Jamaica not only Caribbean country with crime problem
Diane Abbott
Sunday, February 12, 2006
The violence in Jamaica gets a lot of coverage. But it is not the only Caribbean territory with this problem. A recent murder in Guyana was particularly chilling. Ronald Waddell was an Afro-Guyanese lawyer, politician and talk show host; one of the most well known men in the society and a ferocious opponent of the current Guyanese government.
Last Monday, he was gunned down in cold blood outside his home by men armed with AK 47s. And this was not a random criminal act. The killers planned it carefully. They appeared to have been watching Waddell for some time. They set up the attack with a getaway car parked on a nearby highway so they could not be trapped by a cordon in Georgetown.
A bright light illuminated the victim before he was killed, and it is possible that tracer bullets were used. The killers shot up the tyres of Waddell's car to make sure he could not escape. Then they emptied their rifles into him.
I was in Guyana last summer and I spent time in the Georgetown suburb of Subryanville, where Waddell was murdered. So the scene is very vivid to me. But what makes the murder chilling is the suspicion that it was not criminally, but politically motivated. This killing may be just another episode in the brutal racial politics of Guyana. People call Jamaican politics tribal, but Guyanese politics is tribal in the crudest sense; Afro-Guyanese versus Indo-Guyanese.
Fomented by the British, this rivalry has crippled development. When the Afro-Guyanese were in power (under Forbes Burnham) most talented Asians had no choice but to emigrate. And now that the Indo-Guyanese are in power many black Guyanese feel that they have no option but to get out. There are, however, exceptions. Sonny Ramphal became attorney general under Burnham (and went on to become a distinguished secretary general of the Commonwealth), and the current prime minister of Guyana is a black man.
But what struck me on my recent visit was the totality of the political and economic power in the hands of one ethnic group, i e the Indo-Guyanese.
Waddell was an outspoken black man and a leading Opposition politician. He had spoken out in support of black gunmen in the east coast village of Buxton. The long running violence in this particular Afro-Guyanese community has been little reported outside Guyana. But it is a highly emotive and symbolic issue in the country itself.
In a period of over a year, 50 people, including eight policemen, were killed by gunmen who had taken over this community. Many people, among them leading Afro-Guyanese commentators, said the gunmen were mere criminals. Waddell insisted that they were an "Afro Resistance Army".
Waddell himself had several run-ins with the law; once for his alleged participation in the storming of the Office of the President in 2003 and also for involvement in various street protests. His television programme had been taken off the air three times following complaints by the government.
The context to Waddell's killing is the activities of what are alleged to be government death squads. Partly in response to what was seen as black-led criminal violence, there emerged in Guyana "death squads" which were executing alleged black criminals. These "death squads" were said to be responsible for over 400 extra-judicial killings.
Opponents of the government insisted that these "death squads" were actually organised by the government itself in the shape of the minister of home affairs Ronald Gajraj. These allegations reached such a pitch that in 2004 the government had to set up an inquiry "to determine whether and to what extent there is evidence of a credible nature to support the allegations that the minister of home affairs, Mr Ronald Gajraj, has been involved in promoting, directing or otherwise engaging in activities which involved the extra-judicial killing of persons".
The inquiry cleared the minister, but not before one of those publicly making allegations about "death squads" was assassinated himself. And the allegations have not gone away.
Ronald Waddell's mother is firmly of the view that the government is involved in the murder of her son. "It is all political, and high political involvement is in this," she was quoted as saying. Most local commentators do not believe this. But they do not rule out a political connection; as one journalist put it "the connection is less likely to emanate from a formal party structure than from a renegade group".
Ronald Waddell's son said in a tribute to his late father "The vast majority of Indian people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land".
This is undoubtedly true; but there can be no doubt that, although statistically Guyana has a smaller problem with violence than Jamaica, it is every bit as serious.
Diane Abbott
Sunday, February 12, 2006
The violence in Jamaica gets a lot of coverage. But it is not the only Caribbean territory with this problem. A recent murder in Guyana was particularly chilling. Ronald Waddell was an Afro-Guyanese lawyer, politician and talk show host; one of the most well known men in the society and a ferocious opponent of the current Guyanese government.
Last Monday, he was gunned down in cold blood outside his home by men armed with AK 47s. And this was not a random criminal act. The killers planned it carefully. They appeared to have been watching Waddell for some time. They set up the attack with a getaway car parked on a nearby highway so they could not be trapped by a cordon in Georgetown.
A bright light illuminated the victim before he was killed, and it is possible that tracer bullets were used. The killers shot up the tyres of Waddell's car to make sure he could not escape. Then they emptied their rifles into him.
I was in Guyana last summer and I spent time in the Georgetown suburb of Subryanville, where Waddell was murdered. So the scene is very vivid to me. But what makes the murder chilling is the suspicion that it was not criminally, but politically motivated. This killing may be just another episode in the brutal racial politics of Guyana. People call Jamaican politics tribal, but Guyanese politics is tribal in the crudest sense; Afro-Guyanese versus Indo-Guyanese.
Fomented by the British, this rivalry has crippled development. When the Afro-Guyanese were in power (under Forbes Burnham) most talented Asians had no choice but to emigrate. And now that the Indo-Guyanese are in power many black Guyanese feel that they have no option but to get out. There are, however, exceptions. Sonny Ramphal became attorney general under Burnham (and went on to become a distinguished secretary general of the Commonwealth), and the current prime minister of Guyana is a black man.
But what struck me on my recent visit was the totality of the political and economic power in the hands of one ethnic group, i e the Indo-Guyanese.
Waddell was an outspoken black man and a leading Opposition politician. He had spoken out in support of black gunmen in the east coast village of Buxton. The long running violence in this particular Afro-Guyanese community has been little reported outside Guyana. But it is a highly emotive and symbolic issue in the country itself.
In a period of over a year, 50 people, including eight policemen, were killed by gunmen who had taken over this community. Many people, among them leading Afro-Guyanese commentators, said the gunmen were mere criminals. Waddell insisted that they were an "Afro Resistance Army".
Waddell himself had several run-ins with the law; once for his alleged participation in the storming of the Office of the President in 2003 and also for involvement in various street protests. His television programme had been taken off the air three times following complaints by the government.
The context to Waddell's killing is the activities of what are alleged to be government death squads. Partly in response to what was seen as black-led criminal violence, there emerged in Guyana "death squads" which were executing alleged black criminals. These "death squads" were said to be responsible for over 400 extra-judicial killings.
Opponents of the government insisted that these "death squads" were actually organised by the government itself in the shape of the minister of home affairs Ronald Gajraj. These allegations reached such a pitch that in 2004 the government had to set up an inquiry "to determine whether and to what extent there is evidence of a credible nature to support the allegations that the minister of home affairs, Mr Ronald Gajraj, has been involved in promoting, directing or otherwise engaging in activities which involved the extra-judicial killing of persons".
The inquiry cleared the minister, but not before one of those publicly making allegations about "death squads" was assassinated himself. And the allegations have not gone away.
Ronald Waddell's mother is firmly of the view that the government is involved in the murder of her son. "It is all political, and high political involvement is in this," she was quoted as saying. Most local commentators do not believe this. But they do not rule out a political connection; as one journalist put it "the connection is less likely to emanate from a formal party structure than from a renegade group".
Ronald Waddell's son said in a tribute to his late father "The vast majority of Indian people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land".
This is undoubtedly true; but there can be no doubt that, although statistically Guyana has a smaller problem with violence than Jamaica, it is every bit as serious.
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