CNN iReport

Two days ago the President of Guyana, His Excellency Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo, stood before the Guyana press and chided them that they should not allow double standards to affect their reaction to atrocities, or words to that effect. At the time the President was responding to the disclosure that a 14 year old was horribly tortured by Law Enforcement Personnel, and reports of an attack by a well organized armed gang on Police Stations and other public institutions.What was particularly hypocritical about the remarks of the President was the fact that his Government and the Political party that he leads have consistently covered up or justified torture committed on African Guyanese while they were in custody of either Law Enforcement or the Military, despite clearly visible evidence of physical injury on their persons that did not exist prior to them being taken into custody.

In one such matter, the confession statement of an accused was thrown out at a preliminary inquiry after it was found to have been obtained under coercion. The accused could not make it into court of his own volition, and after the Magesterial decision impeached the validity of the confession statement, the accused mysteriously died from poisoning while still in Police Custody.

His Excellency the President of Guyana Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo, and his Cabinet, remained in cold faced silence while a gang of vigilantes led by a fugitive from US Justice and the then Minister of Home Affairs, kidnapped, tortured and extra judicially lynched, reportedly, hundreds of young black men they determined were criminal suspects. At no time during this process, did the President or any member of his cabinet make public utterances condemning what was going on. At no time did the President and any member of his Cabinet make public pronunciations that what was in process was murder, was a violation of UN articles on the treatment of criminal suspects, was a violation of UN articles on the treatment of minorities, were violations of Laws and the Constitution of Guyana which held that every accused was entitled to due process and the presumption of innocence. The response of the President of Guyana and his Cabinet to vigilante justice against a segment of the Guyanese population clearlyimplied that as a people they were less equal than the Group in which he and 98% of his Cabinet belonged, and that was that.

Ironically, when one of the master minds behind the vigilante killings was taken into custody by the DEA for the illegal transportation of narcotics to the US, the President's party argued that he was entitled to due process and the presumption of innocence. The fact that they were quite comfortable arguing for these rights for a felon who was convicted twice in the US, and had fled a third from Vermont and returned to Guyana, is another link in the evidentiary chain of their prejudice and double standards. This man was one of them, and the people he conspired to and involved himself in lynching were not.

We will be elaborating more on this issue in later threads.