoded, undemocratic mechanism. Long gone are the days when the rank and file membership must simply be informed of the decision; rather, they should be consulted and be part of the process in deciding this issue.”

—Anonymous PPP official on July 14, 2002 (SN), on the need for democratic reform in the PPP. The proposal was totally rejected by PPP hard-liners.

“The sad reality is that at this same time that such an apology is being demanded, the PNC/R leadership is busy explaining to the Guyanese public and international public opinion that Mr. Hoyte's call for the Government to be removed from office was not seditious.”

 —Roger Luncheon on PNC/R’s demand for apology after it was called a terrorist  organ; and noting the PNC's public statement of its intension of removing the PPP from office; Chronicle, June 7, 2002.

The PPP 27^th Congress in Berbice was “highly successful.”

—Donald Ramotar, PPP General Secretary, even after the Rose Hall Town siege by a dozen gunmen and subsequent deaths of 2 policemen (one executed) and a PPP representative, in July 2002.

By or about ROAR:

“Way back in January 1999 when we launched ROAR (at a rally against crime, after thirty one Indians had been robbed and murdered by bandits, especially of the ‘kick-down-the-door’ type) we pointed out that one magistrate had categorized the violence as ‘guerilla warfare against Indians.’ And if by 1985 Mr. Eusi Kwayana could remark that the violence against Indians had the ‘flavour of genocide,’ didn't it demand a new approach?”

  —Ravi Dev (ROAR), commenting on the PPP late use of the word “terrorism” with crime.
    Sn, May 13, 2002.

By or about WPA:

“Finally, Jagan and his party were in opposition for nearly two decades, and none of its leading members had any experience of managing public affairs at the highest level. The administration was soon overtaken with widespread allegations of waste, fraud, corruption, nepotism and racial favoritism.”

—Prof. Clive Thomas, in an interview given in Sept 2002, with Dianne Feeley and David Finkel in
the US.

“Indians cannot seek to absolve themselves of all social and political degeneracy in Guyana because they are currently under unjust attack and are heroically refusing to hit back in like kind. Criminal violence for all its extremeness is just one type of racial violence. There are other types of racial violence of which Indians are also guilty. The behaviour of the Indian political and economic elite in and around the PPP cannot be ignored.”

—David Hinds, in a letter, SN, October 2002.

“Mr. Kissoon is an Indian Guyanese and like every Guyanese he is a victim of the historical process, which has shaped our world view. Being Indian Guyanese, his thinking in many ways is rooted in the collective consciousness of that community.”

     —Tacuma Ogunseye, on Frederick Kissoon, during their vicious letter-argument in
     Stabroek News letter column in November 16, 2002.

Quotes by Others

Forbes Burnham:

        “He who calls off the dog owns the dog.”

—Refusing to heed the Governor and Jagan’s requests to quell riots
during 1962 disturbances in British Guiana.

“There is always sorrow in death and its uncertainties, and it is traditional and correct to hope that one will be kind to the dead. Forbes deserves no less. His methods and systems, however, deserve no sympathy or support…”

—Trinidadian Guardian, in its editorial on August 11, 1985, after the death of Burnham.

Dr. Walter Rodney:

“Guyana…In terms befitting filth, pollution and excrement…This is why the WPA repeats the legend of King Midas who was said to have been able to touch anything and turn it into gold. That was called the ‘Midas Touch.’ Now Guyana has seen the ‘Burnham Touch’—anything he touches turns to shit.”

—Walter Rodney, in his pamphlet, “People’s Power, No Dictator.”

Dr. Cheddi Jagan:

“Fifteen hundred people have been uprooted from a place which they had made their home; their life savings have been lost; they had to run for their lives, hide in bushes and in canals. They see a bleak future in terms of economic security - they will not easily forget the nightmare, which they have gone through…We cannot go on like this from one disaster to another.”

—Dr. Jagan, on May 30, 1964, after Wismar Massacre of Indians.

Eusi Kwayana:

The House of Israel is a “pseudoreligious cult that has little to do with religions. It’s merely a pseudomilitary arm of the ruling party.”

—Speaking to The New York Times, October 21, 1979.

“After being dispersed, Moses Bhagwan who hid among some livestock in a nearby yard was found, dragged out, beaten, and left with a broken arm, while Rodney who ran and was able to escape uninjured, became the subject of a Burnham joke. Burnham said that he would send Rodney to the Olympics because of Rodney’s athletic prowess.”

—On rally broken up by PNC thugs and policeat Campbell Ave, G/town, on August 22, 1979, at which Walter Rodney had to run for his life. (See Walter Rodney. Kwayana E., Georgetown: Working People’s Alliance, 1988, 15.)

Martin Carter:

“The PNC’s method of ensuring self-perpetuation consists of indulging in a deliberate policy of degrading people.” Under Burnham’s PNC, corruption had become “a way of life, in which people were made to accept that stealing, cheating, lying, bearing false witness…was a positive sign of loyalty to the regime…”

—Writing in the WPA newspaper, Dayclean, 1979.

V.S. Naipaul:

“The Trinidad Carnival is famous. For the two days before Ash Wednesday the million or so islanders—blacks, whites, the later immigrant groups of Portuguese, Indians, and Chinese—parade the hot streets in costumed ‘bands’ and dance to steel orchestras. This year there was a twist. After the Carnival there were Black Power disturbances. ”

—V.S. Naipaul, from “Power to the Caribbean People,” Sept 3, 1970. [Editor’s Note: VSN tries to make a connection between B/power and carnival—ironically, the 5 “escapees” in Guyana who espoused Black Power, escaped jail on Mash day.]

“This is the level of political judgement in British Guiana…‘The people’ have learned their power—not the politician’s abstraction, but the people who wish to beg, bribe and bully because this is the way they got things in the past—in this way the people are a threat to the responsible government and a threat, finally, to their own leaders. It is part of the colonial legacy.”                                            

—VS Naipaul, after a journey with minister Janet Jagan to Wakenaam, to open a new overhead water-tank in January 1961.A PPP supporter complained about new water rate prices and threatened to withdraw his party support. (The Middle Passage, p. 121.)

Frederick (Freddie) Kissoon:

    
“Burnham was one of the small-minded leaders history produced. I remember when I graduated with the President’s Medal from UG, he sent to call me and I was rude to his courier. Burnham swore that I would never get a job in Guyana even though he didn’t know me and I was no threat to him.”

“The Ghost of Forbes Burnham lives on in Freedom House.”

 —On the authoritarian policies and attitudes of the current PPP regime.

“There are so many Indian and African racists in this society who are in love with themselves that if the daily newspapers go out of existence, they would probably die from lack of exposure.”

—See SN, November 18, 2002.

“The PPP government does things that are so undemocratic, so unfair, so morally questionable, so bullying that you wonder if they aren't self-destructive and are inviting assault on the state.”  

—See Kaieteur News, July 14, 2002.

“Desmond Hoyte was never a politician.”

Quotes On Murder of Father Darke

“…The House of Israel is a ‘religious group that lives in a cloistered, communal atmosphere. The members have declared their support for the government and they haven’t committed any crimes. There is no reason why we should be concerned.’”

—   Kit Nacimento, PNC Minister of Information during Burnham regime, on the murder of Father Darke (priest) (Toronto Star, July 22, 1979). [Editor’s note: House of Israel’s leader himself, Rabbi Washington, was jailed by the PNC’s own Desmond Hoyte after Burnham died.]

“Hamilton Green’s statement, published in the Chronicle of August 4, to the effect that a certain unnamed Roman priest was responsible for the death of Father Darke, is the latest flagrant example of this deliberate policy of degradation. It is so because it expresses contempt for the intelligence and humanity of the people.”

—Martin Carter, writing in WPA paper, Special Dayclean, August 1979.

Oddities

“Several dogs in Section ‘K' Campbellville have gone missing since Monday's shoot-out in Lamaha Gardens and some residents think the animals were so affected by the loud gunfire that they have gone into hiding.”

—News report in SN, after the “Brama” episode on October 28, 2002.

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