The
main opposition party, People's National Congress/Reform (PNC/R), says
as the bodies of murdered persons continue to pile up, the Police seem
incapable of dealing with this problem.
Party
member Stanley Ming said at a press briefing at Congress Place, Sophia,
yesterday that the PNC/R is reliably informed that Senior Police
Officers are themselves disillusioned about the recent crime wave and
have expressed an inability to deal with it.
The
Party noted that a travel advisory issued on November 3, 2003
circulating within the diplomatic and international commercial community
states that since August this year more than two persons have died and
their deaths have baffled the Police.
Ming
said the advisory quoted a Senior Police Officer as saying, "we are
not sure what exactly is going on".
Guyana
has already surpassed the record set in 2002 of 150 persons killed in
criminally related activities. The figure to date stands at 176.
According
to the advisory, he said, the officer cited an ongoing drug war as the
reasons for the killings since last year "and not political
terrorism as misrepresented by the People's Progressive Party (PPP/C)
regime and its apologists."
If
the cause is the drug trade then the fight has to be taken to the drug
lords, he posited. But have they become too powerful to be suppressed?
he questioned.
The
PNC/R during last week opined that Guyana had become a narco-state and
the recent pronouncements of the Crime Chief and others confirm this
opinion. It said something has to be done about it rather than mere
talking.
"But
with not one of these murders being solved," Ming contended,
"the Police Force could be in danger of losing its legitimacy to
enforce law and order in the country."
This
situation has become more serious than first thought and requires a
comprehensive approach that involves all stakeholders, he said.
He
said the Police Force cannot simply dissociate its self from the
abductions and killings and absolve itself of the responsibility of
providing safety and security to citizens of Guyana.
"The
Police force needs a shake up now," Ming said, then asked: but from
where would this start?" The party's Executive Member James
McAllister believed one of the first steps is to have a Police
Commissioner who can properly carry on the functions of a constitutional
office.
Fundamental
to this problem is to have a Commissioner who is properly appointed and
who knows that he is not carrying on at the "wishes and
fancies" of any politician. "It is from there we think the
shake up can flow".
McAllister
said the current Police Commissioner Mr. Floyd McDonald is a retiree on
the job from month to month on contract and cannot carry on the
functions of a constitutional office if he must depend on the government
to renew his contract at the end of the month.
Friday, November 07, 2003