Tuesday, July 16, 2002
Two Buxtonians have condemned all violence and those perpetrating, inciting
and using it, regardless of who they are whether friend or foe, their fellow
villagers or otherwise.
In an statement, published in today's letter to
the editor column on page six, Eusi Kwayana and David Hinds, who are currently
in California, USA, said that on June 30 they were involved in making an appeal
on tape to end the violence but before it could get here the situation changed
for the worse.
In the joint statement, they said there was no excuse for
those who were attacking others, especially Indians, passing through the village
or living near to the village.
They warned that entering people's homes,
beating them up and robbery carried stiff penalties and that those involved in
these attacks were setting themselves up for punishment of one kind or another.
They were also making the whole village seem guilty. Their sisters, children,
friends, cousins were all marked as people supporting robbers.
Stating
that for one year now, they had been opposing those who brought "this robber
culture" to the village, Kwayana and Hinds said that the killing of Shaka Blair
served to provide "the cowards" with a ready made martyr.
The main aim of
the "the cowards," they said was to protect the five escaped prisoners and they
found many Buxtonians to use.
Stating that they heard abroad that the
robbers gave money to the poor, they stated that what the guilty ones were doing
was not "Rasta culture," but "robber culture. Only drug runners, sex traders and
arms traders behave like that."
Kwayana and Hinds said that those
involved have put all their fellow villagers to shame, made
Guyanese of African origin appear like barbarians and helped to
give the worst possible pictures of themselves. They said, "You cannot be wrong
and strong."