Stick a pin. During the 2001 elections a vehicle was traveling at the junction of Princess Street and Mandela Avenue when someone from that vehicle discharged a firearm and a bystander was hit. The bystander was hazel.

A son of Mr. Oscar Clarke of the PNC was allegedly identified as one of the occupants of that vehicle.

The leadership and members/supporters of the PNC will not consider this analogy to be appropriate or reasonable. But it is nevertheless very true that although the young Clarke was rumored to have been in the vehicle, no member or supporter or admirer or sympathizer of the PNC labeled him a criminal or a member of a death squad.

Why not? Is there one standard of proof for Gajraj and another for non-PPP/C personnel?

Sure, this is a serious matter. But it is also a case of double standards when people opt to point a finger at others and not at themselves, when they really ought to look at themselves first.
Vermon Mentore

Look who's talking about what is illegal!
Well, well, well. So we saw it from Mr. Jerome Khan, MP and member of the PNC/R, on page 18 of the Stabroek News of Friday, February 7, 2004. Mr. Khan was telling the world that letters in support of the activities of death squads were illegal and should not be encouraged. "Our laws are unambiguous on this matter," he said, adding that, "public statements or actions that openly condone or encourage criminals and criminal acts are unlawful and punishable."

Look who's talking about what is illegal!

Jerome Khan ought to be sanctioned by his party. Why do I say this? We have never heard Mr. Khan or any member of the PNC criticize Mr. Desmond Hoyte when he spoke of "fire and more fire," when he declared that the criminals who used Buxton as their haven were not criminals and urged them to continue the struggle - at a time when Indo-Guyanese going through Buxton were being vandalized and robbed and murdered, when programme hosts on Blackman/Hoyte Channel 9 openly preach racism, when letters and pamphlets are distributed freely urging violence and mayhem.

Do you not recall when the PNC wanted to manners Raphael Trotman because he called on his party to share some responsibility for the July 3rd fiasco at the Office of the President - a fiasco that Mark Benschop has been accused of being involved in and is now awaiting trial for treason?

What were Khan and Robert Corbin doing outside of the Office of the President when the police had to bodily put them in police vehicles and cart them away knowing their action to be illegal? They most certainly had not gotten permission from the police to so assemble.
Brian Jordon

The President should do the right thing
I FIND it very strange that the mighty United States of America and Canada has reacted to the allegations made against Minister Ronald Gajraj by revoking visas issued to the Minister and his wife, but that the Jagdeo administration does not see it necessary to react to the allegations.

The failure of the Government to launch an investigation into the allegations made against a Government official - an allegation that would dispel any doubt in the minds of their supporters and non-supporters alike - is very upsetting indeed.

President Jagdeo is much liked and respected among all Guyanese, but his silence on this matter is creating a lot of suspicion. I wish to urge the President to do the right thing so that Guyana can be a peaceful country. Peace is what we all desire.
Jon Alli

A repeat of the past?
I AM watching breaking news on CNN. George Tenet, the CIA Director, defends intelligence reports on Iraq...George Bush changes his stand on Iraq WMD claims...Bush and Blair to order inquiry into flawed intelligence on Iraq.

It all sounds like a conspiracy to invade Iraq for what America needs most - oil. I changed the television channel and Mr. Jerome Khan was speaking at a PNC press conference. He was informing the public on the revoking of Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Gajraj's US visas. He was praising the United States and claiming that they might be privy to intelligence that the Guyanese public is not aware of.

Also, this (US) democracy has the best intelligence and would not revoke a visa without concrete evidence. In other words, whatever the United States says should be taken as the gospel truth.

Let us not forget that the CIA/MI5 were part of the tragic events of the 1960s in Guyana. Can we be witnessing a repeat of the past?
Yours Sincerely,
Ivor Samuels

Governments are judged irrespective of party loyalty
IT seems that the current discussion about the "death squad" has completely overshadowed the plight of those accused of a crime by the police.

One that comes to mind is Mark Benschop. Benschop's pending trial has been erased from the front pages of the media. His incarceration has become muted by the reprioritizing of the current events. The Benschop event is one that should have been concluded, either by the court determining the truth or falsity of the accusations against him, or by the commissioning of an investigation to ascertain the truth or falsity of the allegations against the Minister of Home Affairs.

The seeming reluctance of the current government, and the President, to act on Bacchus's allegations and therefore putting in motion that which adheres to the principles of democracy, is in stark contrast to the haste with which Mr. Mark Benschop was incarcerated by the judicial system. Both men have had allegations/accusations

levied against them. One was promptly arrested and now languishes in prison

without a date for his trial. The other remains free to carry out his duties without any interruption or suspension.

In most democracies this individual would have been asked to withdraw and reinstated only after an impartial and independent body had removed the cloud of suspicion from his now tainted office.

This action taken on the part of Mr. Benschop, and inaction on the part of

Mr. Gajraj, solidify the belief by some that this current government of

Guyana rules not in the best interest of the nation, but in the interest of those who lend it support.

The treatment of Benschop and the do-nothing, hands-off and delay, treatment on the part of Mr. Gajraj explicitly show the guarded political position of this government.

Is the government elected to govern all of the people regardless of political support, or is this government hell bent on doing irreparable harm to the cultural fabric of this nation?

Governments are not only judged based on expressed verbal commitment, but also on the evidentiary commitment to heal past political wounds irrespective of party loyalty.
Patrick Barker

Sports Page for Thursday, February 12, 2004