Benschop, trade union leaders, take protest to Police Headquarters

- demand that Police Commissioner probe Govt’s links to Roger Khan, Waddell killings

Former treason accused, Mark Benschop, and leading trade unionists, Lincoln Lewis and Norris Witter, yesterday picketed Police Headquarters, Eve Leary, while demanding that Commissioner Henry Greene investigate Government officials accused of corruption.
They also want an investigation into the hundreds of unsolved killings that the crime wave spawned.
They focused particularly on the unsolved murder of journalist Ronald Waddell and allegations of the government’s links to convicted drug trafficker Roger Khan.
Repeatedly ignoring pleas by police officers to disperse, Benschop, Lewis and Witter accused the hierarchy of the police force of meting out justice to the “poor and powerless”, while ignoring the misdeeds of others in high places.
“We are concerned at the double standards in which justice is being administered. Apparently different laws apply for different people,”
Assistant General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), Norris Witter, told Kaieteur News afterwards.
“When the poor and the powerless appear to be in breach of the law, swift visitation of the law is visited upon them.”
“But when there is overwhelming evidence against high officials of state and others who are connected to high officials of state, there is a lack of energy in seeing that the law is enforced.”
According to Witter, the “assassination” of Ronald Waddell appears to be “a cold case,” while those accused of killing former Minister of Agriculture, Satyadeow Sawh were quickly apprehended.
And while police have identified firearms that were allegedly used in the killing, “to date, we can’t even hear of a slingshot linked to Waddell’s killing,” he charged.
Witter also noted that while self-confessed drug dealer, Roger Khan, had admitted to trafficking in cocaine to the US, “to date, the (Guyana) Police Force has been unable to charge Roger Khan.”
And despite the fact that information out of the United States suggests that Health Minister, Leslie Ramsammy played a key role in acquiring the ‘spy equipment’ for Khan and facilitating the UK expert to train him in its use, “President Jagdeo has the temerity to say that Ramsammy is innocent.”
“What we are saying is that the Police Force is acting in consort with the Office of the President to suppress information, when officials of the Government are concerned. “When those who don’t have these connections are involved, the law is visited on them. The law must be for all; there must be no sacred cows.”
On Thursday, the trio staged a similar protest outside the National Cultural Centre, on the opening day of the Caricom Summit.
“We want to bring to the attention of the heads of Government, the disrespect for the rule of law, the racial and political discrimination by Jagdeo of trying to lambaste the Barbados government, while failing to say that the fear generated in the (Guyanese) society has led to the mass migration.”
Asked how long the protest will continue, Witter stated that the group is “prepared to continue and to intensify the struggle until there is a change in the political and social status quo.”
Echoing similar sentiments, Benschop said that the protesters wanted the Caricom leaders to know that all is not well in Guyana.
“And while the President is talking of the treatment of Guyanese in Barbados, until the President gets his country in order, he should not chastise others.”
Bearing a placard demanding an investigation into the Ronald Waddell murder, Benschop challenged Police Commissioner Greene to investigate the still unsolved killings and “the hundreds of unsolved murders in the country for which groups have claimed responsibility.”

Saturday, July 4, 2009