Dear Editor,
Public hearings were held over three days by the United Nations Committee on Human Rights on conditions in Guyana. The installed government’s controversial principal representative fielded many probing questions from the highly skilled and thoroughly prepared members of the Committee.
Bharat Jagdeo upon the immediate completion of the proceedings demanded the disclosure of the names of individual informants to the body. Interestingly, transparency was the reason he gave for the revelation of the names. Note, transparency is non-existence under the current regime.
Good sense has been stoutly offended by Jagdeo’s demand given the very subjects the Committee pursued, and the many inadequate answers from the ill-prepared Gail Texeira, the Minister of Governance.
More troubling, is the fact that Jagdeo has allegedly been connected to killings, bribery, and stealing. He was also linked to a convicted drug kingpin who openly admitted to violent attacks on competitors of the Jagdeo government, and notorious money-launderers, gold smugglers and others who are wanted by US law enforcement agencies for various crimes.
Opponents of Jagdeo have been murdered, victimized in jobs, targeted in business, and run out of Guyana because of objecting to Jagdeo’s policies.
This august Committee has brought to international attention the political and economic injustices that are present in Guyana. Their work must be applauded.
For it to reveal the names of Guyanese and others who aided their work would undo their stellar contribution to Guyanese finding solutions to a poor and corrupt system of governance.
Yours truly,
Mark A. Benschop
Former Political Prisoner under Jagdeo’s Presidency