Sitnews (Situated News)

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Sitnews
(Situated News)

This page is hosted and updated as a public service by Saxakali.
The news items are provided by Eusi Kaywana via fax from Guyana.

Sitnews Last night, January 12, 1998

After a day of street marches, exploited by looters and people beating Indians, and protests against the beatings by the Alliance for Guyana and the PPP, the government proclaimed Georgetown under Section 6 the Public Order Act of 1955. It is associated with the Interim Government which was installed by Britain after the 1953 suspension of the government and used by former President Burnham to contain protests. At a rally which was winding up at the Square of the Revolution soon after the prohibition, opposition leader Hoyte declared that the marches would go on.

They did, getting started after a press conference at Sophia by Mr. Hoyte. All day steel helmeted police, first on the streets, patrolled in their vehicles and steel helmets, armed with rifles. All day protestors swept along the streets, switching direction at will, to keep the police on the move. All day too at intervals, the police burst tear smoke bombs of on defiant crowds. The crowds were well controlled. Some found the chanting by PNC supporters of "People's Power. No Dictator." Walter Rodney's battle cry, ironic. Police arrested a number of protestors and it is reported that several children from a play centre were taken to hospital suffering from the effects of tear gas smoke. There was widespread indignation at the way tear gas was employed. It killed one man at "The Palms" and affected children in at least two day care centers, and people in their homes. Shortly after these words were written, tear gas smoke floated into Rodney House, WPA and Alliance Headquarters, and sent activists running for buckets of water and rags.

Observers likened the disregard for the ban on public meetings to Mrs. Jagan's distregard for the Court Order which marshals of the High Court attempted to serve on her during a public memorial of her swearing-in ceremony. At Mr. Hoyte's press conference today, he blamed the PPP for organizing the thugs who robbed and beat people at various locations in the city. He called it one of their dirty tricks. He said the criminal activities were orchestrated and it was noteworthy that no police were around. He said the PPP created the situation in order to declare a state of emergency.

Sitnews August 11, 1997

The Working People's Alliance gave critical leadership to the National Assembly and the nation on August 7, 1997 when its Presidential candidate, Rupert Roopnaraine, M. P., successfully moved the adjournment of the Assembly (the exacting procedure for an urgent motion) to discuss the August 3rd Georgetown prison breakout by seven prisoners. Stabroek News reported on August 8th:

"The National Assembly last night agreed to a national approach to the problems of the country's prisons in an emergency debate on the issue... Granted leave to move the adjournment to deal with the issue, Working People's Alliance (WPA) Co-Leader Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine said that the problem was one of national concern since it was not of the government's making or even of the previous administration's."

The Guyana Cronicle reported on August 8th:

"Parliamentarians are worried about the current overcrowding of the country's prisons and have identified the high numbers of prisoners on remand, especially in the Camp Street jail, Georgetown, as the main problem area."

Under the bold caption " MPs propose inter-party team to look at prisons crisis" the paper reported the deep concerns of speakers from the government, the PNC and the WPA, as the detailed the agonies of the prison. But even as the Assembly was reaching consensus on the dire warnings of Dr. Roopnaraine, who condemned and labeled as new and unwelcome the fatal shooting on Sunday of a young prisoner already recaptured, the country's penal settlement at Mazaruni was burning and in the throes of a riot. The motion was not a day too early.

All sides admitted the poor salaries and working conditions of prison personnel, the high population of remand prisoners - about three times the number of prisoners it can house are now crammed into it - and the effect of the 1988 Narcotics Act with its mandatory prison sentences even for possession of micro quantities of ganja. On the day of the debate, the Guyana Human Rights Association welcomed the appointment of a ministerial committee, set up days earlier by Cabinet to investigate the prisons. GHRA declared that the mandatory custodial sentencing required under the Narcotics Act was a main factor in over crowding in moth men's and women's prisons. The Act, GHRA said, should be amended to restore judicial discretion.

Moving the motion with the Speaker's leave, Roopnaraine reminded the House of the manifestations of the prison crisis, including prisoners standing on the roof of the Georgetown prison and holding press conferences there. Mansoor Nadir of the TUF strongly endorsed the setting up of a multi-party committee "to get some answers." PNC's Ms. Amna Ally endorsed the call for such a committee, but warned that something broader was needed as Ministerial Committees "normally turn into talk shops."

Guyana Chronicle on August 9th, described Thursday night's Mazaruni riot as "one of the worst prison riots in Guyana's history" and reported the death of one prisoner.

For more information, contact:

Working People's Alliance

Walter Rodney House
Croal Street, Stabroek, Guyana
Fax: 592-2-56624

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