Basil Williams,
PNC Vice Chairman

Commissioner of Police
Winston Felix

What does he know? Why wasn't the Chief of Staff, Brig General Edward Collins sent home? It was under his watch that 33 AK-47 and 5 handguns have gone missing. Why is the President being soft?

See Notable Letters on the Felix-Williams Recording

by Attorney, Anil Nandall
by Attorney, Vic Puran
by Eusi Kwayana

 

GUYANA UNDER SIEGE
 
Converation of Commissioner Felix and PNC's Williams
 
  
by Rakesh Rampertab
 

Please see the posting of the transcript (courtesy, Kaieteur News) of the controversial conversation between Police Commissioner Winston Felix and Vice Chairman of the PNC, Basil Williams, recorded anonymously. We post it here because we are convinced that it points to possible sinister plans being prepared by the PNC to (possibly) disrupt the upcoming elections amongst other things. It also shows a commisioner who has compromised his Oath of Office and, to say the least, leaves the public or a significant section of it with doubts about his role as "top cop."

 TRANSCRIPT OF THE FELIX-WILLIAMS CONVERSATION

 

 

 

 

 

            

 


Questions to ask pertaining to the transcript: 

Who is referred to as "number one"? Is it PNC Leader, Robert Corbin?

Why is the Commissioner divulging information (e.g., that the Home Affairs Minister called him) so readily to Williams?

Why does the Commissioner mean by "they" when he said "they" killed Shaka Blair and now the kill Ronald Waddell? Is he directly pointing to the police Target Special Squad (TSS or Black Clothes) or the PPP Government? Or both? After all, Blair was killed by the police under a PPP regime, despite the police claiming otherwise. Felix, as some know, does not like the TSS. Given that no one has claimed the killing of Waddell (and even Williams noted this in the conversation), how could the Commissioner make this claim? Should he be seen as hiding info from the public, or obstructing a case from being solved by not making his views public?

What "threat" was Basil Williams taking about when he said "of threats and stuff like duh?" Street violence? Gunplay?
Criminal attacks? And when? During elections to prevent people from going to vote? Or are thee really relating to a
security detail regarding World Cup Cricket?

Who is his "group"? The PNC? A cell? One of Many? What "matter" was Williams asking about?

How many "matters" are there, since the Commissioner asked "which one" Williams queried about?

What does the Commissioner means by him and "number one" having to "refine our position about it"? What is the position?
Is it a plan to be executed by the PNC while Felix/ the police play absent from or blind to?

Why did the Commissioner lie to the public about who committed the Agricola massacre?

Other questions...

Why did Commissioner prohibit a certain kind of machine gun from further use, after it had successfully killed a number of gunmen a few years ago, thereby reducing the police’s ability to confront criminals?
Why does he ignores certain crime hotspots such as behind Grove (Kaneville), where a camp was established by criminals—and which was made clear to the Commissioner?
Why has the Commissioner placed a clamp on the issuance of firearms, which ordinary people who own businesses etc, still deserve to have?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Commissioner Felix—A Great Career Suddenly Over?

"I have just taken the Oath of Office to perform my duties according to the Constitution of this country. Hold me accountable for that Oath." —Winston Felix, new Police Commissioner

One finds it very suspicious that the army-police “raids” on properties of Roger Khan etc., were done NOT to recover missing weapons, but for something else. Or as Roger Khan alluded, the “forces” had “ulterior motives.” The army had 3 long weeks to raid these locations, particularly soon after they made the discovery at the bond. So why these raids were executed the day before the controversial tape/CD surfaced? It seems as if they were searching for the tape/CD and used the “weapons” as a pretext or excuse.

It is also very questionable that the joint forces talked about weapons, while the PNC argued that the raids were a challenge to “organized crime.” Who is correct? Something is missing here. Maybe the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Winston Felix, and the army’s Chief of Staff, Brigadier Edward Collins, assume that Guyanese are idiots. Perhaps some think the force of the gun can replace the force of truth, and perhaps some think people outside the army are accountable for guns kept by people inside the army.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 




 

There are so many smaller questionable issues—this entire episode is strewn with brazen unscrupulousness from the army. It is now prosecuting one of its own after 20-odd years of service—and for what? For a kit or a helmet that the army itself has refused to take back. (One wonders who else retired from the army and has stuff home.) Let us accept that doors were broken down as if by “kick-down-the-door” bandits because keys were not available; let us even forget momentarily that either no warrants (or bogus warrants) were produced; let us even ignore that quite possibly cocaine was planted to frame people; still, there is the alleged strange case of “expensive liquor” being expropriated. Is the public to believe that these AK-47s could be inside rum bottles or casks?

Now, I read a transcript of the alleged conversation between the Commissioner and PNC MP, Mr. Basil Williams, two very important public figures. In Guyana, people say anything anyhow. Nevertheless, it is just impossible for the public toignore or take lightly some of what was said. The mentions of impending “threats and stuff like duh” to be staged possibly during World Cup cricket; talks about taking guns into the stadium (Why would anyone take guns to a cricket match? To ensure the umpire is fair?); of the Commissioner and someone called “number one” having to “refine” some plan that seemed unmentionable; all these things point to, at the least, grave compromise of integrity by the Commissioner.

If the words themselves do not trouble, the nuances of a public servant of imminent stature uttering them will reverberate across every quarter, wherever Guyanese are listening and watching. That rhetoric of a possible subversion of a national election through a climate of fear engineered to force a constitutional crisis was entertained by a police Commissioner is what violates the public’s trust.

When the Commissioner was appointed, many sincerely believed that Guyana had a strong, no-nonsense public servant in him. He was selected on good faith and good service. PNC supporters told him to “don’t drink milk,” meaning become a PPP agent. The Commissioner himself said; “Hold me accountable…” Now, it is clear that not only has he become prejudiced, but places the public interest below his private affairs. Let me explain: it is unacceptable for a Commissioner whose public practice regarding high-profile crimes is to be tight-lipped, but who has much to say aboutcrimes and sensitive issues, with selected people of selected political parties.

Of course, what is worse is to have a police chief that willfully deceives—as when he misled the public in the Agricola massacre, alluding to Ashmins (“I deliberately turn the thing away”) as being behind the attack. Without needing this tape, the public knew the Commissioner had blundered seriously. Even the PNC which applauded the Commissioner in 2003, saying how “his elevation to this office comes at a time when the competence and confidence of the Guyana Police Force is seriously questioned,” must agree that this “competence” has been jeopardized. Further, the “full support of [the] Government…and confidence” expressed in Mr. Felix by President Jagdeo in February 2003 has been shattered. This became obvious this week when the Commissioner pondered as to whether this Government had eavesdropped on him. Come what may, there are a few hard decisions at hand, the kind made only by a President. The President must act soon.

 


March 21, 2005
 
 
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