Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06GEORGETOWN532
2006-06-06 21:02:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Georgetown
Cable title:
"SHAMBLES": EDITORIAL ON GUYANA'S PRECARIOUS
how-toVZCZCXRO0017 RR RUEHGR DE RUEHGE #0532/01 1572102 ZNR UUUUU ZZH R 062102Z JUN 06 FM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3602 INFO RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 0319 RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 0966 RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 GEORGETOWN 000532
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PINS SNAR KCRM GY
SUBJECT: "SHAMBLES": EDITORIAL ON GUYANA'S PRECARIOUS
SITUATION
The following editorial in the Stabroek News June 5
edition describes well the precarious state of affairs
that prevails in Guyana across the security, political,
and economic spheres (despite a few inaccuracies about
USG's involvement). The Stabroek News is Guyana's most
respected daily newspaper.
BEGIN TEXT.
Shambles
Monday, June 5th 2006
It is hard to find a period in our recent history when
everything that mattered seemed to be in a complete
shambles. The security situation is a total disaster. A
sitting minister has been murdered and weeks later not a
suspect has been arrested and neither the police nor the
government seems to have an inkling about what to do.
When the government appears as paralysed and impotent as
it does right now it is time for every citizen to begin
to worry about his/her safety. The situation is the same
with eight people murdered at Agricola/Eccles and the
disappearance of 30 AK-47s from the army's HQ. Now, in
recent days, the crime-besieged villages of Enterprise
and Annandale have again suffered from murderous attacks
by gunmen who have operated with impunity. There has been
no response from the security services even though their
much vaunted camping operation at the back of Buxton was
supposed to yield an end to such attacks and the capture
of the elusive gunmen.
On the economic front, the closure for two months of Omai
Bauxite Inc because of stiff competition from Chinese ore
is a telling sign of the jeopardy that primary commodity
producers like Guyana face from the emerging market
giants like China and Brazil. There will be no mercy or
compassion only heartless and impersonal WTO rules. And
if that wasn't enough trauma on top of the loss of sugar
revenues beginning this year, the government has shot
itself in the foot by defaulting on US$20M worth of
bauxite bonds issued by the administration of President
Cheddi Jagan in 1994. It is a mind-boggling move that has
already done incalculable damage to the creditworthiness
of the government and even if the government reversed
itself and paid up today, the serious investor will still
have major doubts about whether it could be trusted.
Then there is the elections impasse. The Surujbally
commission has managed to conjure a crisis of epic
proportions because of its inept management of the
verification/residency issue. If each member of that
Commission had paid serious attention to their mandate
and had conducted good faith negotiations on the matter
they might have realized two or three years ago that the
best solution would have been to approach the courts for
an urgent interpretation of the provisions governing the
qualification of an elector. Presumably this would have
satisfied all sides. The Commission has managed to leave
this vital issue hanging just a few months before the
scheduled poll with the result that aside from the deep
automatic polarization that occurs at elections further
tension is being generated at the level of the commission
and from the constant salvoes booming from the parties at
each other.
The tapes
Into this volatile and dangerous brew has been added the
controversy over the tapes allegedly of the Police
Commissioner Winston Felix speaking to several persons.
The government has now initiated proceedings that could
result in the removal of the commissioner from office.
There is clearly a groundswell of public opinion that if
what was said on the tape was uttered by the police
commissioner then he has a lot of explaining to do and
that his credibility has been seriously hurt. Moving
against him on that basis is therefore unexceptionable.
What is exceedingly troubling is that the campaign
against the police commissioner appears to have been
choreographed by those close to businessman Roger Khan,
for whom an arrest warrant has been issued by the police
and who has since been indicted by the US authorities on
a drug charge. To have your top cop weakened and
emasculated when he really needed to be in full charge of
his force and to be on top of crime is not the most
propitious circumstance for the country at this point.
GEORGETOWN 00000532 002 OF 003
But that is what Mr Khan et al have succeeded in
accomplishing and the government had better be careful in
this dangerous period.
The timeline of the key events leading up to the move
against Mr Felix is instructive. On March 1 this year the
US State Department issued its annual report on the drugs
trade and money laundering in which it named Mr Khan as a
known drug trafficker. It appears that sometime after
this, in a bid to extricate himself from this dilemma, Mr
Khan engaged the US authorities and had a meeting with
them. His version of the meet was that he was discussing
an alleged conspiracy against the government and the lack
of intent on the part of the police in tackling the
Buxton criminals. The US says he was met to discuss
impending drug proceedings against him. Several of the
infamous tapes with the alleged Felix voice were played
by Mr Khan at this meeting. It also appears that around
this time some of the tapes were also dispatched to
senior government officials and Mr Felix and others in
the security services became aware of them.
On March 19 this year, the first series of raids against
several of Mr Khan's establishments were conducted under
the rubric of recovering the missing AK-47s. Up to that
point there had been no robust campaign by the joint
services to find these weapons even though they had been
reported as missing since February 27, three weeks
earlier. Surely the most appropriate time to have
conducted this operation would have been immediately upon
discovering that the weapons had vanished. It would seem
that the joint services had discovered that Mr Khan was
playing hardball and by circulating tapes with possibly
compromising statements by joint services officials he
presented a clear and present danger to them. Self-
preservation had apparently kicked in for Mr Khan and key
officials in the joint services. The day after the first
raids against Mr Khan, the first tape supposedly between
Mr Felix and Mr Basil Williams was circulated to the
media. In the days to come, the country was treated to
raid after raid which were characterized as the search
for the weapons but which may have been influenced by
other factors. It was only on Saturday that an AK-47 was
found and this has been claimed as one from the missing
batch though presumably more authentication would have to
be done. Even if this is one of the weapons, the joint
services campaign has not impressed in its mapping and
execution of the recovery operation and the reality would
be that 29 rifles and five hand guns are still
circulating. Moreover, rifles similar to those that went
missing have been used in recent attacks and crime
remains as out of control as it has been - the minister's
murder (April 22) occurring during the period of intense
joint services activity.
Days after the raids began the police issued a wanted
bulletin for Mr Khan which he immediately challenged and
went underground and then the US got into the act by
unsealing an indictment against Mr Khan in early May.
More tapes followed and as a result of the furore
generated by these Mr Felix now faces the threat of
removal from office.
In the circumstances, the average Guyanese who is seeking
only better security could be excused for feeling that he
or she is a mere pawn in a high stakes battle involving a
businessman indicted for drugs, security officials
seeking to preserve their status and the US promoting its
own interests. Crime fighting in this manoeuvring is
merely incidental. It should be noted that Mr Khan has
only begun to speak of his alleged crime-fighting in
2002/3 now that he faces arrest and extradition. By
implication he puts himself on the side of the government
and presumably may have recordings and information that
may link him with officialdom. Is that what comes next?
How connected and clued the government is to all of this
is still unclear. It must know however that it bears
primary responsibility for fighting crime and thus far it
has failed disastrously. With a weakened police
commissioner, rampant crime, underworld machinations and
election venom, the only reasonable antidote for the
country is professional help for the security forces from
outside. There is no time for shilly-shallying and hand-
wringing. On their poor performance alone, Mr Felix, his
predecessors and several other top functionaries in the
security services could have been removed a long time
GEORGETOWN 00000532 003 OF 003
ago. What it has failed to do since 1992 in terms of
professionalizing the force and orienting it to properly
fight crime the PPP/C government must do in the next few
months probably with the help of the private sector and
friendly countries such as Canada. It must also ensure
that it isn't compromised by the underworld and those who
play fast and loose with law and order. No time can be
lost even if more tapes are played; especially if more
tapes are played.
END TEXT.
BULLEN
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PINS SNAR KCRM GY
SUBJECT: "SHAMBLES": EDITORIAL ON GUYANA'S PRECARIOUS
SITUATION
The following editorial in the Stabroek News June 5
edition describes well the precarious state of affairs
that prevails in Guyana across the security, political,
and economic spheres (despite a few inaccuracies about
USG's involvement). The Stabroek News is Guyana's most
respected daily newspaper.
BEGIN TEXT.
Shambles
Monday, June 5th 2006
It is hard to find a period in our recent history when
everything that mattered seemed to be in a complete
shambles. The security situation is a total disaster. A
sitting minister has been murdered and weeks later not a
suspect has been arrested and neither the police nor the
government seems to have an inkling about what to do.
When the government appears as paralysed and impotent as
it does right now it is time for every citizen to begin
to worry about his/her safety. The situation is the same
with eight people murdered at Agricola/Eccles and the
disappearance of 30 AK-47s from the army's HQ. Now, in
recent days, the crime-besieged villages of Enterprise
and Annandale have again suffered from murderous attacks
by gunmen who have operated with impunity. There has been
no response from the security services even though their
much vaunted camping operation at the back of Buxton was
supposed to yield an end to such attacks and the capture
of the elusive gunmen.
On the economic front, the closure for two months of Omai
Bauxite Inc because of stiff competition from Chinese ore
is a telling sign of the jeopardy that primary commodity
producers like Guyana face from the emerging market
giants like China and Brazil. There will be no mercy or
compassion only heartless and impersonal WTO rules. And
if that wasn't enough trauma on top of the loss of sugar
revenues beginning this year, the government has shot
itself in the foot by defaulting on US$20M worth of
bauxite bonds issued by the administration of President
Cheddi Jagan in 1994. It is a mind-boggling move that has
already done incalculable damage to the creditworthiness
of the government and even if the government reversed
itself and paid up today, the serious investor will still
have major doubts about whether it could be trusted.
Then there is the elections impasse. The Surujbally
commission has managed to conjure a crisis of epic
proportions because of its inept management of the
verification/residency issue. If each member of that
Commission had paid serious attention to their mandate
and had conducted good faith negotiations on the matter
they might have realized two or three years ago that the
best solution would have been to approach the courts for
an urgent interpretation of the provisions governing the
qualification of an elector. Presumably this would have
satisfied all sides. The Commission has managed to leave
this vital issue hanging just a few months before the
scheduled poll with the result that aside from the deep
automatic polarization that occurs at elections further
tension is being generated at the level of the commission
and from the constant salvoes booming from the parties at
each other.
The tapes
Into this volatile and dangerous brew has been added the
controversy over the tapes allegedly of the Police
Commissioner Winston Felix speaking to several persons.
The government has now initiated proceedings that could
result in the removal of the commissioner from office.
There is clearly a groundswell of public opinion that if
what was said on the tape was uttered by the police
commissioner then he has a lot of explaining to do and
that his credibility has been seriously hurt. Moving
against him on that basis is therefore unexceptionable.
What is exceedingly troubling is that the campaign
against the police commissioner appears to have been
choreographed by those close to businessman Roger Khan,
for whom an arrest warrant has been issued by the police
and who has since been indicted by the US authorities on
a drug charge. To have your top cop weakened and
emasculated when he really needed to be in full charge of
his force and to be on top of crime is not the most
propitious circumstance for the country at this point.
GEORGETOWN 00000532 002 OF 003
But that is what Mr Khan et al have succeeded in
accomplishing and the government had better be careful in
this dangerous period.
The timeline of the key events leading up to the move
against Mr Felix is instructive. On March 1 this year the
US State Department issued its annual report on the drugs
trade and money laundering in which it named Mr Khan as a
known drug trafficker. It appears that sometime after
this, in a bid to extricate himself from this dilemma, Mr
Khan engaged the US authorities and had a meeting with
them. His version of the meet was that he was discussing
an alleged conspiracy against the government and the lack
of intent on the part of the police in tackling the
Buxton criminals. The US says he was met to discuss
impending drug proceedings against him. Several of the
infamous tapes with the alleged Felix voice were played
by Mr Khan at this meeting. It also appears that around
this time some of the tapes were also dispatched to
senior government officials and Mr Felix and others in
the security services became aware of them.
On March 19 this year, the first series of raids against
several of Mr Khan's establishments were conducted under
the rubric of recovering the missing AK-47s. Up to that
point there had been no robust campaign by the joint
services to find these weapons even though they had been
reported as missing since February 27, three weeks
earlier. Surely the most appropriate time to have
conducted this operation would have been immediately upon
discovering that the weapons had vanished. It would seem
that the joint services had discovered that Mr Khan was
playing hardball and by circulating tapes with possibly
compromising statements by joint services officials he
presented a clear and present danger to them. Self-
preservation had apparently kicked in for Mr Khan and key
officials in the joint services. The day after the first
raids against Mr Khan, the first tape supposedly between
Mr Felix and Mr Basil Williams was circulated to the
media. In the days to come, the country was treated to
raid after raid which were characterized as the search
for the weapons but which may have been influenced by
other factors. It was only on Saturday that an AK-47 was
found and this has been claimed as one from the missing
batch though presumably more authentication would have to
be done. Even if this is one of the weapons, the joint
services campaign has not impressed in its mapping and
execution of the recovery operation and the reality would
be that 29 rifles and five hand guns are still
circulating. Moreover, rifles similar to those that went
missing have been used in recent attacks and crime
remains as out of control as it has been - the minister's
murder (April 22) occurring during the period of intense
joint services activity.
Days after the raids began the police issued a wanted
bulletin for Mr Khan which he immediately challenged and
went underground and then the US got into the act by
unsealing an indictment against Mr Khan in early May.
More tapes followed and as a result of the furore
generated by these Mr Felix now faces the threat of
removal from office.
In the circumstances, the average Guyanese who is seeking
only better security could be excused for feeling that he
or she is a mere pawn in a high stakes battle involving a
businessman indicted for drugs, security officials
seeking to preserve their status and the US promoting its
own interests. Crime fighting in this manoeuvring is
merely incidental. It should be noted that Mr Khan has
only begun to speak of his alleged crime-fighting in
2002/3 now that he faces arrest and extradition. By
implication he puts himself on the side of the government
and presumably may have recordings and information that
may link him with officialdom. Is that what comes next?
How connected and clued the government is to all of this
is still unclear. It must know however that it bears
primary responsibility for fighting crime and thus far it
has failed disastrously. With a weakened police
commissioner, rampant crime, underworld machinations and
election venom, the only reasonable antidote for the
country is professional help for the security forces from
outside. There is no time for shilly-shallying and hand-
wringing. On their poor performance alone, Mr Felix, his
predecessors and several other top functionaries in the
security services could have been removed a long time
GEORGETOWN 00000532 003 OF 003
ago. What it has failed to do since 1992 in terms of
professionalizing the force and orienting it to properly
fight crime the PPP/C government must do in the next few
months probably with the help of the private sector and
friendly countries such as Canada. It must also ensure
that it isn't compromised by the underworld and those who
play fast and loose with law and order. No time can be
lost even if more tapes are played; especially if more
tapes are played.
END TEXT.
BULLEN