https://kiskadeewatch.com/opinion/letters/credible-probe-requires-immediate-removal-of-deputy-commissioner-fazil-karimbaksh/
Credible probe requires immediate removal of Deputy Commissioner Fazil Karimbaksh
Dear Editor,
In a statement published in the October 6 Guyana Chronicle (‘Minister Walrond rejects Red Thread’s misrepresentation of comments regarding Deputy Commissioner Fazil Karimbaksh’), Minister Oneidge Walrond stated, “For the avoidance of doubt, I did not say that the complainant would be confronted by the accused. I did not mandate such a confrontation, and I have issued no instruction directing investigators to subject the complainant to any procedure contrary to the Sexual Offences Act. What I communicated was information provided to me concerning the investigative process.”
If Minister Walrond’s briefing on the investigation included mention of a confrontation, then as an officer of the court who knows better and as the Minister to whom the police force answers, she has a responsibility to instruct them that the law does not permit a confrontation.
And while it is true that Minister Walrond stated that Deputy Commissioner Karimbaksh should be placed on administrative leave, we are not concerned with her personal views on this matter. The question is, why is he is still in his position? As the Minister under whose portfolio the Guyana Police Force (GPF) falls, she must consult with other Ministers and Commissioner of Police Clifton Hicken to establish the path to removing Fazil Karimbaksh from any position within the GPF where he may be able to exert influence on the investigation into the allegations against him by a female police inspector of rape and threatening behaviour.
Former Commissioner Paul Slowe has stated that the Public Service Commission is in fact not needed, and that the Commissioner can take immediate administrative action and send Karimbaksh on leave. There is also precedent – Police Commissioner Henry Greene was sent on leave in 2011 while an investigation was carried out into allegations of rape against him. And in 2012, after the charges of rape against Commissioner Greene were dismissed, Red Thread was among several women’s rights organisations that protested the Office of the President demanding his removal for professional misconduct, given his admission that he had sex with a woman who had sought assistance from his Office.
Minister Walrond referred to “the predictable selectivity of Red Thread’s public outrage” when it comes to “matters involving the PPP/C Government”. We would like to encourage the Minister to do some basic research, which will show that Red Thread has taken a public stand, whenever we are able, against whoever may be in government. A simple online search will show, for example, that in 2016, we led protests demanding the resignation of then Minister of Social Protection Volda Lawrence over her efforts to shield an APNU+AFC candidate who was accused of child molestation.
Let us be clear. In the interest of the protection of women and children, Red Thread has no friends.
Finally, Minister Walrond concludes that “[t]his is a serious criminal allegation involving a senior member of the Guyana Police Force…[that] deserves a serious investigation—not political theatre, manufactured controversy, or trial by public commentary”.
There is no question that an accusation of rape against such a senior officer requires serious investigation. Red Thread does not subscribe to “political theatre.” We are very happy that Minister Walrond agrees that “[t]he law must be followed consistently”, and we hope that she will in fact be overseeing an investigation that is “professional, impartial and thorough”. Such an investigation, to be credible, should begin with the immediate removal of Deputy Commissioner Fazil Karimbaksh while the investigation is ongoing.
At the end of the day, the law will take its course. Hopefully it will take that course without undue influence from those who seek to shelter rapists and abusers of women.
Yours faithfully,
Karen de Souza
Source: Kiskadee Watch
Development bank could transform the black pudding vendor
https://kiskadeewatch.com/opinion/letters/development-bank-could-transform-the-black-pudding-vendor/
Development bank could transform the black pudding vendor
Dear Editor,
I have followed with interest the comments of Winston Jordan, former Finance Minister under the previous PNC-led government, questioning whether the black pudding vendor in Buxton will ever benefit from the newly established Guyana Development Bank and its loans of up to GY$3 million without collateral and without interest.
Mr. Jordan raises a legitimate question, but I believe his characterization of the black pudding vendor does the entrepreneur an injustice. The vendor should not simply be presented as an example of someone unlikely to benefit. The economics suggest otherwise.
Consider a basic business plan. A properly organized 100-pound production could cost approximately GY$85,000, including ingredients, labour, utilities, packaging and transportation. At a selling price of GY$1,500 per pound, that production could generate approximately GY$150,000 in revenue. That demonstrates the potential for a viable enterprise, not merely a roadside hustle.
With proper management, accounting and access to markets, that small operation could become considerably larger.
What could GY$3 million do for such a business? It could provide commercial cooking equipment, refrigeration, food-preparation facilities, storage, improved packaging and transportation. It could allow the entrepreneur to purchase ingredients in bulk, employ additional workers and increase production. It could help transform a roadside food vendor into a properly registered food-processing business capable of supplying supermarkets, restaurants, shops and other retailers.
That is precisely the kind of transformation a development bank should seek to facilitate.
The fact that Mr. Jordan repeatedly invokes a black pudding vendor from predominantly Afro-Guyanese Buxton makes the question even more important. These entrepreneurs should not merely be political examples. They should have a genuine opportunity to become beneficiaries of economic development.
The Development Bank requires viable business ideas or plans and provides training and mentorship to help entrepreneurs become loan-ready. The real question, therefore, should not be whether the black pudding vendor can benefit, but whether the system will give that vendor a fair opportunity to prove what the business can become.
Let the black pudding vendor in Buxton be measured by the viability and potential of the business, not dismissed because of the size of the operation. If the Development Bank succeeds in turning that small enterprise into a sustainable business employing Guyanese and reaching wider markets, the vendor may become precisely the success story the programme was designed to create.
My grandmother made the best black pudding; I have never eaten any other that comes close. As such, I would add intangible value for patent rights!
Sincerely,
Keith Bernard
Discussion
Source: Kiskadee Watch
International probe into policing in Guyana remains urgent – GHRA
https://kiskadeewatch.com/guyana/international-probe-into-policing-in-guyana-remains-urgent-ghra/
International probe into policing in Guyana remains urgent – GHRA
-sees `Alice in Wonderland’ story-telling by Walrond on Karimbaksh matter
The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) yesterday said that an international investigation of policing here remains valid and urgent and it lambasted a response by the Home Affairs Minister about sexual assault allegations against Deputy Police Commissioner Fazil Karimbaksh.
“The response by the Minister of Home Affairs (Oneidge Walrond) to sexual assault allegations levelled against Deputy Commissioner of Police Fazil Karimbaksh are worthy of Alice in Wonderland story-telling. The Deputy Commissioner cannot be sent on leave because he is not charged with anything. He cannot be relieved of his duties because the Police Service Commission (PSC) has not been appointed. Who is responsible for appointing the PSC? The President of Guyana. Is the Minister calling on the President to appoint the Commission? No, she is going to consult the Commissioner of Police – whose continued occupancy in this post can be terminated at any time because he is beyond retirement age”, the human rights body said in a release.
The GHRA said its archives are replete with similar examples prompted by the lack of principled rather than partisan political approaches with respect to policing. Ten days after the allegations were made against Karimbaksh no official statement has been made over the investigative process to be adopted, exactly the length of time the GHRA said it took the Deputy Director of Prosecutions (DPP) to recommend murder charges for three men held responsible for the 73 deaths aboard the MV Barima.
“The Karimbaksh case also prompts a reminder of the public outrage in November 2021 when a teen-aged girl committed suicide two hours after her claims of rape were investigated by officers at Cove & John Police station. The suicide was then used to justify closing any further official investigation into her rape claims”, the GHRA said.
It charged that the culture of the current ruling party embraces similar bizarre directives to protect ‘their own’ in too many instances of sexual assault.
The GHRA said that the most scandalous example of police mishandling of an investigation occurred over the death of the child Adriana Younge in 2025 which triggered countrywide protest, but never resulted in any charges being laid. That event prompted presentation of an official Petition to Parliament signed by 195 individuals calling for “An immediate, independent and thorough investigation into the operations, conduct and leadership of the Guyana Police Force, to be conducted by a credible and impartial international organization”.
The GHRA said that this Parliamentary Petition was dismissed out-of-hand by the Speaker and never placed before Parliament.
The human rights body said that given the alleged levels of corruption and financial misconduct among senior police officers including allegations of money laundering of millions of Guyana dollars, bribery, illicit acquisition of assets and disappearance of seized narcotics, the arguments for an independent investigation of the Guyana Police Force remain valid and urgent.
Discussion
Source: Kiskadee Watch
The findings that the MV Barima inquiry should deliver
https://kiskadeewatch.com/opinion/letters/the-findings-that-the-mv-barima-inquiry-should-deliver/
The findings that the MV Barima inquiry should deliver
Dear Editor,
President Ali says that Guyanese could expect a Commission of Inquiry into the MV Barima tragedy that is of the highest quality. The president has given the same assurance in other circumstances and what Guyanese were left to deal with was Excellency Ali type quality.
Most Guyanese, including many from the PPP base, have a different definition, interpretation, and expectation of what real quality is, looks like, should be. It’s painful, but the president’s history with quality leads me to low to no expectations re the Barima COI. I present my expectations, which any quality COI should easily deliver awake or asleep.
First Finding: a culture of political intrusion and direction contributed heavily to 100 lives lost. Those in the political directorate who held up that and other boats, who overloaded it. They indirectly (and directly) killed 100 struggling, lower-rung-of-the-ladder natives. Names named. All the way up.
Second Finding: a culture of executive and administrative acquiescence had a hand in sending that boat and those bodies in it to the bottom. Cargo? Who cares about any damn minister’s precious cargo now lost? Highlight that, so that Guyana sees how governance functions, when the parades and speeches are done. Bottom line conclusion: an overloaded boat had an overdue date with the seabed and fishes.
Third Finding: there’s a clear picture of ministerial and managerial actions that reek of material derelictions. Responsible leadership. Risk appetite. Safety considerations. This finding should go above two names or two government portfolios.
Fourth Finding: ultimately, responsibility for the MV Barima tragedy rises above the names held out, goes beyond the clamour of vigilantes galloping forward and hunting for vengeance. Vigilantes go well with vengeance. But vigilantes-however well-intended, well-grounded, and well representative of the bottled rage of a people-are never about true justice. It’s the justice of the emotionally crazed, the bloodthirsty.
Fifth Finding: indeed, ministerial heads have hands stained with responsibility. But there are heads that are above their heads. Ministers don’t operate in vacuums, or the isolation of remote islands. Ministers accumulate reputations. Depending on that record, honestly compiled, they remain in place, or are terminated. When they are retained, despite chronic ills, then responsibility and accountability spiral higher. Who kept them? Who condoned their weaknesses? Who covered up their gaps? Who fostered a tragic culture (we are in charge and to hell with everybody else)? We do as we please, don’t answer to anyone. It was only a matter of time before a boat capsized, a road collapsed, a helicopter crashed, a children’s dorm burned.
Sixth Finding: 100 dead, Guyanese shattered, numbed, disillusioned. This can’t be clean governance. This has no ingredients that underpin trusted leadership at the highest level. Any level. Irresponsibility and treachery accelerated tragedy.
Seventh Finding: leadership platitudes added the profane to a painful set of circumstances. Leadership must talk way less, speak to truth far more, and work constantly and sincerely at generating real trust. Not racially motivated trust. Not money trust (bartered for as part of an exchange). Not propaganda energized trust. But real trust from real people, who don’t owe anything to anyone, most of all political dominators and dominatrices. This is right. This is wrong. This is who doesn’t belong.
In other countries, ministers were rolled out of offices, with their heads preceding. In some instances, entire governments took the honest, decent step. They departed. National leaders have done so, on principle, or in response to the power of the people, and the pressures they brought to catastrophic issues. A point worthy of note is that those national leaders had no well-tended, well populated pastures to retreat to, settle down, and write their memoirs. Or a textbook on cunning, but failed, leadership. A proper, honourable, self-respecting, MV Barima COI could, with one eye closed, one ear blocked, and one part of its mind otherwise occupied, arrive at the above findings inside a week.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
Discussion
Source: Kiskadee Watch
Four weeks of roundabout works planned at Timehri Junction
https://kiskadeewatch.com/guyana/four-weeks-of-roundabout-works-planned-at-timehri-junction/
Four weeks of roundabout works planned at Timehri Junction
Construction of a roundabout at the Timehri Junction began on October 3 and will last four weeks, with motorists advised to expect lane closures and allow additional travel time.
In a public advisory, the Ministry of Public Works said the construction forms part of the East Bank Demerara Road Improvement Project and is intended to ameliorate traffic flow and road safety at the junction.
One lane will be closed at a time to facilitate the works, but two-way traffic will be maintained using the available lane, according to the notice. Traffic police will assist with vehicle movement where necessary.
Motorists are being asked to reduce their speed to 30 kilometres per hour, obey traffic signs and instructions, and exercise caution when passing through the construction area. Signs, cones, barriers and warning devices will be installed to guide road users.
The ministry said an emergency access lane would be maintained at the entrance to the police station, allowing vehicles to enter and leave under police guidance.
No construction will take place at night, while access to residences and businesses will be maintained as far as practicable.
The advisory follows earlier announcements of construction and traffic changes along the East Bank corridor.
Kiskadee Watch reported on August 27 that vendors and other occupants at the Soesdyke Junction had been given a final two weeks to relocate ahead of heavy construction work scheduled for September 9 on a separate roundabout associated with the Soesdyke-Linden Highway reconstruction.
Public Works Minister Juan Edghill said that notice followed approximately a year of consultations. The ministry said a paved area would be provided for displaced vendors to allow them to continue operating.
The Soesdyke roundabout is intended to connect the East Bank corridor, the airport route and the Soesdyke-Linden Highway. Planned works there included drainage improvements, relocation of utilities and construction of a service road to maintain airport traffic during the project.
For information about the Timehri Junction works, the project hotline numbers are 656-7429 and 728-2031. The ministry can also be contacted on 620-2135 or 745-0232.
Discussion
Source: Kiskadee Watch
Discussion