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Policemen must be charged before Linden protest is called off [/td][td][right]
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| Print | [/right][/td][/tr][/table][table][tr][td]Written by Denis Scott Chabrol [/td][/tr][tr][td]Monday, 23 July 2012 00:59 [/td][/tr][tr][td]
[img alt=AddThis Social Bookmark Button]http://s7.addthis.com/static/btn/v2/lg-share-en.gif[/img] A group of persons in solidarity with their comrades in Linden.Working Peoples Alliance (WPA) executive member, David Hinds Sunday night said protests by Lindeners have now shifted gear from only demanding that the electricity tariff increase to be scrapped to insisting that Senior Superintendent, Clifton Hicken to be charged with murder.
Three protesters were shot and killed by police last Wednesday while they blocked the Wismar-Mackenzie Bridge across the Demerara River. Government and the opposition have agreed to hold a Commission of Inquiry and steps have been already taken to remove Hicken as Commander.
Speaking with Demerara Waves Online News as a group of persons held a candlelight vigil outside Parliament Building, Brickdam. Hinds said the protest has now gone beyond the intended five days following the shooting deaths and injuries to several other persons.
“If the electricity hike was just a Linden thing, then now that they have murdered these three people the matter has moved from just a Linden concern to a national concern,†he said.
He reasoned that not only Hicken is allegedly culpable but also the shooters, Police Commissioner, Leroy Brummel; Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee and President Donald Ramotar through the chain of command.
Professor Hinds said the mood among Lindeners is that President Donald Ramotar is not welcomed in Linden because he had not gone there to discuss their grievance about an electricity rate hike before the protest and he should not also go after police gunned down Lindeners.
“If murder charges are instituted, the electricity hike is suspended then I think the leaders would be permitted by the people in Linden to begin some kind of negotiations,†he said.
A Political Scientist and long-time WPA activist that fought against the Burnham dictatorship on the streets, Hinds said Wednesday’s police assault on the protesters was a political decision. “Here were people protesting in a political way and so the police is not going to make that decision. That decision has to come from the high-command and I think the President let the cat out of the bag when he said he is standing by his Home Affairs Minister,†said the WPA executive member.
The Guyana Police Force has already publicly denied receiving instructions from the political directorate. The Police Commissioner is already on record as saying that police fired teargas and pellets at the protesters only after a group of persons were robbing others and burning their vehicles. That has been refuted by organisers. The Region 10 Chairman is on record as saying that Lindeners do not condone criminal activities.
Hinds also linked the recent controversial editorial in the government-controlled Guyana Chronicle that accused the Peoples National Congress (PNC) of socializing Black youths to attack and dispossess East Indians. The newspaper and the Guyana government have since apologised for that publication but no one has been disciplined. Instead, a long letter by Office of the President staffer and PPP activist, Jason Abdullah in the Guyana Chronicle and the governing party’s aligned Mirror newspaper sought to defend and justify the editorial.[/td][/tr][/table]
http://www.demerarawaves.com/index.php/2...d-off.html
Go figure....