REPORT OF THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY APPOINTED TO ENQUIRE AND REPORT ON THE CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING THE DEATH IN AN EXPLOSION OF THE LATE DR WALTER RODNEY ON THIRTEENTH DAY OF JUNE ONE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY AT GEORETOWN VOLUME 1 REPORT AND APPENDICES FEBRUARY 2016 Transmittal Letter Contents Table of Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Tendered Exhibits Procedural Rules Correspondence Editorial Note 1 2 Transmittal of Report of the Commission of Inquiry to enquire into and report on the circumstances surrounding the death in an explosion of the late Dr Walter Rodney on the thirteenth day of June one thousand nine hundred and eighty at Georgetown To His Excellency David A Granger President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana Your Excellency In my capacity as Chairman of the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry I have the honour to submit the Report of the Inquiry to which the President appointed us by Instrument dated 8th February 2014 The Commissioners were in the Instrument of Appointment expected to submit their Report within ten 10 weeks from the start of the Commission The Commission started its work on 28th April 2014 As we understand it the premise informing the early submission date was that the Commission coming thirty-four 34 years after the death of Dr Walter Rodney and the events surrounding that event would in all probability be supported by only a few persons volunteering to give evidence and or having an interest in this matter That was a wholly mistaken view and the Commission was generously well supported by volunteer witnesses who had relevant and interesting evidence to give Some came from overseas to testify as well In addition to the volume of the evidence that was provided us it is always difficult to schedule hearings with three 3 Commissioners living in different 3 jurisdictions and all having professional commitments of their own At times too we have suffered delays because of the unavailability of witnesses to accommodate our timetabling By far however our greatest delay arose from the General Elections held in Guyana on 11th May 2015 We felt it wise and we were so advised that we should not be sitting while the parties were electioneering or immediately thereafter We therefore adjourned the hearings on March 27th 2015 and did not resume until 27th July 2015 In the end the Commission did not hear from all the witnesses scheduled to testify as the Government brought the Inquiry to a premature end Fortunately there was on record enough evidence to make significant findings of fact and some recommendations which we hope will be found useful For us it has been an incomparable honour to be asked to assist in what we hope will be the resolution of the controversy which has existed ever since 13th June 1980 on the circumstances surrounding Rodney's death We hope that the recommendations made will serve to address if indeed steps to that end have not already been taken many aspects of the operation of the Coroners' Department the Police Force and the army such that they would improve the speed efficiency and thoroughness with which they undertake their important responsibilities We hope too that this Report will help to bring closure to the irreplaceable and painful loss suffered by Dr Rodney's family Elsewhere we have expressed our appreciation to a wide range of organizations and individuals who have assisted us in our work Top of that list is the office of the President in the persons of President Ramotar your distinguished predecessor and your esteemed self The Commission has served to unearth a wealth of evidence relating to the circumstances surrounding Rodney's death It has also succeeded in highlighting the need for the improvement of the performance of the police investigative machinery particularly as it relates to the investigation of serious crimes especially murder Our work has exposed too the weaknesses of the record keeping of both the army and the police If resulting from our work there is a 4 correction of the limitations indicated we feel our work would not have been in vain Please accept Your Excellency the assurances of our highest consideration Back to Title Page 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENTS Letter of Transmittal Table of Appendices Table of Abbreviations CHAPTERS CHAPTER 1 Statement of Proceedings and Reasons for Conclusions CHAPTER 2 A Bibliography of Dr Walter Rodney CHAPTER 3 To examine the fact and circumstances immediately prior at the time of and subsequent to the death of Dr Walter Rodney in order to determine as far as possible who or what was responsible for the explosion resulting in the death of Dr Walter Rodney CHAPTER 4 To enquire into the cause of the explosion in which Dr Walter Rodney died whether it was an act of terrorism and if so who were the perpetrators CHAPTER 5 To specifically examine the role if any which the late Gregory Smith Sergeant of the Guyana Defence Force played in the death of Dr Walter Rodney and if so to enquire into who may have counselled procured aided and or abetted him to do so including facilitating his departure from Guyana after Dr Walter Rodney's death CHAPTER 6 To examine and report on the actions and activities of the State such as the Guyana Police Force the Guyana Defence Force the Guyana National Service the Guyana People's Militia and those who were in command and superintendence of these agencies to determine whether they were tasked with the surveillance of and 6 carrying out of actions and whether they did execute those tasks and carried out those actions against the political opposition for the period 1st January 1978 to 31st December 1980 CHAPTER 7 To examine review and report on earlier investigations and inquiries done on and into the death of Dr Walter Rodney CHAPTER 8 Critical Findings and summary on Gregory Smith CHAPTER 9 Recommendations TABLE OF APPENDICES APPENDIX 1 - Rules of Procedures APPENDIX 2 - List of Witnesses who gave Oral Evidence APPENDIX 3 - Names of Counsel who appeared on behalf of Witnesses APPENDIX 4 - Correspondence between the President and the Chairman of the Commission Back to Title Page 7 TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS Worker's Party Alliance People's National Congress People’s Progressive Party African Society for Cultural Relations with Independent Africa Guyana Defence Force The United Force People Democratic Movement Working People Vanguard Party Guyana Trades Union Congress Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union Clerical and Commercial Workers Union University of Guyana Workers Union Trades Union Congress Indian Political Revolutionary Associates Organization of Working People Movement Against Oppression Guyana Human Rights Association Committee in Defence of Democracy Guyana Mining Enterprise Ltd University of Guyana Proportional Representation 8 WPA PNC PPP ASCRIA GDF TUF PDM WPVP GTUC GAWU CCWC UGWU TUC IPRA OWP MAO GHRA CDD GUYMINE UG PR TABLE OF CONTENTS Paragraphs CHAPTER 1 – Statement of Proceedings Appointment of Commission of Inquiry Note on Background of Appointment 1 Letters Prior to Public Hearings 2 Procedural Rules 3 Public Hearings and Sessions 4 Premature Termination of the Commission 1 Change of Government 2 Effect of Premature Termination 3 Role of the Executive 4 Delivery of the Report 5 Secretary to the Commission 6 Counsel to the Commission 7 Acknowledgements i The Attorneys for Interested Parties ii The Commissioner of Police and Security Detail 8 The CAT Reporters 9 The Government Information Service 10 The Media 11 Written Material 12 The Pegasus Hotel 1 1 - 1 4 1 5 - 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 09 - 1 13 1 14 -1 21 1 22 - 1 26 1 27 - 1 28 1 29 - 1 31 1 32 1 33 1 34 1 35 1 36 CHAPTER 2 – Bibliography of Dr Walter Rodney 1 Walter Rodney 2 Walter The Family Man 3 What Factor Informed That Change of Outlook 4 Reaction to Rodney's Death 5 The Funeral 6 Distribution of Nursery Rhyme 2 1 - 2 31 2 32 - 2 35 2 36 2 37 - 2 39 2 40 - 2 42 2 43 - 2 49 CHAPTER 3 – To examine the fact and circumstances immediately prior at the time of and subsequent to the death of Dr Walter Rodney in order to determine as far as possible who or what was responsible for the explosion resulting in the death of Dr Walter Rodney – TOR 1 9 1 The Relationship between Rodney the WPA and Jagan 2 The Establishment and Workings of the House Israel 3 Philosophy of the House of Israel 4 Relationship between the House of Israel and the PNC 5 The Paramountcy of the PNC 6 Paramountcy and the public bureaucracy 7 The Implications of the PNC Rule for Collective Bargaining 8 Economic Conditions 9 Paramountcy and the Trade Unions 10 Increased Militarization of the State 10 Extra Judicial Killings 3 1 -3 12 3 13 - 3 19 3 20 - 3 27 3 28 - 3 36 3 37 - 3 45 3 46 - 3 60 3 61 - 3 70 3 71 - 3 74 3 75 - 3 78 3 79 - 3 85 3 87 - 3 101 CHAPTER 4 – To enquire into the cause of the explosion in which Dr Walter Rodney died whether it was an of terrorism and if so who were the perpetrators – TOR II 1 Time Place and Cause of Death 2 The Cause of the Explosion the Source of the Explosive and Circumstances Immediately Proximate to its Provenance 3 Whether the death of Walter Rodney was an Act of Terrorism 4 Accident or Deliberate Act 5 Police Investigations 6 Impact of Walter Rodney and the Activities of the WPA on the State and Political Parties – Motive 4 1- 4 16 4 17 - 4 38 4 39 - 4 47 4 48 - 5 60 4 61 - 4 74 4 75 - 4 100 CHAPTER 5 – To specifically examine the role if any which the late Gregory Smith sergeant of the Guyana Defence Force played in the death of Dr Walter Rodney and if so to inquire into who may have counselled procured aided and or abetted him to do so including facilitating his departure from Guyana after Dr Walter Rodney's death – TOR III The Role of Gregory Smith 5 1 - 5 22 CHAPTER 6 – To examine and report on the actions and activities of the state such as the Guyana Police Force the Guyana Defence Force the Guyana National Service the Guyana People's Militia and those who were in command and superintendence of these agencies to determine whether they were tasked with the surveillance of and the carrying out of actions and whether they did execute those tasks and carried out those actions against the 10 political opposition for the period 1st January 1978 to 31st December 1980 – TOR IV Examination and Report of Actions and Activities 6 1 - 6 36 CHAPTER 7 – To examine and report on earlier investigations and inquiries done on and into the death of Dr Walter Rodney – TOR V Examination and Report on Earlier Investigation Significant Findings 7 1 - 7 34 7 35 - 7 41 CHAPTER 8 – Critical findings and summary on Gregory Smith 8 1 – 8 26 CHAPTER 9 – Recommendations 9 1 - 9 12 Back to Title Page 11 12 CHAPTER 1 Background to Appointment of Commission of Inquiry 1 1 - Dr Walter Rodney met his death in violent and controversial circumstances it John’s Street near the Georgetown Prison Guyana in the early night of the 13th day of June 1980 1 2 - Thirty-four 34 years later and specifically on the 6th day of February 2014 the President of the Republic of Guyana established a Commission of Inquiry pursuant to the Commission of Inquiry Act Chapter 19 03 with the following Terms of Reference set out herein 1 3 - The following person were appointed as Commissioners Sir Richard L Cheltenham KA Q C Ph D – Chairman Mr Seenath Jairam S C Mrs Jacqueline Samuels-Brown Q C 1 4 - The Terms of Reference of the Commission were as follows i To examine the facts and circumstances immediately prior at the time of and subsequent to the death of Dr Walter Rodney in order to determine as far as is possible who is or what was responsible for the explosion resulting the death of Walter Rodney ii To enquire into the cause of the explosion in which Dr Rodney died whether it was an act of terrorism and if so who were the perpetrators iii To specifically examine the role if any which the late Gregory Smith Sergeant of the Guyana Defence Force played in the death of Dr Walter Rodney and if so to inquire into who may have counselled procured aided or abetted him to do so including facilitating his departure from Guyana after Dr Walter Rodney’s death iv To examine and report on the actions and activities of the State such as the Guyana Police Force the Guyana Defence Force the Guyana National Security the Guyana People’s Militia and those who were in command and superintendence of those agencies to determine whether they were tasked with the surveillance of and carrying out of actions and whether they did 13 execute those tasks and carried out those actions against the Political Opposition for the period 1st January 1978 to 31st December 1980 v To examine review and report on earlier investigations and inquiries done and into the death of Dr Walter Rodney A Note on Background to Appointment 1 5 - Prior to our appointment as a Commission of Inquiry there was no official public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr Walter Rodney which occurred some thirty-four 34 years ago 1 6 - There was however a coroner’s inquest into his death which took place some eight 8 years after his death There was too an inquiry into his death which was carried out by the International Commission of Jurists Statement of Procedures 1 Letters Prior to Public Hearings 1 7 - The Commissioners were determined to build public support for our task by meeting with persons and organizations that may have been able to assist the public inquiry directly or indirectly Accordingly we held meetings with the following persons          The President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force The Leader of the Opposition and or leaders of the main political parties The Chancellor of the Judiciary The Commissioner of Police The Private Sector Commission The head of the Chamber of Commerce The head of the Trades Union Congress Heads of major religious organizations and or head of the main interreligious organization We wish to place on record our sincere gratitude to the persons and organizations mentioned above who were most gracious cooperative and understanding of our role and function 14 2 Procedural Rules 1 8 - The Commissioners drafted the Rules governing the procedure to be followed during the Inquiry The Rules were published in the Official Gazette the 22nd of April 2014 A copy of the Rules appears as Appendix 1 3 Public Hearings and Sessions 1 9 - The Inquiry’s public hearings began on April 28th 2014 We held 66 sessions on the following dates 28 April 2014 to 2 May 2014 27 May 2014 to 6 June 2014 23 June 2014 to 2 July 2014 29 July 2014 to 7 August 2014 25 August 2014 to 29 August 2014 20 October 2014 to 7 November 2014 26 January 2015 to 30 January 2015 9 February 2015 to 20 February 2015 23 March 2015 to 27 March 2015 27 July 2015 to 31 July 2015 28 September 2015 to 2 October 2015 We heard the oral evidence of some 31 witnesses 29 of whom were examined cross-examined and re-examined where necessary Among them two 2 witnesses were heard in-camera at the witnesses’ request In addition we heard the incomplete evidence of two 2 other witnesses namely Major General Ret’d Norman Mc Lean and Holland Yearwood also called Jomo The list of the witnesses who came before the Commission appears at Appendix 2 1 10 - We wish to say that upon our appointment we were concerned about the availability of the witnesses and their memories having regard to the lapse of time between the events of 1980 and our appointment Any doubts and concerns which we had were dispelled at an early stage 1 11 - Mr Denbow of the Commission Secretariat assisted by Counsel to the Commission and investigators went about the task of identifying contacting persuading and interviewing potential witnesses with zeal skill determination and resourcefulness We were helped too by the fact that we had available to us the record of the coroner’s inquest proceedings as well as the record of the trial of 15 Donald Rodney before the magistrate court Also available to us was the report of the International Commission of Jurists which visited Guyana during the period 14 March to 17 March 1995 and produced its Report dated 2nd May 1995 1 12 - In addition even though many individuals who played important roles in this event are dead many are still alive and were prepared to testify And even though some were prevented from so doing by the premature termination of the Commission statements were provided by them and were available to us 1 13 - A large number of witnesses who had not given evidence previously came forward voluntarily and offered to testify We are particularly grateful to them and indeed to all of the witnesses for their public-spiritedness 4 Premature Termination of the Commission 1 Change of Government 1 14 - The Rodney Commission adjourned its sittings on Friday March 27th 2015 and set no date for its resumption as the general election was eminent That election was held on Monday May 11th 2015 It resulted in a change of government 1 15 - The present administration led by President David Granger determined that the Rodney Commission would be given two more days of public hearings—July 27th and 28th The letter communicating that information and further correspondence between the Chairman and the President thereon are here exhibited as Appendix 4 1 16 - Both days were devoted to receiving submissions from Commission counsel as well as counsel representing interested parties 2 Effect of Premature Termination 1 17 - The decision of the Executive will have implications for the thoroughness and completeness of the report In so far as there were at least ten 10 witnesses still to be heard and who will not now be heard some of the Terms of Reference not adequately supported by the testimony received will so remain 1 18 - In addition the fairness of the report will be impacted as well Some individuals who have been adversely criticized by witnesses in the course of the 16 hearings have not been provided an opportunity to answer and or comment on those criticisms No adverse findings can in the circumstances be made against those individuals 1 19 - We feel obliged to observe however that it is wholly within the competence of the Executive arm of government to terminate the public hearings of a Commission That type of action or variants of it is not at all unknown 3 Role of the Executive 1 20 - It must be remembered that commissions of inquiry are creatures of the Executive The Executive arm of government inter alia       Establishes commissions Determines their Terms of Reference Decides who constitutes the Commissions and who will be the Chairman Arranges for the location of the public hearings Provides the funding for the activities of the Secretariat Compensates the Commissioners on terms negotiated with them prior to their appointment and much more 4 Delivery of the Report 1 21 - The Commission was given at the outset until November 30th 2015 to deliver its Report to the President For a miscellany of reasons some personal to the Commissioners and others related to the Commission itself extensions of the dates for the delivery of the Report have been sought and granted the last of which is to end on February 8th 2016 5 Secretary to the Commission 1 22 - Mr Hugh Denbow was appointed as head of the Commission’s Secretariat and later Secretary to the Commission following the departure of Nicole Pierre His was a large and serious task involving identifying and sourcing literature and documentation relevant to the period and identifying too and persuading individuals who would be of help to the Commission to testify He was responsible too for all the administrative arrangements to ensure the smooth functioning of the Commission 17 No paragraph 1 23 1 24 - Always Mr Denbow busy with matters outside the Commission like the chairmanship of the Civil Aviation Authority discharged his duties with seriousness and diligence and at all times travel arrangements for the Commissioners coming from Jamaica Trinidad Tobago and Barbados were carefully made The arrangements for our accommodation at the Pegasus Hotel and for our transportation to and from were at all times of a high order 1 25 - Mr Denbow was assisted at all times by a courteous and efficient staff who constituted the Secretariat No praise can be too high for the manner in which they performed their duties We were fully satisfied 1 26 - The typing of the report and its compilation was undertaken by my personal secretary Ms Sophia Payne She came to Guyana ten 10 days before the presentation of the Report and worked for long hours with single-minded devotion and with large efficiency and resourcefulness to ensure that the Report was faithfully typed carefully arranged and complete We are indebted to her 6 Counsel to the Commission 1 27 - On 3rd March 2014 counsel appointed to the Commission were Mr Glen Hanoman as lead counsel together with Ms Latchmie Rahamat Attorney-at-Law Ms Nicola Pierre was appointed as secretary to the Office of the Commission until she relinquished her post to take up the appointment of Commissioner of Title Judge of the Land Court on 19th November 2014 1 28 - Commission counsel though not attached to the Commission full time did an excellent job in assisting the Secretariat in taking witness statements and in questioning the witnesses in the course of presenting the evidence We are indebted to them 7 Acknowledgments 1 29 - Apart from the persons mentioned in paras 1 15 to 1 18 there are others to whom we must express our profound thanks for their assistance during the period of the functioning of the Commission 18 i Counsel for interested parties 1 30 - The attorneys for the interested parties helped to make our task more manageable This we fully appreciate The list of attorneys is here attached as Appendix 3 ii The Commissioner of Police and security detail 1 31 - The Commissioner of Police displayed a high regard for our safety and security He kept us safe and preserved order during the proceedings of the Commission At no time was it necessary for us to call upon police officers to preserve order during the Inquiry or at all We shall be forever indebted to those members of the security detail who remained with us from our first day to the last except for a brief interruption We are happy too to mention the team of drivers who discharged their duties in a punctual and professional manner 8 The CAT reporters 1 32 - The proceedings of the Commission of Inquiry were recorded verbatim by a dedicated and seemingly indefatigable group of Computer-Aided Transcriptionists CAT reporters Every day’s proceedings was transcribed and made available to us late the same evening We acknowledge a large debt of gratitude to Pamela Binda and her team who prepared the transcripts 9 The Government Information Service 1 33 - Our public hearings were telecast live and repeated later in the evenings We wish to thank Mr Ragubir the producers in the studio the camera crews and all those who ensured that the public were the recipients of telecasts of high quality 10 The media 1 34 - Our proceedings in public were also faithfully reported by the print media The Stabroek News Guyana Chronicle Kaieteur News and Guyana Times made sure that they attended each day’s sitting of the Commission We thank them for their commitment to informing the public We had very few complaints about the accuracy or correctness of their reporting 19 11 Written material 1 35 - We were provided with copies of books written on Guyana from different perspectives Some were written too covering the period in which Dr Walter Rodney met his death They were generally helpful and we express appreciation to the following authors  Jai Narine Singh - Guyana Democracy Betrayed A Political History 1948 – 1993  Nanda K Gopaul - Resistance and Change The Struggles of Guyana Workers 1964 – 1994 with Emphasis on the Sugar Industry  Eusi Kwayana - Walter Rodney  Father Andrew Morrison S J - Justice The Struggle for Democracy in Guyana 1952 – 1992  Walter Rodney - The Struggle Goes On  Sallahuddin - Guyana The Struggle for Liberation 1945–1992  Ashton Chase - Guyana A Nation in Transit Burnham’s Role  David A Granger - National Defence A Brief History of the Guyana Defence Force 1965 – 2005  George K Danns - Domination and Power in Guyana A Study of the Police in a Third World Context 12 The Pegasus Hotel 1 36 - During our hearings Commissioners were accommodated at the Pegasus Hotel We were very comfortable Besides at all times we were made to feel welcome by the management and staff of the facility Back to Title Page 20 CHAPTER 2 A BIBLIOGRAPHY ON DR WALTER RODNEY 2 1 - Both the Dr Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry and the Report that follows are largely about Rodney how he met his death who was responsible therefor and whether the person responsible acted alone or whether he was counselled procured aided or abetted so to do 2 2 - In that context no justification is needed for commencing the Report with a biographical note on Dr Walter Anthony Rodney 2 3 - Walter Rodney was born in Georgetown Guyana on March 23rd 1942 He came from a working class family of five 5 sons His father Edward was a tailor and his mother Pauline was a seamstress They were both supporters of the PPP According to his older brother Lawrence Edward Rodney Walter was a “bright boy” at school and got a scholarship to Queen’s College the top male high school in the country There he excelled academically and earned a reputation as an outstanding debater Walter also had an interest in sports and was a good athlete 2 4 - In 1960 Walter graduated first in his class and won an open scholarship to the University College of the West Indies as it was then known at Mona Jamaica He entered the History Department and graduated with First Class Honours in 1963 Rodney then attended the School of Oriental and African Studies a constituent college of the University of London where at age 24 he received his Ph D with Honours in African History Rodney’s thesis A History of the Upper Guinea Coast was published by Oxford University Press in 1970 2 5 - As a student in Jamaica Walter maintained his reputation as an outstanding debater Besides he participated in discussion circles 2 6 - When Walter was in London his brother Lawrence was also there He testified that they both spoke at Hyde Park and attended meetings at the West Indies Student Centre Besides they attended Pan African type events 2 7 - In 1965 when Walter was in London he participated in a symposium on Guyana It was during that period that he came in contact with the prominent West Indian intellectual and political analyst C L R James and became one of his devoted students 21 2 8 - Walter was multi-lingual He learnt Spanish Portuguese French and Swahili in order to facilitate his research for his doctoral thesis 2 9 - The teaching appointment which Walter first accepted was in Tanzania before returning to Jamaica and to the University of the West Indies in 1968 as a lecturer in the History Department 2 10 - In Jamaica Rodney combined his scholarship with activism and became a voice for the under-represented and the disenfranchised He became particularly close to the Rastafarians and the Jamaican masses to whom he took his message of Black Power black liberation and black consciousness He shared his knowledge of African history with them And his speeches and lectures to those groups were published as Groundings With My Brothers It became a piece of literature critical to the Caribbean Black Power movement 2 11 - Rodney’s activities had by then attracted the attention of the Jamaican government then headed by Prime Minister Hugh Shearer And after attending the Black Writers’ Conference in Montreal Canada in 1968 Rodney was banned from re-entering Jamaica That decision attracted considerable publicity in Jamaica and beyond It sparked widespread riots and revolts in Kingston on October 6th 1968 in what came to be known as the “Rodney Riots ” 2 12 - Having been expelled from Jamaica Walter returned to Tanzania There he lectured from 1968 to 1974 and continued his groundings in Tanzania and other parts of Southern Africa He became deeply involved in the African liberation struggles of that era And that influenced his second major work and his best known How Europe Underdeveloped Africa It was published in London in 1972 It has since been translated into many languages Father Malcolm Rodrigues the Jesuit priest and friend of Rodney testified that he met a professor from Australia who informed him that Rodney was respected not only in Europe but in Australia as well Further that the book is regarded “as compulsory reading for any student who wishes to embark on a study of African history ” 2 13 - Notwithstanding the pressures in the last year of his life Rodney managed to complete four books including an academic work 1 A History of the Guyanese Working People 1881–1905 2 A Political Call to Action People’s Power No Dictator and 3 Two children’s books i Icofi Baadu Out of Africa and 22 ii Lakshmi Out of India Other books written by Rodney include Masses in Action 1966 The Imperialist Partition of Africa 1970 The Question of Disengagement from Imperialism 1971 Tanzanian Ujamaa and Scientific Socialism 1972 The African Revolution 1972 Marxism and African 1975 Class Contradictions in Tanzania 1975 International Class Struggle in Africa the Caribbean and America 1975 2 14 - Rodney through his writings and his publishing established an intellectual tradition which today makes Dar-es-Salaam one of the centres of African politics and history Critical articles were written by Rodney on Tanzanian Ujamaa imperialism underdevelopment and the problems of state and class formation in Africa Many of the articles which were written in Tanzania appeared in Maji Maji the discussion journal of the TANU Youth League at the university Ujamaa in Swahili means “extended family” “brotherhood” or socialism It is a political concept developed by Julius Nyerere of Tanzania asserting that a person develops through his community 2 15 - Walter Rodney was a Pan-Africanist He developed close political relationships with those who were struggling to change the external control of Africa He was also very close to some of the leaders of the liberation movements in Southern Africa Together with other Pan-Africanists he participated in discussions leading up to the Sixth Pan-African Congress held in Tanzania in 1974 In preparation for the Congress he wrote a piece “Towards the Sixth PanAfrican Congress Aspects of the International Class Struggle in Africa the Caribbean and America ” 2 16 - In 1974 Walter Rodney returned to Guyana to take up an appointment as professor of history at the University of Guyana The academic board had appointed him but the University Council described by Eusi Kwayana as a “political body ” rescinded that appointment 2 17 - According to the testimony of the Eusi Kwayana “the whole country was looking forward to Dr Walter Rodney even before he set foot in Guyana ” He continued “From the time he was banned from Jamaica and came to the notice of 23 the public as a son abroad he was a very popular force in the imagination and hearts of the Guyanese people ” 2 18 - Resulting from the council’s rescission of his appointment the African Society for Cultural Relations with Independent Africa in Guyana ASCRIA decided to develop a national coalition of resistance According to Mr Kwayana the recession of his appointment was seen by ASCRIA as “everybody business ” In consequence all the political parties were spoken to including the PPP with its large constituency among Indian Guyanese at that time the Working People’s Vanguard Party the Indian Political Revolutionary Associates IPRA and the Liberator Party 2 19 - Public meetings to protest the rescission of the appointment of Dr Rodney were being held and this raised what Mr Kwayana described as “a storm and great resentment from the government and they had it be known that this was not a welcomed step ” 2 20 - There was according to Eusi Kwayana “spite fear and hostility to Walter Rodney even before his return ” He attributed this to the fact that Walter Rodney at the street corners was a very effective person speaker and that Rodney later called the head of government “King Kong” and made other remarks to his discredit 2 21 - The House of Israel as described by Mr Kwayana was a “kind of street force for the regime for the time ” and he testified that they played a great role in the attack on the public meetings and the resulting disruptions 2 22 - Mr Kwayana in the course of his testimony recalled the meeting at Middle and Cummings Streets and that when Dr Jagan was talking the “assault began ” Mr Kwayana explained that Dr Jagan speaking in Georgetown “was not a welcomed thing for the rival party ” In Mr Kwayana’s words “there was a legitimacy war between the PPP and the PNC as to who was the rightful ruler of Guyana So the PNC ruling at that time with a two-thirds majority could not allow certain people to speak to the citizens of Georgetown” That was part of his analysis of the political situation in Guyana 2 23 - The meeting was described by Mr Kwayana as “massive” and he added that “nothing like it had been seen since the 1950s when the popular united Peoples Progressive Party before the split won the election hands down ” The public meetings were described as “large multi-racial and energetic ” That was said Mr Kwayana an experience spectacle that had died since 1955 24 2 24 - The PNC felt the organized response to the university council’s decision not to confirm the Academic Board decision to appoint Dr Rodney to the Chair in History was “a challenge” and that those organizing the public meetings had “no right to give a microphone to their rival ” In fact Mr Kwayana revealed that while Dr Jagan was just opening his speech a policeman came up and stopped him He added that when Tacuma Ogunseye a market vendor and craftsman who was also a political activist founding member of the WPA and a close associate of Dr Rodney tried to defend Dr Jagan he was charged with assaulting a peace officer 2 25 - The protest in support of Dr Rodney was not only domestic but according to Mr Kwayana it came “from all around the post-colonial world ” He referred to a letter from Professor Ali Mazrui a Kenyan scholar of “great eminence ” sent to the Ambassador of Guyana in Washington DC to be transmitted to the government of Guyana pleading that to paraphrase Mr Kwayana “they do not make the mistake of shutting out a person with the qualities of Dr Walter Rodney from the educational institutions of the government of Guyana ” He appealed not to let the gentleman become just “another exile somewhere in the so-called metropolis ” 2 26 - Subsequent to his return to Guyana Rodney spent much time educating the masses in public meetings which he saw as a forum for both education as well as agitation He also spoke with smaller groups which were attended by WPA members supporters and others not restricted to those living in Georgetown He was invited to give lectures at the University of Guyana at the request of the University of Guyana Workers’ Union He later extended those classes to bauxite workers in the communities of McKenzie Kwakwani and Everton Additionally he held history classes as his home 2 27 - Rodney further extended his educational reach to sugar workers as well Though his work in that respect was wrote Ogunseye “less formal and less intensive due to the fact that the sugar workers were not physically concentrated in one place like the bauxite workers ” He added that sugar workers were historically organized by the PPP and the WPA and Rodney in order to maintain opposition unity and avoid antagonizing the PPP “was careful to avoid being seen as courting PPP supporters ” 2 28 - When Rodney returned to Guyana in 1975 the WPA was already established He joined the party and though he never held any formal position therein he was rapidly perceived by the masses as the leader of the party As the 25 principal spokesman of the WPA at a conference sponsored by the graduate students of the State University of New York at Binghamton and the Institute for Global Cultural Studies in 1986 in honour of Rodney’s life work Ogunseye indicated that Rodney took the lead in articulating the strategy of the party in the following respects 1 De-emphasizing race and emphasizing class 2 Understanding that political power would not be achieved by electoral means 3 Recognizing that the party organization had to be both overt and covert 4 Seeing the need to mount a direct challenge to the self-created image of the dictator Burnham and 5 Recognizing that the masses must be involved in their own selfemancipation 2 29 - Rodney was a master in the art of public speaking and added Ogunseye “It was his willingness to lead by example even in the most daring engagements in pursuit of his objectives that captured the imagination of the entire party and the Guyanese masses ” He was a slim man of average height who was easily recognized by his distinctive beard and bespectacled visage 2 30 - On July 11th 1978 the office of the General Secretary of the People’s National Congress and the Ministry of National Development was destroyed by fire The next day a number of WPA members and supporters were detained included among them were Dr Rodney Dr Roopnarine and Omawale prominent activists and intellectuals who were arrested and charged with arson 2 31 - That heightened a process of public confrontation with what Ogunseye termed was “the PNC dictatorship ” That confrontation ushered in the civil rebellion and eventually the death of Rodney on Friday June 13th 1980 at age 38 Walter The family man 2 32 - Walter was married to Dr Patricia Rodney and had three children namely Shaka his son and Kanini and Asha his daughters 2 33 - Walter did not spend all of his energies in writing mobilization and lecturing He was a rounded man according to his wife Patricia who was good with his hands and built all the book shelves in his house He was very involved too in the life of his children and took them to school most mornings and 26 alternated with his wife in picking them up on evenings He even insisted on combing the girls’ hair which according to his wife “he could not do ” In fact on the very evening of his death Rodney had earlier attended an event at one of his daughters’ school 2 34 - Every Friday evening he had a meeting with his children and reviewed with them their school work and enquired how they were getting on According to Patricia he took the children everywhere and they ended up frequently at the Archives Whenever convenient so to do he took them with him on his visits to Linden 2 35 - On the morning of June 13th 1980 he took the children to school and returned home where he and his wife discussed a recent invitation for him to work at the university in Zimbabwe He had in the past ignored many such invitations from other universities On this occasion he was particularly keen and actually decided to go to Zimbabwe Later the evening he was dead What factors informed that change of outlook 2 36 - That seems explainable on several bases To begin with he had recently lost a close fellow activist He was aware too of the stresses being felt by his in-laws who were subjected to frequent police visits and searches In addition he felt it necessary for the children’s education to be pursued in an environment more conducive to learning The dangers of the society were not at all lost ‘on him and in the past he had brushed them aside because he felt he had a commitment to continue the work he was doing in terms of building the solidarity between the races in Guyana And that took precedence Reaction to Rodney’s death 2 37 - The immediate reaction of the Catholic Church to Rodney’s death was to call for Guyanese to refuse to what Father Andrew Morrison S J in his book Justice The Struggle for Democracy in Guyana 1952–1992 at page 152 called “the option of counter violence and to proclaim by word and deed their opposition to violence ” 2 38 - Many stirring tributes were paid to Rodney on the day of his interment and the celebrated Barbadian author and friend of Rodney George Lamming in paying tribute declared 27 “Today we meet in a dangerous land and at the most dangerous of times The danger may be that the supreme authority the supervising conscience of this nation has ceased to be amenable to any requirement of ordinary human decency ” Quoted by Father Morrison at page 156 of his book 2 39 - Of Rodney’s death Burnham echoed a different note and had this to say “Sad as I am at his inglorious end I know that somewhere therein there is bound to be a lesson for the misguided others ” The funeral 2 40 - Ms Karen De Souza was not a member of the WPA but was sympathetic to their cause and followed up their meetings She was friendly too with many in the leadership of the WPA 2 41 - She testified that the funeral of Rodney was “an astonishing display of racial solidarity and defiance ” The defiance was explained on the premise that it was made known that to attend Rodney’s funeral was to risk losing one’s job She also described the funeral procession which moved from along the East Coast into the city as “the most massive display of racial solidarity in the recent history of Guyana with over 30 000 in attendance ” 2 42 - A large number of persons came from many parts of the world “not all of whom were allowed to enter the country ” according to the evidence of Eusi Kwayana Distribution of Nursery Rhyme 2 43 - The early hours of the morning following the death of Dr Rodney there were distributed in the yard outside of his house and in the streets of Georgetown what appears to be a nursery rhyme It was simply entitled TO WALTER And it was significant that it appeared at a time when the details of his death were not fully known 2 44 - The text is as follows TO WALTER Hickory Dickory Doc Appointment at 8 o’clock We wouldn’t need no bail 28 And this walkie-talkie start talk Rockabye Rodney now lives in the past Dispatched to his master so quick and so fast T’was never the intention That his fiendish invention Would choose his own lap for the blast Text of a pamphlet that began circulating on the streets of Georgetown early in the morning of Saturday June 14 1980 The lines parody the children’s nonsense rhyme Hickory Dickory Doc 2 45 - The rhyme contains details of Rodney’s death such as its suddenness which resulted from the walkie-talkie and which at the time was located on his lap The words to “Rockabye Walter” appear to be a reference to the lullaby “Rockabye Baby” which is well known and deals with people falling from great heights often to their deaths 2 46 - We regard it as a posthumous taunt seeking to mock and trivialize Dr Rodney’s death 2 47 - Nursery rhymes though often seen as solely for the entertainment of children oft-times have hidden meanings They can be important records of historical events or propaganda pieces 2 48 - In this case there appears to be a propaganda component to the rhyme as it refers to Rodney’s fiendish device and the implied theory seems to suggest that he had obtained the incendiary device for some sinister purpose of his own It suggests too that he was responsible for his own death 2 49 - It seems likely that the rhyme was intended to send a message of terror to those whom Burnham referred to in his comment on Rodney’s death as “the misguided others ” It would appear too that it was intended to deflect suspicion from other persons and support the thesis of an accident which was wholly attributable to Rodney Back to Title Page 29 CHAPTER 3 To examine the fact and circumstances immediately prior at the time of and subsequent to the death of Dr Walter Rodney in order to determine as far as possible who or what was responsible for the explosion resulting in the death of Dr Walter Rodney – TOR 1 The Relationship between Rodney WPA and Jagan 3 1 - Whatever semblance of interracial unity might have resulted from the victory of the PPP in 1953 with Jagan and Burnham operating under the same roof as it were was shattered following the suspension of the constitution by the British government and the split of the PPP later in 1953 3 2 - Jagan was flirting with communism and Burnham was presented as a liberal democrat committed to a democratic and constitutional path to the country’s development That split in the semblance of ethnic harmony was further widened when in 1957 Burnham founded the People’s National Congress PNC Its support was mainly among Afro-Guyanese and in the urban centres The PPP was on the other hand almost exclusively supported by the Indo-Guyanese found in the savannah areas and the country districts 3 3 - The PPP won the general elections in 1957 and 1961 Those victories reflected the stubborn demographic reality that Indo-Guyanese constituted 51% of the population and Afro-Guyanese were no more than 35% In the first-past-thepost electoral system such as operated in Guyana at the time the PPP had a distinct advantage and could not be easily defeated 3 4 - Jagan’s pro-communist stance in the midst of the Cold War was a matter of deep concern to Washington and London It did not come as a surprise when at the independence talks there was an acute divide between the PPP and the PNC and the United Force a third party on the question of what electoral system should obtain in the general election insisted upon by the British government as a precondition to independence 3 5 - In the face of deadlock with respect to the electoral system that should be instituted going forward Jagan suggested that the Secretary of State for the Colonies should determine the matter He supported the Opposition’s insistence on proportional representation PR 30 3 6 - What PR did was to lessen the large electoral divide between the IndoGuyanese and the Afro-Guyanese It provided a third party namely the United Force led by a Portuguese businessman and which was fundamentally opposed to Jagan’s views the opportunity to secure enough seats to join with Burnham in forming the government in 1964 and 1968 3 7 - But when once the coalition between the PNC and the United Force had collapsed and Burnham had exhausted his technique of attracting sitting members of the PPP to his administration new modalities were needed to keep a distinctly minority party in power 3 8 - It was in that context that Burnham took political control of the electoral machinery disadvantaged the opposition parties on election day and through various techniques of doubtful validity ranging from overseas voting phantom voting proxy voting succeeded in rigging the elections in 1968 By 1973 the intervention of the army and postal voting came into effect Thereafter Burnham and the PNC won each and every general election up until his death in 1985 3 9 - By the time Dr Rodney returned to live in Guyana in 1974 there was evidence of an emerging dictatorship Rodney rapidly stood out as a man capable of bridging the gap of Guyanese of all ethnicities He brought new life to the Guyana political scene In addition he forged a close working relationship between himself and the WPA with Jagan and the PPP 3 10 - According to Mr Clement Rohee in his testimony “The core matter of the understanding between these two men was very solid They had a broad vision of what they needed to do how they needed to work but those differences never undermined the unity or the vision that they had ” They were concerned to effect “change to improve the wellbeing of the working people ” 3 11 - Mr Rohee did not think there was any fundamental difference in ideology between Rodney and Jagan Jagan was cast in the mould of “an established communist leader” and Rodney was seen as a “revolutionary democrat ” Both wanted to “achieve unity of the working people united struggles by the representative organizations bringing the trade unions together and this common vision to make Guyana a better place for its people that was basically it ” In terms of tactics they both placed emphasis on work among the representative organizations of the working people which were trade unions and the mass organizations which Rohee identified as including the farmers and religious bodies As Mr Rohee expressed it “the whole idea was to work to create a broad-based 31 unity of these organizations with a common objective of taking advantage of the isolation of the PNC and the local condition to make a change in government ” 3 12 - The WPA mainly through Rodney’s presence was attracting large crowds to its public meetings And many if not all of these meetings were disrupted by members of the House of Israel often in the presence of the Guyana constabulary who did nothing to restrain them The Establishment and Workings of the House of Israel 3 13 - The House of Israel was a religious cult founded by David Hill a former civil rights activist in the United States who had taken part in many protests and demonstrations There in the United States he was convicted of corporate blackmail and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison 3 14 - He came to Guyana in January of 1972 while on bail pending appeal and that explains why Eusi Kwayana in testifying about the House of Israel and its leader referred to him as “fugitive from justice ” 3 15 - David Hill called himself Rabbi Edward Washington and attracted to his religious services mostly though not exclusively poor uneducated men and women for whom he provided housing at the headquarters of the House of Israel on Sixth Street and Light Street Alberttown 3 16 - The Commission was fortunate to hear from Joseph Hamilton who was actively involved with the cult from 1977 to 1987 except for the period when he was out of Guyana He provided an insider’s view as it were of the structure of the organization its guiding principles its close relationship with the PNC and its role in disrupting the meetings of the opposition parties particularly the WPA We accept his evidence as both truthful and helpful 3 17 - Mr Hamilton who was Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Health when he testified revealed that people of all strata of society including persons who were members of the disciplined forces in the country constituted the membership of the House of Israel 3 18 - He revealed that their members received training from personnel of the Guyana Defence Force some of whom were members of the House of Israel They were too among its members servicemen and policemen both active and retired 32 Training in the use of firearms and bomb making was provided by Mr Wycliff McAllister Philosophy of the House of Israel 3 19 - The three pillars on which the philosophy of the House of Israel was based according to Mr Hamilton were as follows i ii iii That the original Jews were black Africans Self love which meant in effect that their members were supportive of one another as people of African descent Reliance on oneself as a people supporting one another in businesses based on our “ethnic origin ” 3 20 - Father Andrew Morrison in his book Justice The Struggle for Democracy in Guyana – 1952 – 1992 devotes much space—pp 167 to 175—to the House of Israel According to him Rabbi Washington preached “a strongly racist doctrine taking liberties with the Bible to prove that Jesus was a black man and that the only true Jews were African ” 3 21 - Of the Rabbi he wrote that he claimed to be more than Elijah he was God “He would tell his cheering congregation if I am not God let the real God strike me down ” From his followers he demanded and received total submission He in turn exercised total control over the most important areas of their lives For example they had to obtain his permission to accept employment to form love relationships to marry and even to discipline their children And Father Morrison reported that while visiting him while reporting for the Catholic Standard he heard members greet Washington as “hail Master ” 3 22 - Mr Hamilton offered some insight into the structure of the organization He testified that those who had an interest in assuming a leadership role in the organization needed to participate in what he called “a Priesthood Lecture College” which offered several lectures of “different issues ” This was a process that lasted 6 to 12 months Those who completed that training were referred to as “priests ” 3 23 - Beyond the priesthood was another structure of government It was said Mr Hamilton “like a quasi-cabinet ” Those who constituted that body were entrusted with specific responsibilities not of a theological nature but more of a “special economic type of activity ” He illustrated that by indicating that those who were 33 most senior had the responsibility for the social condition of members for example their health needs Another group of seniors might be responsible for the “social needs of the children who might have been orphans ” 3 24 - The hierarchical structure of the House of Israel was as follows Rabbi King District priest Priest Student trainee priest Brothers and sisters 3 25 - Besides Rabbi Washington the leadership at the time consisted of Rufus Lewis known as Jomo Abraham McAllister known as Omawale and Vincent Hinds known as Ali 3 26 - To help finance the cult plantain chips and salted nuts were sold on the streets and outside cinemas Most of the money generated had to be turned over to the House of Israel In return they were provided with what Father Morrison called “very meagre fare and housed in squalid overcrowded conditions ” The Rabbi on the other hand lived “in style and drove an expensive large black car ” 3 27 - From very early in the life of the cult the Rabbi was given prime time on the government radio stations to deliver his “daily racist message ” He spoke fluently in a southern American accent and according to Father Morrison pages 168-169 “when he held forth at in-house services speaking from a decorated podium he could rival any southern evangelical preacher ” Relationship between the House of Israel and the PNC 3 28 - The Rabbi had a close relationship with the PNC and its leadership Mr Hamilton expressed it as follows “ there was an established relationship with the government of the day and there were relationships with Ministers of the government and therefore Rabbi Washington had the privilege to call any Minister to seek to ask them a favour on behalf of any citizen whether of a judicial matter—I am talking about the level of government—or whether it was a matter of some other issue for 34 themselves or families or whatever because there was an ongoing relationship with the government ” 3 29 - Many people in prominent positions visited the House of Israel from time to time including Ministers of government and public officials Mr Stanley Moore who was at one stage Minister of Home Affairs was one such person In fairness to him it must be said however that “he was known to the House of Israel before he was Minister of Home Affairs ” during the time he was Minister and after There was too Mr Hamilton testified “a consistent relationship with Mr Moore and Rabb Washington ” Mr Moore sought and secured the assistance of the House of Israel to guard his property while under construction That service continued “around-the-clock” for several years after the house was completed Mr George Jackman who was later the DPP was also a frequent visitor 3 30 - Some of the persons visiting the Rabbi had matters in court and needed the intervention of the Rabbi on their behalf Businessmen were at times charged with bringing into the country contraband items Some were charged with taking money beyond the limit permitted outside the country and in some cases too the seizure of their funds resulted Still others were charged with attempting to smuggle gold outside the country The evidence of Mr Hamilton is that the Rabbi used his contact with Mr Jackman in his attempt to help Even when there were matters before the court the call of a government minister could bear fruit Mr Hamilton reminded the Commission that as Mr Kwayana had indicated in his testimony “that when a government official in that time called a member of the judiciary he had to respond in a most favourable way or there was a penalty for not responding ” Mr Hamilton emphasized that that was the “nature of the time” and it was not “Hamilton’s theory ” 3 31 - No specific evidence was provided the Commission as to precisely how successful were those interventions made for others by Rabbi Washington including those made on the judiciary We fully accept that they were made and that it reflects what Mr Hamilton himself said—”that was the time ” 3 32 - Again referring to Mr Kwayana’s evidence he mentioned as evidence of interference with the judiciary—Magistrate Oscar Parvattan suffering because he did not accede to the request to remand Roopnarine and Rodney to prison is but one illustration 3 33 - The members of the House of Israel were so confident that they enjoyed immunity in the eyes of the law that they often had in their possession arms and 35 ammunition and felt in no way concerned that they would be arrested even if the police knew or suspected that they were unlawfully armed Mr Hamilton underscored the point when he testified that “ threatening and assaulting and beating citizens in the full view of the police and they never arrested House of Israel members” because they felt that “they had the protection of the government of the day ” 3 34 - Mr Hamilton further reinforced that sense of immunity when he testified that for a period he had in his possession a 9mm Browning pistol and had no firearm licence to carry it He added that he had no fear of being arrested for being in possession of it 3 35 - Hamilton conceded under close examination from Mr Basil Williams counsel for the PNC that within half of an hour on some days he would be transformed from being a trainee priest to breaking up meetings and wielding a stick at somebody’s head effectively transformed into “terrorising and beating people up ” 3 36 - Mr Hamilton could not say of his own knowledge that the Guyana Defence Force was supplying the House of Israel with guns but having been shown a document by Commission counsel Ms Rahamat dated June 24th 1979 he recognized the name Major McPherson on that document which showed that there was an appreciable quantity of arms and ammunition including 19 G3 rifles 19 G3 Bayonets 1500 7 62 ammo 10 Browning pistols and 500 9mm long rounds which were taken from the GDF “totally chargeable” to the PNC The weapons were handed over to the House of Israel The full extent to which the House of Israel was supplied with arms from the GDF routed through the PNC could not be ascertained as gifts in the record of the GDF Paramountcy of the PNC 3 37 - The specially convened 1974 conference of the PNC took place at Sophia Plantation It marked the 10th anniversary of the PNC in government and it has become memorable for what is known as “The Sophia Declaration” at which the paramountcy of the party was declared 3 38 - Burnham in the course of a long speech in which he summarized the achievements of his party in government and pointed to the road ahead declared 36 “It was agreed after lengthy discussion that the emphasis should be on mobilising the nation in every sphere and not merely for periodic elections and in support of specific action and programmes It was also decided that the party should assume unapologetically its paramountcy over the government which is merely one of its executive arms ” 3 39 - He indicated that the comrades had demanded that the country be given practical and theoretical leadership at all levels—political economic social and cultural—by the PNC which he said had become “the major national institution ” 3 40 - Burnham summarized the rationale informing the doctrine of the paramountcy of the party and the politicization of government institutions See Caribbean Contact September 1975 and also reflected in the book Domination and Power in Guyana A Study of the Police in a Third World Context by George K Danns at page 80 It is as follows “It is the party that mobilises educates and appeals to the people on the basis of its programmes It is the party that selects the members of the political government to execute the former’s policy which has been carefully debated and then presented ” 3 41 - Burnham is further quoted New Nation November 17th 1973 as declaring that “God says that before you were I was The party says to the government before you were we were The government has got to be in our system a subordinate agency to the party ” 3 42 - According to Eusi Kwayana in his testimony on May 28th 2014 on the doctrine said that it was the “will of the party ” He observed that it was not an indigenous notion but one borrowed from Eastern Europe where the party controls the government 3 43 - Mr Kwayana pointed to the Ministry of National Development and reminded that the Minister of National Development “doubles as the General Secretary” with a number of executive secretaries 3 44 He added that “the Declaration of Sophia said that paramountcy would be executed through the General Secretary and a number of executive secretaries ” He expressed concern that in the estimates of expenditure for 1975 there is no 37 breakdown of the money allocated to the Ministry of National Development as is the position in relation to other ministries There was he said simply one item— Other Charges—with a $10 million allocation and “no details ” 3 45 - Omawale saw paramountcy of the party as “a well-known example of PNC dictatorship of the party over the government ” He further testified that that practice amounted to a lack of separation of party from government and State He too pointed to the military establishment the Ministry of National Development and the Office of General Secretary of the PNC Impliedly he seemed to have been reflecting on the bureaucratic implication of the doctrine Paramountcy and the Public Bureaucracy 3 46 - Danns in his book reminded at page 75 that Burnham was fond of saying “Seek ye first the political kingdom and all else shall be added ” Danns interpreted that statement as indicating Burnham’s intentions to consolidate his political position stressing as a priority “the paramountcy of the party—before giving serious attention to the problems of economic development ” 3 47 - At pp 78 and 79 of his book Danns spelled out some of the implications for Guyana’s public bureaucracy resulting from the embrace by the governing PNC of the doctrine of paramountcy of the party He argued that public bureaucracies in the context of paramountcy of the party are no longer responsible to the public but rather “to the dominant party and its leader ” There is as a result he contended “hardly any systematic effort to audit public accounts and to present a report to parliament ” 3 48 - Danns further argued that the politicization of public bureaucracies in Guyana was accomplished by “wide-scale and intensive PNC party penetration ” He illustrated that by pointing to “senior appointments that were sanctioned by the PNC party and the possession of a party card as an important criteria for appointments and promotions ” He continued “Public servants have been conditioned to be responsive to party demands even if it interferes with the smooth functioning of their own department Attendance at the party congress is compulsory for senior public servants who are asked to prepare papers on government policies and intended policies for discussion by the congress ’’ 3 49 - According to Dr Nanda Gopaul as far as Burnham was concerned the public sector had to pledge allegiance to the party and the heads of all State 38 agencies and the civil service were summoned at short notice to attend any event of the ruling party including General Council meetings Burnham claimed that “a massive campaign has now been launched in which there can be no place for the disinterested and non-conformist who envisages freedom in terms of indulging in the practices and attitudes which were part of the colonial order We did not win political freedom from colonialism to protect the freedom of colonialism to poison and mislead out society and divert us from our national goals ” 3 50 - Danns continued his analysis of the implications of the adoption of the doctrine and observed that apart from controlling public bureaucracies and corporations the governing party sought to minimize contact between the masses and opposition elements In that context he pointed to the use of media facilities by the opposition groups which he described as “severely restricted and controlled as the government owns the two radio stations and the two daily newspapers ” As for newsprint he wrote that it was controlled and opposition newspapers had “a very limited and almost ineffective circulation ” He observed that “organized groups of party thugs often break up opposition political meetings which the police rarely gave permission to hold ” 3 51 - Focusing specifically on the police Danns at pp 82-85 of his book repeats the views of Prime Minister Burnham and his Deputy Ptolemy Reid in relation to the police’s new role which de-emphasized law enforcement and order maintenance and called for the police “to be fully acquainted with the policies of the PNC party develop a socialist orientation become self-reliant and aid in the production of goods and services as trustees and caretakers of the revolution ” 3 52 - Dr Gopaul supports this assessment of the Police Force and in the course his testimony said that “there was absolutely no independence of Police Force Sir at that time 1978–1980 was a bitter bitter bitter period when the government declared literally war against those who dare challenge the status quo of the State then ” 3 53 One of the consequences of this new emphasis was that the police changed the title of address from “Sir” to “Comrade” and more importantly “pledged personal loyalty to Comrade Leader Burnham ” In May of 1978 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Prime Minister’s membership in parliament the Commissioner of Police sent a courier to Prime Minister Burnham pledging the loyalty of himself and the police to “Comrade Leader ” The police Danns 39 observed “committed themselves to being servants of the Prime Minister rather than officials in the service of the State ” 3 54 - Danns concluded that the Police had openly accepted what he termed “the undemocratic and unconstitutional notion of paramountcy of the party” and had acquiesced in the idea and practice of the PNC interference in the day-to-day operations and the functioning of the force 3 55 - It was disclosed by Danns that the PNC party allegedly maintained a “goon squad of thugs who disrupt political meetings organized by opposition groups even in the face of police ” He continued at page 85 “These party goons would destroy the public address system stone and beat speakers and even bystanders and turn over or in other ways damage motor vehicles belonging to organizers of the meeting ” 3 56 - The view was expressed by Danns that the aim of the PNC party was to deny opposition groups the opportunity of reaching the public in any form whatsoever and he referred at page 85 to the results of a 1974 sample survey where the majority of respondents consisting of Afro- and Indo-Guyanese were of the view that the police “protect only government demonstrators and citizens assembled at political meetings sponsored by the leading political party ” The police on the other hand “harassed non-government demonstrators and often disrupt meetings held by opposition parties” 3 57 - Resulting from the politicization of the public bureaucracy it was Danns’ judgment that the efficiency of the service which they provided declined in the period under review and public confidence in their work also fell 3 58 - Dr Gopaul in the course of his testimony November 5th 2014—pp 80 to 83 said that the country was experiencing “transportation woes” as there was a shortage of transportation in the country and taxis were hardly around The main mode of transportation was government buses and in that context “destroying opponents’ vehicles was a norm ” 3 59 - He provided the Commission with his personal experience and testified that around September 1979 after the strike he spoke on a platform and two days after his “vehicle ceased functioning” although it was a Toyota in fairly good state He added that when the mechanic opened the engine “it was completely destroyed and the mechanic discovered a sticky substance believed to the have been sugar” that was poured into the engine The vehicle was rendered “completely useless ” The 40 sabotaging of his vehicle was not an isolated incident as opposition vehicles were destroyed sabotaged from time to time All of that was happening at a time when the ferry service the principal means of transportation “had become very unreliable” and those depending on it had to wait long hours 3 60 - The importation of vehicles at that time testified Gopaul was very difficult as one had to first get the authority of the Minister of Labour then the Ministry of Finance and finally the Ministry of Trade before you could approach the importer The Implication of the PNC Rule for Collective Bargaining 3 61 Dr Nanda Gopaul author of the text Resistance and Change The Struggle of Guyanese Workers 1964–1994 With Emphasis on the Sugar Industry appeared before the Commission in his capacity as Minister of Labour and testified that there was in the mid and late 70s a fundamental shift in relation to collective bargaining from what existed in the past Settlements were imposed on the unions by the PNC Government They were not the result of a free process of collective bargaining 3 62 - Dr Gopaul makes the point in his book p 3 that though workers’ “solidarity action has not been outlawed the government repressive actions following acts of solidarity effectively proscribed the right to strike ” 3 63 - There was established by the PNC government a system where centralized negotiations took place between the Trades Union Congress and the government of Guyana It resulted for example in minimum wages being set for the period 1977– 1979 Dr Gopaul testified that it was intended to be a minimum wage agreement but “it turned out to be a maximum wage agreement by virtue of a decree by government ” In consequence the unions “were unable to bargain ” 3 64 - According to Dr Gopaul Government went so far as to issue instructions to employers that they ought not to negotiate with any trade union any increases beyond what was stipulated in the 1977–1979 agreement with the GTUC Joseph Pollydore was at the time its president sic and it had 24 affiliated unions 3 65 - Dr Gopaul testified that Government signed a comprehensive agreement with minimum and maximum wage clause s as if entering a collective agreement but he was quick to explain that ” “Government did not have recognition as a parent body of organized labour They do not have collective agreements ” 41 3 66 - The signing of the agreement received mixed reactions with the strongest condemnation coming from NAACIE which had since the Annual Delegates Conference of the TUC in September of 1977 pointed to the danger of the agreement being signed and the government being allowed to block collective bargaining by the issuance of instructions to State employers 3 67 - But the workers were to suffer yet more at the hands of Government for in June of 1979 the Minister of Finance withdrew all increments which had been paid to workers by virtue of their contractual arrangements Employees of State corporations and sugar industry workers represented by NAACIE were among those most affected 3 68 - When there was the strike at the Guyana Stores in 1979 Government ordered “scabs” to go in and open the store and the 82 striking workers were fired Among the scabs were members of the House of Israel 3 69 - Mr Desmond who was the branch official of CCWU and a staff member of Guyana Stores was also fired The president Mr Gordon Todd was picked up while picketing outside Guyana Stores put on a helicopter by Government personnel and taken on an unknown ride So concerned were union and work colleagues about his whereabouts that Mr Pollydore general secretary of the TUC called the President sic who assured him Todd would be at Ogle by a certain time 3 70 - Mr Todd according to Dr Gopaul reported that he was take on a tour over the Atlantic in shark-infested waters “had his head pushed out of the helicopter and shown the sharks swimming and was warned that if he was to persist in this activity he may likely end up in those waters ” It was another illustration of a public act of terror against an individual It was intended to create fear and was a common technique of the administration of the day Economic Conditions 3 71 - The prevailing economic and social conditions in the country were very difficult according to Minister Rohee Prices were high and goods in short supply The situation was compounded by the fact according to Jocelyn Dow that in the distribution of the scarce food resources priority was given to those who were affiliated with the party 42 3 72 - The government was negotiating with the IMF The productive sectors were under-performing Exports were low and foreign exchange was scarce That was the environment in which the oppositions parties intensified their struggles It was not testified Kwayana a race issue It was a class issue 3 73 - Rodney and Jagan working together contributed to a growing sense of unity with trade unions and religious organizations 3 74 - Guyana was a “totally controlled society ” testified Ogunseye who added the Mr Burnham was a man in control He continued “He was well informed and anyone who stepped out of line had to feel his ire ” Paramountcy and the Trade Unions 3 75 - As far as the trade union movement was concerned PNC members who were also union members could not participate in strike action and when called by their unions so to do The doctrine of paramountcy meant in effect that their party came before the union 3 76 - In 1975 the congress of the ruling party endorsed the following recommendations resulting from one of its workshops on the role of labour 1 During this period unions should make funds available annually for education of workers in programmes approved by the State 2 Punitive measures should be meted out to party members who support trade unions whose aims and objectives are not consistent with the revolutionary movement 3 Salaried unionists should be phased out because this encourages such leaders in supporting any unjust demands by the workers 4 Trade unions operating in the public sector must be affiliated to the party since unions not affiliated can undermine the aims and objectives of the party and government 5 An industrial relations bill should be introduced through unions affiliated to the party and the party should establish a system to determine the necessity for strike action 6 It is incumbent on all party members to ensure that the trade unions are affiliated to the party 7 Non-affiliated unions whose members belong to the party should through the executive of that union urge affiliation 43 3 77 - As far as Burnham was concerned strikes and other forms of industrial action had their roots in colonialism and ought not to take place in his republic This was reflected in the book by Dr Nanda Gopaul and indicated at pp 199-200 Gopaul further indicated that the black workers and academics regardless of race or occupation “who opposed the regime were ruthlessly attacked ” Succinctly expressed by Gopaul “all those who challenged the administration came in for special treatment ” 3 78 - Gopaul testified that by 1979 the union movement became more militant after the right to collective bargaining had been denied Simultaneously with that however the trade unions affiliated to the PNC were subject to the policies of the party arising from the Sophia Declaration and the 1975 PNC congress There were forces at work to ensure that they fell in line with the party’s philosophy The unions affiliated to the PNC at that time were i ii iii iv v vi vii Guyana Labour Union The Guyana Public Service Union The Guyana Teachers’ Union The Amalgamated Transport Guyana Postal and Telecommunications Workers The Guyana Mine Workers The General Workers’ Union Increased Militarization of the State 3 79 - One of the striking features of the period under review was the sharp increase in the creation of military and para-military institutions and the equally dramatic increase in expenditure thereon 3 80 - Mr Rohee in the course of his testimony addressed the question of the substantial increase in expenditure but was careful to indicate that he was relying on the figures provided by Father Andrew Morrison S J in his book at pages 104105 3 81 - Father Morrison suggested that to bolster the party’s control from 1974 the military forces were considerably expanded Created was the Guyana National Service which was followed in 1976 with the formation of a National Militia which lasted a relatively short period 1976–1997 Other armed groups included the Young Socialist Movement and the Women’s Revolutionary Socialist Movement 44 3 82 - There was a ten-fold increase in the strength of the armed forces in the 13year period after 1964 when the British handed over responsibility for security to the Guyana government The numbers of military personnel grew from 2 135 to 27 751 Simultaneously military expenditure rose from $8 76 million in 1973 to $48 72 million in 1976 That represented a six-fold increase 3 83 - David Granger in his slim monograph entitled The Guyana People’s Militia 1976–1997 posed the question “What were the reasons for the Militia’s clamorous rise and almost soundless demise ” In answering that question he submitted that externally the administration’s leftward foreign policy posture “had the effect of alarming if not alienating United States Brazil and neighbouring Venezuela ” 3 84 - Venezuela had again been making claims to two-thirds of Guyana’s land space In addition Mr Granger reminded that in October of 1976 Guyana was the victim of “the worst international terrorist attack in the western hemisphere when 11 of its citizens were killed in the Cubana Airline atrocities ” 3 85 - On the internal front the administration was complaining that the country was the target of destabilization and thus impliedly justifying an increase in military resources to meet those challenges 3 86 - The National Service was justified on the ground that it provided the nation’s young men and women with discipline a sense of service and with a range of skills To the extent too that military training was a part of the programme in the face of the Venezuelan threat Burnham was quick to provide the reassuring note arising from the investment in the National Service that “every citizen a soldier ” Extra-Judicial Killings and Repression 3 87 - There were additional and significant features of the period under investigation that merit reporting upon 3 88 - Newsprint was restricted and to the extent that freedom of expression has to do with ease of communication that freedom was compromised 3 89 - Dayclean was the WPA’s newspaper and it was printed in Trinidad by Tapia House as no one in Guyana would do so for fear of the administration’s reprisals And when the first shipment of the newspaper arrived they were seized at 45 Customs and a trade order was issued banning them The WPA were prevented from “uplifting the newspapers ” They were subsequently destroyed in a bonfire but not before the civil servants at the port helped themselves to some copies In consequence Dayclean was in limited circulation in the country 3 90 - There were two radio stations in the country at the time and they were both owned by government As a result the WPA had no access thereto It was put at a serious disadvantage and had to find creative ways of communication and getting its message across That exclusion from the airwaves was consistent with the serious attempt by the administration to stifle its voice and restrict its message 3 91 - Of large significance too was the “extra-judicial killings ” to use the classification of Tacuma Ogunseye by the Police Force under the PNC He said too that the extra-judicial killings had gotten worse under the Burnham administration when contrasted with the pre-independence period Speaking directly of Burnham he said that he had a special characteristic which only one other politician demonstrated That was Janet Jagan They were “both very vindictive ” He said further that Burnham was prepared “to do anything to maintain power and that included violence and death ” 3 92 - Ogunseye’s testimony is significant in that he admitted freely that his WPA cell had taken the decision to acquire weapons There was no support for that initiative of his cell from the general party Nevertheless his cell and a few others were to his knowledge amassing weapons 3 93 - The Commission is indebted to Mr Kwayana who identified and brought to our attention the cases mentioned below 3 94 - On November 28th 1979 thirty-six year old Ohene Koama a leading WPA activist was shot in Greater Georgetown by the police 3 95 - The Police claimed that they had seen him put a bulky bag in the car trunk and as they approached he pulled the gun from the bag and he was killed in the process Residents who claimed to have seen the shooting said that shortly before that Koama turned into Roxanne Burnham Gardens where he lived Two police cars came up in in front and behind him and as he got out of the car plainclothes policemen opened fire Eusi Kwayana testified that according to the residents he was shot “in cold blood ” In Koama’s case an attempt was made to have an inquest It did start and the police’s account was challenged by the residents on the ground that the size of the gun described could not fit in the trunk of the car and 46 further that the rifle would have had to be assembled before it could be used The police never turned up and the inquest was closed and no one held criminally responsible 3 96 - Next was the case of Edward Dublin He too was a WPA activist He was shot at Wismar across the river from the bauxite town on Thursday February 28th 1980 He died at the Mackenzie hospital the next day 3 97 - Police sources claimed he had been shot in a confrontation with three armed police when he and two others were seen breaking into a house at Wismar The WPA had a different story and claimed that Dublin was outside “Bird Palace” night club at Wismar when he was approached and spoken to by a group of police one of whom pulled a gun and shot him in his abdomen Kwayana who investigated these cases testified that he was shot several times and only on the insistence of spectators were the police prevented from dragging the wounded body away 3 98 - According to the WPA Dublin was subjected to harassment from the day he became a WPA activist in the previous year He had earlier attracted the attention of the police for he was the only demonstrator outside of the court on July 14th 1979 the same day that Father Darke was killed He was pulled out of the crowd and was taken away for questioning On another occasion while he was at Wismar along with Dr Rodney and others distributing party literature in the area he was subsequently detained by the police but no charges were laid against him 3 99 - The WPA connected Dublin’s death to two documents received by the WPA purporting to come from PNC sources They emphasized that “all attacks on WPA activists must be fatal ” 3 100 - Another WPA activist Nazir Khan of La Grange West Bank Demerara was on February 18th 1980 shot by an unknown guard as he entered his yard Khan had reported that in the previous year when thugs broke up a WPA meeting at Vreed-en-Hoop they pursued Roopnarine and destroyed the car he was driving near Khan’s house He was one of those who helped Roopnarine to escape 3 101 - There is no evidence that any suspects were held in relation to any of those deaths or any serious investigations made 47 3 102 - Eusi Kwayana provided the details of these deaths which he had personally investigated He testified that those cases support his thesis that in the period under investigation there was a disregard by the administration for the right to life 3 103 - The period under review was one of extreme hardships and difficulties in the life of the Guyanese people The rule of law was systematically subverted on a daily basis It was replaced by the rule of man in the person of Burnham and the PNC No evidence was provided us as to the extent to which the Guyanese people responded by emigration to the U S A Canada and to a lesser extent to the neighbouring Caribbean countries But they did emigrate and in substantial numbers 3 104 - One of the main instruments employed by the PNC administration was the infliction of public harm including death on the WPA activists and perceived opponents of the PNC administration 3 105 - The chapters that follow discuss in greater detail the role of the military and paramilitary organizations in that period and the specific events and circumstances which climaxed in the death of Dr Walter Rodney Back to Title Page 48 CHAPTER 4 To enquire into the cause of the explosion in which Dr Walter Rodney died whether it was an of terrorism and if so who were the perpetrators – TOR II Time Place and Cause of Death 4 1 - On the 13th of June 1980 Dr Walter Rodney died while seated in the left front passenger seat of a Mazda Capella motor car bearing registration number PBB2349 which had been driven by his brother Donald Rodney At the time the motor vehicle was in a stationary position at in the vicinity of John Street and Hadfield Street in Georgetown His brother Donald Rodney was in the motor car seated in the driver’s seat He himself received relatively minor injuries 4 2 - On Donald Rodney’s account given in evidence at this Commission “Suddenly I heard a loud noise and at the same time I felt my body being twisted against the driver’s door which flew open I realised then that there had been an explosion on Walter’s side of the car and that he was seriously injured ” 4 3 - Donald Rodney further testified that he immediately ran to the house of Dr Omawale a leading member of the WPA Also living there were Karen De Souza and Andaiye both supporters of the WPA He spoke to the two women and informed them of what had happened 4 4 - This is confirmed by the evidence of Karen DeSouza who testified that he appeared at her door and she observed that “His face seemed battered and blood was dripping off him ” Following his report that “there was a terrible accident or something terrible had happened ” she immediately left home and went to where the car was located Cross examined by attorney-at-law Mr Basil Williams for the PNC Ms Karen DeSouza acknowledged in her testimony at the 1988 inquest that the words she reported Donald Rodney as saying when he arrived at her house were “there had been a terrible accident ” When pressed by the attorney for the PNC she testified as follows Mr Williams “Now a terrible accident connotes what in your estimation ” Ms DeSouza “Suggests that something that you did not expect to happen has happened ” Mr Williams “And how do you in the same vein understand these words ‘or something terrible has happened’ ” 49 Ms DeSouza “Something unexpected and terrible and horrible has happened and it was unexpected ” The commissioners accept this explanation and can perceive no material difference between the two expressions 4 5 - As Ms DeSouza also testified on arrival at the scene of the accident she pushed her way through a crowd that had already gathered Not only were there civilians in the crowd but among the civilians “ lot of them were the members of the Death Squad ” She saw “that the top of the car was off ” She interacted with a policeman who at first tried to discourage her from moving closer to the car However she was eventually allowed to do so She continued “I moved closer and saw a smooth dark expanse of flesh I saw that the body was on the floor almost pasted on The head was pressed up against the dashboard I thought I recognised the back of the head which was the only part visible ” In her testimony she further stated that she saw his profile and that she “ essentially recognized that it was Walter ” After these observations she moved away and then returned home As Ms DeSouza explained the Death Squad was a reference to a special unit of the Guyana Police Force GPF That name was given to it by citizens because of those officers’ behaviour In her words “ they were particularly vicious tended to be armed with hockey sticks and batons and they did not seem to have any problem using these on people who were unarmed ” 4 6 - On the testimony of Father Malcom Rodrigues the news carried on the 6 a m broadcast on the state-owned radio station Demerara Radio the following morning in relation to the explosion and death referred to a person “whose face was destroyed beyond recognition ” This despite the wide-spread knowledge even at that time that it was Dr Walter Rodney who had died as a result of the explosion 4 7 - Later that day the radio station did carry the name of Walter Rodney as the person who had died Father Rodrigues was a close friend of the editor of the Catholic Standard a weekly publication of the Catholic Church in Guyana Father Rodrigues knew Dr Rodney and his family well and spent the night at the home of the Rodneys 4 8 - That same day he positively identified the body of Walter Rodney on behalf of Dr Rodney’s widow Patricia Rodney On his evidence Father Rodrigues had no difficulty recognizing the deceased He testified as follows “I walked around to the side and looked in and Walter’s face was perfect The beard was too perfect 50 also not one of those scraggly beards he normally had It looks as though somebody took a torch and went and singed it nicely So I looked at it and thought “What an extraordinary thing ” 4 9 - Dr Patricia Rodney who gave evidence at the inquiry testified that she viewed the body three days after his death On her account the very evening of her husband’s death police officers attended at her home and carried out a search The next morning at about 9 a m her sister arrived at her Patricia Rodney’s home with a bag of bloodstained clothing which her sister told her had been brought to her the sister by the police She recognized them “ as the clothes Walter was wearing the previous evening ” 4 10 - Later that day accompanied by Father Rodrigues Patricia Rodney went to the funeral parlour and was told by the police that she could not see the body that day She persisted and returned a second time but according to her “they still refused to give us permission to see the body My lawyer Miles Fitzpatrick went to the funeral home on the Sunday but they told him they did not work on Sundays ” 4 11 - On her evidence when she was finally allowed to view her husband’s body she had no difficulty recognizing and identifying him Patricia Rodney testified that three days after his death on June 17th 1980 “Father Rodrigues and I returned to the Newburg Funeral Parlour where ASP McCrae and some other policemen were present The funeral parlour was very depressing and not kept in a sanitary state We all went in to see the body It was in a huge poorly working refrigerator with about eight other bodies some naked some half naked Walter’s body was at the bottom of the pile It was a dreadful experience ” 4 12 - Dr Patricia Rodney described an interaction between herself and ASP McCrae at the parlour when he asked her if she recognized her husband She testified that she refused to cooperate in view of the state’s inaccurate publication that she had previously been offered the opportunity to identify her husband but she had refused 4 13 - Senior Superintendent Leslie James the head of Criminal Investigations Department at the time of the inquiry attended and gave testimony In 1980 Senior Superintendent James was not a member of the Guyana Police Force having only joined the force in 1987 His testimony was based on the records 51 unearthed which were produced to the Commission as well as his own experience and expertise developed through his 27 years in the Police Force regarding methodologies used by the force In the course of his evidence he produced exhibits including police files relative to the investigation into the death of Walter Rodney and Special Branch files concerning surveillance conducted in relation to the WPA 4 14 - A report of a post mortem examination conducted on the body of Dr Walter Rodney by Dr Leslie Mootoo a local pathologist on June 14th 1980 gives the cause of death as “1 Shock and haemorrhage and 2 Multiple injuries of the abdomen and legs due to explosion ” Dr Mootoo in his observations and opinion stated “The explosive device was in Dr Walter Rodney’s lap at the time of explosion ” The doctor’s further professional opinion was that the explosive device “ was not held in the hands of the deceased” as had this been so “more severe mutilating injuries of the hands would have been seen ” 4 15 - Dr Hugh Johnson a consultant pathologist was brought to Guyana to undertake a further post mortem examination In his report dated June 30th 1980 he also concluded that Dr Walter Rodney “had died while sitting in a car following the explosion of a device on his lap which he was not handling at the time ” 4 16 - Donald Rodney was hospitalized the night of June 13th 1980 for treatment of his injuries While in hospital he was visited by ASP McRae Donald Rodney’s attorney who was present handed to ASP McRae a signed statement of Donald Rodney Donald Rodney was later on the June 18th 1980 questioned by the said police officer in the absence of his attorney While still in hospital on June 24th 1980 ASP McRae again attended at the hospital where Donald Rodney still a patient was formally charged for being in possession of explosives The statement of Donald Rodney was put in evidence at his trial by the prosecution and in his defence Donald gave a brief unsworn statement in which he basically summarized what was in this statement Reference was also made to the fact of the statement at the coroner’s inquest held later although it was not put in evidence The Cause of the Explosion the Source of the Explosive and Circumstances Immediately Proximate to its Provenance 4 17 - Donald’s evidence was that although he was not a member of the WPA he decided to stick closer to his brother Walter and assist him in what in summary would have been a supportive protective role This was after certain events 52 occurred which caused Donald Rodney to become increasingly concerned for his Walter’s welfare In answer to his attorney Mr Keith Scotland he outlined the events referred to above 4 18 - These commenced with the murder of Father Darke a journalist priest of the Catholic Standard on June 14th 1979 the very day the “arson three” were to appear in court A crowd had gathered at the Brickdam prison from which the accused were to be transported Machete welding thugs were there intimidating and threatening the crowd According to Donald Rodney the police stood by doing nothing to protect the citizens Among the other events listed as influencing Donald’s decision was the speech of the then Prime Minister Burnham at the third biennial congress 4 19 - Selwyn Pieters attorney-at-law for the Guyana Trades Union Congress also examined Donald Rodney in relation to his assistance to Walter and probed whether the collection of the walkie-talkie was a secret between them However Donald denied any awareness of any such secret He was merely helping his brother 4 20 - This was the context in which at his brother’s request Donald Rodney made contact with Gregory Smith to collect a walkie-talkie set which his brother Walter had informed him Gregory Smith was constructing at Walter’s request He Donald Rodney stated that he had visited Gregory Smith at his house in Russell Street in Georgetown on at least two occasions and had met with him on at least three other occasions elsewhere in Georgetown On one further occasion there was an arrangement for Donald to meet Smith at an address at North Ruimveldt but when he arrived a lady called out to him to tell him that Smith was not present The unequivocal evidence in Donald Rodney’s own words reads “As far as I know it was a walkie-talkie that was being assembled That is what I understood from Walter and that is what I understood from Gregory Smith ” 4 21 - Donald Rodney testified at this inquiry as follows “Well I was introduced to Gregory Smith some time in 1980 And when I say introduce Walter told me of Gregory Smith And the fact that Gregory Smith was making walkie-talkies for him Walter and I assumed the WPA I must say on the first occasion when I went to meet Gregory Smith at Russell and Howes Street was early 1980 it could have been like February And the subsequent visits took place between February and June ” 53 4 22 - Donald Rodney further testified that approximately two weeks prior to June 13th 1980 he had met with and collected from Gregory Smith the walkie-talkie device for the purposes of a preliminary testing His evidence is that about two weeks before June 13th Walter asked him to collect the walkie-talkie set from Gregory Smith Donald did so and was given a partly boxed object with an electrical circuit inside Smith gave him some directions for its testing In his words “Part of the circuit had a small knob and he directed me that it needs to be turned to put into what I would call now a set position He would have another unit which would remain in his possession The circuit that I had also had a bulb that I would describe as a flash bulb and if that bulb flashed when he Smith activated the unit the two units would be synchronised Now synchronised is a word I am using now The one I was given and had in my hand that we were discussing and one that I have not seen but he referred to and I assume he had That is how it is being instructed that it would work ” 4 23 - Donald Rodney continued to testify that he conveyed these instructions to Walter and that he and Walter adhered generally to the instructions given by Smith The bulb did flash as Gregory Smith had said it would and thereafter on further questioning by Mr Scotland he answered as follows “The flash went off I assume that the synchronisation that was being sought had been achieved ” It was thereafter returned to Smith for completion What was must now be inferred is that the completed walkie-talkie was collected by Donald from Smith on June 13th 1980 4 24 - On that fateful day Gregory Smith issued instructions not for the testing of its functionability but as well as to the precise location at which the test should be conducted The first test should take place at Princess Street and the second test should take place opposite the jail The explanation given was that Smith wanted to have the test done opposite prison His rationale was that he wanted to observe whether the transmission would be interfered with by the expansive metal wall Donald testified that Walter did not abide by the instructions as to location apparently not considering them essential Hence the test was carried out in or about vicinity of John Street and Hadfield Street rather than beside the prison 4 25 - Dr Frank Skuse a forensic scientist attached to the British Home Office Forensic Science Laboratory in England was brought Guyana by the government to carry out forensic tests as part of the police investigation His report was submitted to us among the documents in the files submitted by the police He first 54 consulted on arrival in Guyana with Deputy Commissioner Roberts and Assistant Superintendent Kendall Investigating Officer Mr McRae as well as Dr Mootoo 4 26 - From Dr Skuse’s report he visited the location at which Dr Rodney met his death examined the Mazda car in which Dr Rodney died examined Walter’s body and had it X-rayed as well In addition he reviewed photographs taken by the police relative to the incident He examined several items including swabs from the left and right hands of deceased finger nail scrapings portions of clothes worn by Dr Rodney at the time he met his death He also examined fragments extracted from the vehicle and the body of Waiter Rodney Swabs were taken from the vehicle and subjected to forensic tests 4 27 - From the body of Dr Rodney was recovered among other things “a small capacitor or transistor can the residue of a micro-switch a bent nail as well as other fragments of wire glass and wood ” He gathered 70 swabs samp1es in all He further noted that on his examination of the vehicle he was able to confirm that the roof had been torn off and so was the front windscreen He found that the engine compartment and the boot of the vehicle were relatively undamaged He made no comment in relation to the rear passenger seat 4 28 - Having carried out his examinations and the appropriate tests he concluded that “ i The damage to the vehicle was entirely consistent with that caused by an explosive device situated on the left knee or shin bone of a passenger sitting on this passenger seat ii Fragments found were consistent with having come from a walkie-talkie radio set which according to markings found was to a probability ‘a Harris Porta phone walkie-talkie set’ transmitting on a frequency of x12 58541 which equals 151 025 ” 4 29 - Dr Skuse also found evidence of a detonator and summarises his conclusion as follows “The deceased Dr W Rodney sat in a stationary vehicle with a parcel on his knee and I am inclined to the view that his left leg crossed his right as shown in the photographs The parcel contained a wooden box containing a transmitter receiver system probably part or wholly a Harris Porta phone linked to a small charge of TNT explosive primed with an aluminium detonator The box was nailed together and a knob controlling a selector switch was 55 available to the person or persons in charge of the parcel I recovered no pieces of loudspeaker from the vehicle The sequence of events could have been that by instruction Dr Rodney put the receiving circuit onto the receive position by the control switch and waited for a signal which was duly received and released current from the battery to the detonator Alternatively he could have mistakenly put the receiver into the receive position If he or his brother had a walkie-talkie in their hands then I would have expected his brother to make his available or if he dropped it in the relatively undamaged area of the car it would have been recovered as would that of Dr W Rodney 4 30 -The possibility of an ‘external’ signal spurious to the Rodney’s or Smith purported activities can be explored after investigation of the electronics used in the device and information has been examined about the Harris Porta phone The charge purported to have been used is typical to that used as an antipersonnel device The absence of explosive on the hands of Dr Rodney may or may not be significant Its absence may indicate that he was not assembling a device or had not recently assembled a device Any explosive which may have been present at the time could have been lost during the first post mortem The hands were very wet at the time of my examination and were lying in the exposed parts of the abdomen The label part of item 61 is typical of that found on a battery supplied to me by the GDF force in Georgetown The components and circuit board recovered from the debris in the car indicate that the radio in the device or incident was different from those used by the police and GDF forces TNT is an explosive usually used for military purposes Conclusion The absence of injury to the hands suggest that the hand or hands of Dr Rodney were not operating controls or preparing the device at the time of the explosion and my view is that the deceased had an armed device using TNT on his knee or lap which was detonated by receiving an external radio signal at the appropriate frequency ” 4 31 - In summary Dr Skuse’s description of the box and his opinion that the device could have been detonated by “receiving an external radio signal at the appropriate frequency” is consistent with the evidence of Donald Rodney as to the instrument and instructions given to him by Gregory Smith for testing 56 4 32 - Any suggestion that Walter Rodney could have mistakenly triggered the device is irreconcilable with this expert and independent evidence We go further and hold that the theory of an accident has no support on the evidence 4 33 - His finding that the explosive was in the nature of an anti-personnel device indicates that it was not capable of nor was it designed to demolish a concrete structure such as a prison wall 4 34 - No evidence was produced to this inquiry that his opinion that it should be possible to identify the frequency of the signal was explored It must be borne in mind that Trenton Roach then a constable in the Guyana Police Force attached to the communication branch was able to give the frequencies of the electronic equipment taken from the Russell Street residence to Gregory Smith It therefore leads to the inference that resources existed for such a comparison as was recommended by Dr Skuse to be undertaken However it was never undertaken 4 34 - It is also of interest that Dr Skuse in his report also noted as follows “From the information so far elucidated from the debris it should be possible to identify which person or persons or services operate on this frequency and probably trace the components to a particular set I would appreciate the opportunity of examining a Harris Porta phone walkie-talkie system before committing myself further ” 4 35 - There is no evidence that Dr Skuse was brought back to the jurisdiction or otherwise afforded the opportunity to carry out any further examination of the debris and or a Harris Porta phone system Neither did any other expert carry out any further examination or investigation as indicated by Dr Skuse to be desirable 4 36 - The failure to facilitate the comparisons that were recommended by Dr Skuse represents one of the many unsatisfactory aspects of the police investigation into the death of Walter Rodney 4 37 - The evidence presented and which has been received points to one inescapable conclusion It is this that Dr Walter Rodney’s death on the 13th of June 1980 was as a result of an explosion of a devise provided to him by Gregory Smith and that explosion was triggered by an external source 4 38 - It had not been Dr Rodney’s intention to bring about his own demise and so far as he and his brother Donald Rodney were concerned at the material time 57 they were intending to test the transmission capabilities of the device supplied to them by Gregory Smith This testing was pre-empted by the explosion which occurred while the device was in Dr Rodney lap and not being handled by Dr Rodney Whether the Death of Walter Rodney was an Act of Terrorism 4 39 - Common to all definitions of terrorism is the use of violence in order to achieve a goal For example in the Merriam Webster Dictionary it is defined as “the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal ” In the Oxford Dictionary it is defined as “use of violence and intimidation especially for political purposes ” It is also defined as a systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion 4 40 - In recent years the concept of “state terrorism” has attracted increasingly more attention in legal and political circles In an article by Amy Zalman Ph D she notes that “State terrorism is as controversial a concept as that of terrorism itself Terrorism is often though not always defined in terms of four characteristics 1 the threat or use of violence 2 a political objective the desire to change the status quo 3 the intention to spread fear by committing spectacular public acts 4 the intentional targeting of civilians It is this last element—targeting innocent civilians—that stands out in efforts to distinguish state terrorism from other forms of state violence ” 4 41 - In all democratic societies there are fundamental laws by which the civil rights of citizens are acknowledged recognised and protected In countries with a British constitutional legacy this is usually contained in a chapter of the Constitution entitled or designated as the Chapter on Fundamental Rights In Guyana in 1980 those fundamental rights and protections were set out in Chapter 2 of the Guyana Constitution and included as they still do today the right to life provisions to secure protection of law freedom of conscience freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association Section 4 of the Constitution provided “No person shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in execution of the sentence of a court in respect of an offence under the law of Guyana of which he has been convicted ” 58 4 42 - The Constitution and laws made pursuant to and concomitant with the Constitution allow for the detention of persons in relation to whom there is reasonable suspicion of a crime and also for the suspension of rights during periods of emergency In fact under the laws of Guyana at the relevant time the offences of treason treason felony sedition riot or unlawful assembly riot and failing to obey a proclamation to rioters to disperse existed It was also unlawful to own and or operate a transmitter device such as a walkie-talkie without a licence 4 43 - Under the National Security Miscellaneous Provisions Act the police were given the power to enter and search premises and arrest detain persons without a warrant on reasonable suspicions of such persons being in possession of ammunition or explosives A person detained on the directions of the Minister under this law could be detained for up to three months without a charge The National Security Miscellaneous Provisions Act Chapter 16 02 4 44 - Additionally there was a fully operational Police Force in place Besides there was the special squad of the force referred to by citizens as the Death Squad Still further there were police on regular patrol duties and an intelligence section division The Special Branch which on the officio Standing Order presented by Senior Superintendent Leslie James was charged with “ a the conduct an intelligence operation and investigations of security nature throughout the State b The collation and assessment of security intelligence c The enforcement of the Aliens Act d The investigations into applications of naturalisation e The investigation of certain offenses of a security nature as set out in paragraph 4 f The personal protection as and when ordered by the Commissioner of important officials and important persons g Investigations of background reports of force applications and firearm applications h Any other duties ordered by the Commissioner “Paragraph 4 Special Branch will normally investigate the following offenses a Sedition b Offenses against Official Secrets Act insofar as those Acts relate to Guyana c Offenses under the Undesirable Publication Regulations c Narcotic offenses which threatens the stability of the state 59 “In addition when expressly ordered to do so by the Commissioner Special Branch will undertake or assist in the investigation of serious acts of sabotage in any part of the State The responsibility of Special Branch in relation to the above offences does not in any way absolve the Divisional Commander as the senior officer in a division from undertaking the initial investigation and retaining general responsibility for the proper investigation of such offences in his division In the event of any offense listed above being committed in a division it will be the duty of the Divisional Commander to report immediately by the quickest possible means to assist the Assistant Commissioner Special Branch who will decide whether personnel from Special Branch should be dispatched to the division to assist in the investigations ” 4 45 - The Special Branch was not inactive The evidence shows that in relation to the WPA alone there were at least 10 files although only three were found and produced to this Commission 4 46 - There was therefore available and in place lawful procedures and institutions at the disposal of the State which could be employed in response to breaches of the law There was no need to resort to extra-judicial or extra-legal action which falls within the definition of state terrorism There is nothing in the police files provided to the Commission that Walter Rodney was charged with any offence save and except the charge of arson instituted against him and two other members of the WPA which was subsequently dismissed for lack of evidence 4 47 - If it is that law enforcement was of the view that his actions or words amounted to criminal offences there was provision within the law to take appropriate action The evidence is that his house and that of his in-laws were subjected to frequent searches Nothing was found and no criminal charges were laid This evidence will be the subject of more detailed consideration later Suffice it to say that those actions have been characterized as acts of harassment by the police 4 48 - In considering whether the death of Dr Walter Rodney was the result of an act of terrorism whether by opposing political interests or individuals or by the state the evidence which has been previously analysed and will be analysed in relation to the other terms of reference must be considered These include Gregory Smith’s connections and antecedents So too must the general atmosphere in the country for the period leading up to June 1980 Rodney’s impact as a leading political figure his and the WPA’s relationship with other political organisations and the security forces are also relevant Accordingly the answer to the question 60 posed in terms of reference two will be postponed to allow for a fuller consideration of these matters Accident or Deliberate Act 4 48 - There is a preponderance of evidence establishing that it was well known that Gregory Smith was a serving member of the Guyana Defence Force Despite this the army at first denied any knowledge of Smith as a member of the GDF Retired Major General Norman McLean then Chief of Staff of the GDF admitted that the army at first stated publicly that no “Gregory Smith” was a member of the Guyana Defence Force but later on “After we were given the number 4141 that is when they checked and said yes there is a ‘William Gregory Smith’ ” Clearly it was now being acknowledged that “William Gregory Smith” and “Gregory Smith” was one and the same person Evidence of Retired Major General Norman McLean given on the 5th day of June 2014 4 49 - Major General McClean further testified that he had information that at some point in time Gregory Smith was a deserter from the army but when the direct question was put to him “Are you able to say definitively whether William Gregory Smith was an active member of the army on the 14th June 1980 ” he replied “I do not know that ” 4 50 - This “gap” in his knowledge or recall is in this Commission’s view adequately closed by the extract from the evidence of ASP McRae given at the coroner’s inquest held in 1988 There he testified that he having spoken to the Chief of Staff who was then Major General Norman McLean for the Guyana Defence Force GDF had been able to establish that on the night of June 13th 1980 Smith had been a serving member of the army 4 51 - Indeed by the time this Commission convened there was no doubt that Smith was so enlisted For our purposes the relevance of the army’s initial denial is that it certainly raises in sharp focus the question as to why the army would have initially denied that he was a serving member The answer may well lie in an attempt at an intentional cover up That coupled with the other evidence which had been examined has led this Commission to that very conclusion 4 52 - The evidence provided by Anne Wagner is that Gregory Smith died on November 21st 2002 Undoubtedly while he was in Guyana and prior to the death of Walter Rodney he operated as an electronics technician Evidence to this effect is to be found in the statement from Pamela Beharry dated June 21st 1980 which 61 was included in one of the police files There she stated that Gregory Smith was her neighbour until she relocated in December 1979 and he lived at 40 Russell Street Georgetown with one Gwendolyn Jones his paramour She further testified that “ he Gregory Smith had started to bring in to the said apartment radio receivers and other type of radio equipment In addition to radio receivers and sets Smith also had on occasions walkie-talkie sets and other mechanical instruments ” 4 53 - Trenton Roach confirmed Smith’s involvement and training in electronics in the security forces stating that “I was once on a joint army police radio technicians operators course with him ” In a document dated April 19th 1980 found in one of the three special branch files reference is made to Gregory Smith He is described as an electronics expert “who works on the waterfront ” There it is recorded that affiliates of the WPA and ultimately Dr Walter Rodney himself had sought to engage the services of Gregory Smith to set up communication systems No information or intelligence is there contained relative to any WPA member or affiliate commissioning or requesting the manufacture of an explosive Rather the entry refers to him claiming to have overheard discussions relative to the acquisition of arms 4 54 - In the course of her evidence Anne Wagner presented extracts from the book Assassination Cry of a Failed Revolution purporting to have been coauthored by Gregory Smith and herself but published after his death In one of these extracts it is recorded that Smith stated that he was recruited by Walter Rodney to “modify portable citizen band transceivers walkie-talkies or CBs as triggering devices ” In her evidence she was not living in Guyana at that time and was therefore not in a position to speak first hand to events and occurrences in Guyana 4 55 - In the book it is also narrated that Smith gave Dr Walter Rodney the modified device as requested and provided detailed instructions to both Dr Walter Rodney and his brother Donald Rodney Those instructions related to the manner of operating the device and the dangers associated with its use in particular premature triggering This apparently was intended to be supportive of the theory that the device was accidentally triggered by Dr Walter Rodney himself and to convey that an accident occurred for which Smith is not responsible Some support for this inference may be said to be found in the evidence that Gregory Smith was distressed and or frightened when he heard news of the explosion 62 4 56 - This came from In-camera-witness II who testified that the step-son of Gregory Smith one David Carrel reported to her years later in a conversation that on the day of the explosion Dr Rodney collected a walkie-talkie from Carrel’s step-father and when Dr Rodney left Gregory Smith was operating a big machine from his home 4 57 - The witness further testified that her sister was in an intimate relationship with David Carrel and it had been reported to her by Carrel that when they heard of the explosion “ he said his step father was like going mad started to pull his hair and behaving in a funny manner ” It is also the evidence of this witness that it was also reported to her that Gregory Smith and Walter Rodney were close friends and furthermore that “he Gregory Smith’s step-son told us that his stepfather was very sad when he did what he did ” 4 58 - Having regard to the conclusion previously arrived at we are of the view that any such distress on the part of Smith must be attributed to his realisation of the enormity of the scheme he had participated in It runs counter to the narrative set out in the book Assassination Cry of a Failed Revolution and serves to undermine Smith’s credibility and raises the question of his motive to lie It may well be that Smith was feigning innocence in the eyes of the family in order to retain their regard and respect 4 59 - The analysis provided by Nirmal Rohit Kanhai who was accepted as an expert by the Commission supported in his testimony the findings of Dr Frank Skuse He agreed that the device which exploded was triggered by an external source He further testified that the triggering of the device had to be deliberate given the findings which were made by Dr Skuse It is Kanhai’s evidence that “When you look at Smith’s book that is Smith’s thesis that it was accidental When you look at the fact it was a Harris Porter sic phone you can never come to that conclusion This is why Smith is saying he had a toy walkie-talkie set Once we accept the forensic evidence of Dr Skuse that it was a Harris Porter sic phone then everything Smith says becomes nonsense just to put it mildly Because the Harris Porter sic phone is a military device It was a top of the line device It means this is about as good a device as you can get and that selectivity rating is telling you that the signal that is sent to it it will accept that signal to the exclusion of other signals the selectivity rating tells you spurious signals cannot trigger it ” 63 4 60 - Nirmal Kanhai also accepted that based on the forensic evidence and post mortem report of Dr Mootoo there would have been no handling of the device by Dr Walter Rodney and therefore no possibility that the detonator could have been activated by friction Again we emphasize that while Mr Kanhai was available to be cross-examined the Commission did not have the benefit of having Smith’s evidence tested in like manner In summary the scientific and overwhelming evidence presented to the inquiry will contradict the theory of an accidental triggering initiated by Walter Rodney’s failure to comply with the instructions given by Gregory Smith Police Investigations 4 61 - Evidence has been adduced of the response and or reaction or the police after the death of Walter Rodney On a review of this evidence the Commission has come to the inevitable conclusion that the investigations into the death of Dr Walter Rodney were inadequate and incomplete 4 62 - We have already referred to the three police files touching and concerning the death of Walter Rodney which were admitted in evidence We must consider the material in these files as well as the oral evidence testimony produced to this Commission 4 63 - It is the evidence of Trenton Roach that on the very evening of June 13 1980 there was information shared among police officers that Walter Rodney had died as a result of the explosion Although categorised as rumour and unofficial it was undoubtedly widespread Obviously Gregory Smith was implicated in the death of Walter Rodney from very early and this ought to have put the police on inquiry in relation to him 4 64 - Indeed in the statement of Detective Senior Superintendent Gentle included in the police files he confirmed that he went to the house of Gwendolyn Jones at Russell Street Georgetown This was part of the investigation into the explosion and consequential death There he executed a search warrant for arms and ammunition under the authority of the National Security Act and found “a quantity of electronic equipment which included 3 radios 4 Banton sets or walkietalkie and a monitor ” Strangely he was not detailed to search for detain or carry out any arrest on Gregory Smith The question arose at the 1988 coroner’s inquest at which both he and his superior officer ASP McRae were witnesses No explanation was provided then and we have none now 64 4 65 - Trenton Roach who was earlier introduced was responsible for the installation and maintenance of the force’s entire communication network including very high frequency transmissions He gave further evidence that on the 14th of June 1980 he was then a corporal and was instructed to report to Detective Senior Superintendent Vernon Gentle at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department CID He did so and his testimony as to what followed is “On my arrival he showed me some electronic equipment and instructed me to check them There were four 4 Bantam sets two Midlands and two Lafayettes three domestic radios and one VHF monitor all found to be in working order and were found to be receiving police operated frequencies This was worrying to me but the monitor was of special interest to me because it was receiving police transmission very clearly which means it should not be in the hands of civilians as it will compromise the integrity and security of the network Of note also on the monitor was pasted a piece of paper with the wording ‘Remember to work on the 14’ and there was figure ‘3’ overwritten on the ‘4’ ” 4 66 - Although the dates given by himself and Gentle do not correspond the evidence at the 1988 coroner’s inquest makes it clear that the items that Constable Roach as he then was examined were the very items that the then Detective Senior Superintendent Gentle removed from Smith’s Russell Street residence One cannot leave this point without noting that on his evidence given at the inquest the then Constable Roach admitted under cross examination that the items could not be found despite a thorough search for them 4 67 - Additionally from his evidence it is clear that he was not given the information as to the case file to which his examination related as he surmised quite wrongly from information later obtained that they were taken from a Mr Rowe’s house on Evans Street Detective Gentle from his testimony was not looking for Gregory Smith when he searched his house He was not aware that a man by the name of Gregory Smith was connected to Rodney’s death although he was given information that the search of the house was so related 4 68 - He too could not account for the missing items His examination at the inquest on this point proceeded as follows “Q Did you see Mr Roach report A Yes Sir Q What did you with the various pieces of electronic equipment 65 A I lodged them in the storeroom I do not know if anyone uplifted them Q Have you seen any record of the article being returned A I cannot say Q In the report you see reference to transistors and capacitors A Yes Sir Q When anything is taken out from a body at post mortem it is handed to the police A Yes I don’t know if this was done Q Is Mr Kendell still a member of the Police Force A No he is in New York ” 4 69 - There is no evidence as to how they were secured or as to any chain of custody following their removal from Russell Street They were certainly not made available to Dr Skuse Once again this evidence demonstrates the lack of sufficient professional care by the police in the preservation and securing of potential exhibits in relation to a case of national and international importance As a result these items were not produced either at the trial of Donald Rodney or at the subsequent inquest into Walter Rodney’s death Not surprisingly they were not available to this Commission thirty-four years later On the evidence of Crime Chief Leslie James “The current Commissioner of Police and myself spoke and searches were made and the information I got was that nothing of such was found ” 4 70 - In the three Special Branch files relating to the surveillance of the’ WPA presented to the Commission there is only one reference to Gregory Smith to which we have already referred There he is described as an electronics expert who worked on the waterfront and who was asked to supply walkie-talkies by members of the WPA including Dr Rodney No mention is made of Gregory Smith being a marine sergeant in the GDF 4 71 - Was it that the police had no information that this Gregory Smith was one and the same William Gregory Smith a solider of the GDF or is it that for security reasons his link to the army was being suppressed As part of this report Gregory Smith is said to have overheard elements in the WPA discussing the acquisition of arms This report of acquisition of arms by the WPA will be revisited However of more proximate relevance at this juncture is that the intelligence received by the police did not include information regarding the soliciting or supply of explosive devices from Gregory Smith but rather a device for communication 66 4 72 - It is also of relevance to note the evidence of Allan Gates who testified to secret meetings between himself and Gregory Smith and the information which was consequently divulged to him It is Gates’ testimony that “He Gregory Smith told me that Walter Rodney wanted him to build a high frequency walkie-talkie that would have been able to cover certain distance He told me that he does not have the expertise and when he informed his superior they told him that they would have the walkie-talkie made in Russia he said that his superior said that he would use the opportunity rather than him delivering a walkie-talkie they would deliver an explosive device He also told me that he would have been paid GYD$1 million in those days and free access out of Guyana for him and whether he had a wife or whoever ” 4 73 - Also on the evidence of Allan Gates Gregory Smith informed him that he reported to a number of persons in the security forces including Chico Laurie Lewis and Norman McLean If this evidence is accepted Gregory Smith knew that he was delivering an explosive In addition he knew that Walter Rodney was ignorant of this and that their testing would likely have resulted in detonation of the device Gates’ evidence bolsters the conclusion already arrived at that Rodney did not request the production of a bomb 4 74 - While evidence was given that photographs of Gregory Smith were somewhat later posted in police stations there is no indication in the police files or from the evidence otherwise adduced that any national search was conducted or bulletin for his capture publicized It must also be borne in mind that the army would have had details relative to his address birth name of parents and close associates and that a man by the name of Gregory Smith who frequented the ports was already known to them Impact of Walter Rodney and the Activities of the WPA on the State and Political Parties – Motive 4 75 - In addressing this Term of Reference the impact of the growing popularity of the WPA consequent on Dr Rodney’s return to Guyana to the elements of national political life and of the two main political parties merit consideration Witnesses including Eusi Kwayana Tacuma Ogunseye and Ras Leon Saul gave evidence in this regard In Eusi Kwayana’s words the WPA was a “coalition of several groups and the whole was to get groups together that represented different races which had been split since 1955 when the original People’s Progressive Party split This organisation from the first even before Dr Rodney returned 67 incurred a mysterious kind of hostility because its members had spoken out severely against what took place in 1973 ” He further testified “ he Dr Walter Rodney was a very popular figure in the imagination and hearts of the Guyanese people ” 4 76 - Of Dr Rodney Eusi Kwayana testified as follows “He was perhaps the first political person of the left that was always a welcomed guest among religious groups priests and people who had or pretended to have some interest in social change as they were doing at that time I think they had a genuine interest in social change but I have to be broad ” 4 77 - Tacuma Ogunseye founding member and executive committee member of the WPA and who was originally a member of ASCRIA which was part of the coalition which became the WPA gave evidence in a similar vein He stated that ASCRIA decided “ it was determined sic that Dr Rodney was a very important political person and that the WPA should use him to bring about a political situation in which people could participate regardless of race class or party loyalties ” He also testified that the impact of Walter Rodney on political life was demonstrated when the WPA had the first public meeting to be addressed by Dr Rodney 4 78 - Not only were they able to attract members of the PPP but also members and supporters of IPRA There were in addition person from the Working People’s Vanguard Party the people of Ratoon at the Durban and Louisa Row meeting It was one of the largest crowds for a political meeting that there ever was He said “There were about four or five thousand persons It was one of the biggest meetings for a long time ” 4 79 - Although the estimated size of the crowd given by Mr Kwayana differed approximately 3 000 people the tenor of his evidence in this regard is to the same effect Prior to this similar meetings only attracted a few hundred people The following extract from his book Walter Rodney was put to him by counsel for the PNC in cross-examination and he endorsed and accepted it as accurate “The first meeting at Durban and Louisa Row in Georgetown brought at least 3 000 people into the streets much to the surprise of the power-blind PNC Its thugs were unprepared for this public response and had to confine themselves to heckling with racist jibes at the fact that Cheddi Jagan and I appeared on the same platform after 21 years with the exception of a single protest meeting in 1968 protesting the banning of C Y Thomas from Jamaica ASCRIA took the 68 lead in proposing that a number of groups and individuals cooperate in the protest against this attack on the action It took particular pains to invite among others the PPP and it did this not in order to get PPP supporters involved in the protest but out of respect for Rodney’s own position which had seen the PPP as a progressive organisation ” 4 80 - In confirming the collaboration and amicable relationship between the PPP and the WPA and the impact of this on the ruling party Mr Kwayana gave evidence as to the collaboration of the PPP and the WPA for the formation of the National Patriotic Front further to which “conferences were convened in Georgetown among the PPP the Working People’s Alliance and various other forces of opposition to discuss the proposals that is the National Patriotic Front ” And in relation to the second point his evidence was that this came to the notice of the then president sic Burnham who publicly declared “They the PPP can ride into office on the backs of the worst possible alternative but Comrades let me say this never the day canoe bore punt ” The phrase “never the day canoe bore punt” is a “David and Goliath” reference as a punt is a large barge made out of heavy metal 4 81- In relation to the joint rejection of the Constitution Amendment Bill put forward in 1978 he testified “This was another manifestation of the close working relationship—a united position of the PPP and the WPA in the conflicts of the struggle against the intentions of the then administration to carry out constitutional changes which were rejected in mass by the Guyanese people and both parties were looking for the appropriate forum as part of their efforts to mobilise the population to sensitize them of what their position were and to educate at the same time the people so that they could be more conscious of the position of the two political parties and other members of the alliance—the CDD and all of that—contributing to rising and the increasing political consciousness of the people So it was part of a process of imparting knowledge and part of a process of hearing the views of people as well ” 4 82 - He also testified as to a united opposition position to the proposed referendum “Well we all join hands together to oppose the Referendum That was-the time when the PNC the ballot paper which you would vote during the Referendum they designated a house for those who would vote for and a mouse for those who would vote against so the slogan in those days was ‘vote for the house and kill the mouse ’ This was the chant that resonated throughout the country in those days from the government platform across the country ” 69 4 83 - Mr Nanda Gopaul an active trade unionist and leading member of the union NAACIE when asked by attorney for the PNC whether the PPP supported the strategy of the resistance by the WPA to the administration he replied “Well I cannot say whether the PPP supported but I know personally from time to time I would have spoken with Dr Jagan and he obviously would have supported most of the actions taken at that time ” 4 84 - So there was evidence coming from leaders of both the WPA and the PPP in relation to a cordial relationship and strategic collaboration There was of course and naturally so awareness of the fact that this had the potential to impact membership of the PPP Mr Kwayana was asked and confirmed that he was aware that Gail Texeira of the PPP in an interview with the Morning Star in London England described Walter Rodney as a “progressive of fairly acceptable views ” Mr Kwayana expressed the view that this “was an attempt to downgrade his Dr Rodney’s heritage from the pinnacle he might have attained ” 4 85 - So too there is evidence in the WPA surveillance files that at some group meetings it was noted and some concern expressed at the attraction of some PPP members to the WPA led by Walter Rodney Nevertheless it must be reiterated that no evidence of hostility or motive on the part of the PPP to get rid of Rodney was produced to this Commission The overall impact revealed by the evidence was a positive one 4 86 - When questioned by Mr Christopher Ram attorney for the WPA Ras Leon Saul also gave evidence to that effect and expressed a view that the WPA was attracting supporters of the PPP but he gave no evidence as to any hostility between the two organizations 4 87 - As set out in the report relative to TOR 1 the time immediately prior to June 13 1980 was a period of political unrest and instability From the evidence there can be no doubt that as Rodney became increasingly more popular the sharp differences between the WPA and the PNC became more and more pronounced This was captured both on the political platforms and elsewhere 4 88 - On the evidence of Ras Leon Saul “The crowds began to grow at the meetings and the reasons why the crowds began to grow was because of the attraction of Walter Rodney and the new kid on the block the WPA They were the hype in town people wanted to go to their meetings like if it was the biggest activity around The WPA was the party 70 but Walter Rodney was the draw In other words Walter Rodney could have done what he was doing without the WPA and also without the PPP Walter Rodney had started to move even ahead of the organisations that he was a part of He was becoming really larger than life ” 4 89 - On the evidence as Dr Rodney’s popularity grew so did police action such as searches detentions and the institution of criminal charges against WPA members and affiliates 4 90 - On the testimony of Trenton Roach at one such public meeting of the WPA on the occasion of the first anniversary of the 1978 referendum Rodney is reported as having said “You don’t know who to trust you have to do something yourself but don’t let us come back next year to celebrate no referendum defeat we must celebrate something more significant ” 4 91 - According to Mr Trenton Roach this statement was followed on the very night by the destruction by fire of the Ministry of National Development PNC Headquarters Following on this fire members and affiliates of the WPA namely Dr Walter Rodney Dr Omawale Dr Rupert Roopnarine Bonita Harris Maurice Odle Karen De Souza Kwame Apata and Narine Nandlall were detained and eventually three of them namely Dr Walter Rodney Dr Rupert Roopnarine and Dr Omawale were charged with arson They were able to get bail in court proceedings held on Saturday the 7th July 1979 the same day that Father Darke was murdered This was 11 months before June 13 1980 4 92 - Having been charged with the offence of arson the popularity of Walter Rodney did not abate According to Trenton Roach “After the charges the frequency and sizes of the crowds increased ” The “make your wills” excerpt has already been quoted from the speech of President sic L F S Burnham at the third biennial congress of the People’s National Congress PNC in 1979 Eusi Kwayana testified concerning this excerpt “We knew it was a threat We did not know to what extent the threat would go in 1979 but it is a declaration of war ‘Let them make their wills ’ It was directed at the WPA ” He further testified “It went beyond criticizing his policies to the point where strategies were being affected to take him out of power It had reached to that point where it was no longer dilettante and just the hype in society about WPA meetings It had moved from just making the masses conscious to the point where action on the ground was necessary to get a government out of power by any means necessary It had reached to that point ” Referring to words used by Walter Rodney himself Kwayana continued “ Even the rhetoric had become more hyped—the reference to 71 him as ‘King Kong’ ‘People’s Power’ ‘No Dictator’ It was very vitriolic It was incendiary ” 4 93 - The Commission heard evidence from Tacuma Ogunseye that the cell of the WPA to which he was attached decided to acquire weapons for self-defence “We felt that the WPA would have to acquire some amount of arms for self-defence purposes and we took steps to deal with that ” Ogunseye further testified that the collection of arms and was for self-defense against “not only the state machine You see in Guyana we faced the House of Israel we faced PNC private people with weapons far more and our weapons were so minimal it was more of a psychological boosting for our comrades so that they could perform knowing that they are not totally exposed It is more psychological than anything else it is no match to who we were up against ” 4 94 - He was careful to note that this was not a decision taken for or by the WPA as a whole Neither did he involve or implicate Dr Walter Rodney in this Allan Gates also gave evidence that Dr Roopnarine requested of him that he procured ammunition on his behalf However as Dr Roopnarine did not give evidence nothing can be made this 4 95 - The important point that must be made at this juncture is that neither Walter nor the WPA had been committed to a policy of violence even though some individuals in a limited number of cells in the WPA were arming themselves 4 96 - The actions of the security forces in response to the growing popularity of the WPA under the leadership of Dr Walter Rodney is detailed elsewhere in this report It is therefore only necessary here to review the evidence of his widow Dr Patricia Rodney as to the direct actions of the police and some citizens adverse to their family On her evidence their children were singled out and isolated There were taunts and threats from PNC supporters who passed by their house Their mail was intercepted Walter was under constant surveillance He was detained multiple times and released without charge save and except for when he was charged with arson This charge was eventually dropped for lack of evidence even though posthumously 4 97 - This is of relevance here because it indicates establishes that Dr Walter Rodney was not contemplating overthrow of the state by violent means but he was now at the point of contemplating leaving Guyana 72 4 98 - By all accounts Dr Walter Rodney was a popular personable man and there has been no evidence produced that anyone had a private grudge or acted with demonstrated hostility towards him He enjoyed amicable and cordial relations with the PPP and its leaders and this was publicly known There is no evidence of any or any sustained suspicion or apprehension on the part of the PPP towards him 4 99 - There is evidence of the significantly increasing popularity of Dr Walter Rodney and the real threat that this posed to the governing party The atmosphere of intolerance and dictatorial rule the deficiencies in the investigation are all the features of the period under review There is definitely material on which to conclude that Rodney’s death was an act of violence for political purposes It may be seen too as an act of violence to frighten the WPA’s members and supporters away from their political goals It may further be interpreted as a means of coercion Getting him off the political scene was definitely an objective of the government of the day His death clearly set back and weakened the opposition forces 4 100-Karen De Souza testified that upon seeing Dr Walter Rodney in the car after the explosion which killed him the opinion she formed as to what had happened is that “he had finally been killed by the government ” When asked the basis for that assumption or belief she replied “Well one the very seriously adversarial posture of the Working People’s Alliance and the People’s National Congress The fact that two party members had been killed before Walter was killed The fact that I think at one or more than one of the big People’s National Congress rallies the Prime Minister had been uttering threats about ‘make your wills’ and ‘sharper steel’ and so forth That the people in the ‘Worst Possible Alternative’ should make their wills and that the ‘Worst Possible Alternative’ is the way the WPA was named by the government of the day and that the steel of the People’s National Congress was sharper than any steel that the Working People’s Alliance might have ” In the words of Eusi Kwayana his death “ proved the extent of the menace as to whether it was empty rhetoric or menacing ” Back to Title Page 73 CHAPTER 5 To specifically examine the role if any which the late Gregory Smith sergeant of the Guyana Defence Force played in the death of Dr Walter Rodney and if so to inquire into who may have counselled procured aided and or abetted him to do so including facilitating his departure from Guyana after Dr Walter Rodney’s death – TOR III 5 1- In reviewing the evidence relative the TOR II we considered in detail the role that Gregory Smith played in the death of Walter Rodney and concluded that he knowingly brought about Rodney’s death We have also given consideration to the role of the state in his death We must now consider how Smith came to leave Guyana and what assistance he was given in doing so and its implications 5 2 - This is the summary given by Anne Wagner of Gregory Smith’s account “Okay when three men picked him up in front of his house and told him to come and he said no let me go to the station and report it they roughed him up He was crying he was shaking he could not believe that his friend Dr Walter Rodney was dead He was in a bad state The guy gave him two pills and told him this is going to calm you down and they drugged him When he woke up he was in Kwakwani ” She continued that after “Two or three days they brought him down to Georgetown and they took him to a ship that was going to Trinidad and they told him that when he goes to Trinidad the WPA would give him fake documents and some money He never heard from them My brother was in Trinidad with no documents no money no clothes and all the news flashing that he is a murderer that he killed Dr Walter Rodney ” There he was destitute He returned to Guyana where he stayed for a few days and then travelled to Cayenne the capital of French Guiana where he remained until his death 5 3 - But there is credible evidence of the State’s involvement in transporting him from Georgetown on the 14th day of June 1980 to Kwakwani by Gerald Gouveia then a serving member in the GDF utilizing a GDF Islander airplane numbered 8RGER This was on the instructions of his superiors 5 4 - According to Gouveia he did not realize at the time that he was given these instructions that his passenger was to be Gregory Smith the man implicated in the death of Walter Rodney In giving his evidence Mr Gouveia testified that he was unable to recall from memory transporting Smith from Kwakwani on June 17th On Gouveia’s evidence he only learnt of Smith’s identity some days later when he saw Smith’s photograph in the Catholic Standard in an article relating to the 74 explosion and death of Walter Rodney He further testified that he had consulted his personal log book in which he stated that it is recorded that he did pilot GDF airplane 8RGER on June 17th 1980 but what is recorded there is that the journey was from Timehri to Tacoma a military base 5 5 - From the police files that were produced into evidence at this inquiry at least four witnesses based in Kwakwani provided the police with statements confirmatory of Gregory Smith being transported to the airstrip at Kwakwani on June 14th 1980 and from the said airstrip on June 17th On both occasions Smith was transported in an army marked airplane For example reference may be made to the statements of Anita Thom Joel Southwell and Egerton Causeway all supernumerary police attached to the airstrip located at Guyana Mining Enterprise situated at Kwakwani as well as that of Avril Bourne a resident of Kwakwani Those witnesses all gave statements to the police investigator that a young man fitting the description of Gregory Smith was transported to the Kwakwani airstrip in an army airplane Southwell and Bourne both identified the airplane by its number 8RGER 5 6 - Bourne’s statement further records “that the man thin-built of mixed race he is about 5ft 7 ins brown complexion and has narrow features The woman is of Indian descent her hair was cut short and she is about 5ft 4 ins brown completion and has sound features They had some children along with them ” She recalls that she was later introduced to the man by one Lilian Smith “as my husband son Gregory Smith ” Approximately one month later she was shown two photographs and was able to identify the images captured there as Gregory Smith and the woman who had accompanied him 5 7 - One other witness namely Robert Vanconten gave a statement in which it is recorded that he saw someone he discovered to be Gregor Smith “who I was introduced to earlier by his father Cecil Smith who lives at Kwakwani Park ” It is reasonable to infer that these photographs shown to Bourne by or in the presence of Detective Winston Saigo who is the person who took the statement from her on the same day are the photographs that were shown her 5 8 - All statements taken from individuals at Kwakwani and included in the police files were taken by Saigo All the witnesses who gave statements that they saw the person alight from the army plane on June 14h 1980 or saw a “strange man” in the village between June 13th and 17th were shown photographs which they were able to confirm as having captured the image of the man they had seen The evidence of these witnesses both individually and taken together sharply 75 contradict the account attributed to Gregory Smith in the book Assassination Cry of a Failed Revolution 5 9 - In response to the question whether Gregory Smith appeared drunk or disoriented when he entered the GDF plane Gouveia confirmed that what he observed did not accord with somebody being groggy and or not operating on his own He Gouveia did not see his passenger being transported to the plane by other persons In addition there is nothing in the statements of Avril Bourne George Southwell or Anita Thom to indicate that the man who alighted from the army plane on June 14th appeared groggy disoriented or drugged 5 10 - The aircraft used by Gouveia was sold sometime after and the evidence is that the plane’s log book would have accompanied it to its new owner The further evidence is that the personal files of Gregory Smith which would have existed as part of the GDF records have gone missing and it is believed that they were among files destroyed when there was a flooding of a particular GDF building The suggestion that Smith’s missing file was the result of a flood is decidedly rejected as a fabrication and is discussed elsewhere 5 11 - In the book Assassination Cry of a Failed Revolution it is stated that Gregory Smith’s departure from Guyana to French Guiana was facilitated by WPA affiliates and in the process he was given new travel documents under the name Cyril Milton Johnson The said travel documents facilitated his entry into French Guiana However the witnesses who were associated with the WPA during the period under consideration deny any knowledge of the WPA facilitating Smith’s exit from Guyana 5 12 - It is the evidence of Eusi Kwayana one of the three co-leaders of the WPA at the relevant time that to the contrary WPA members had their own passports seized They did not have the kind of influence with the Immigration Department that would enable them to assist Smith in the manner recorded in his book He testified as follows “Now the WPA has had some of its passports seized and could not make a passport as he is alleged we did for him So this was inconsistent withour experience ” 5 13 - This was confirmed by Jocelyn Dow a sympathizer and supporter of the WPA whose evidence was that in addition to the lack of influence with Immigration a further obstacle to travel was that one required a tax clearance with which known supporters of the WPA were not generally provided 76 5 14 - What is undeniable is that Gregory Smith was issued with Passport #268685 on the 5th July 1980 in the name of Cyril Milton Johnson Endorsed on this passport is his exit from Guyana and arrival in French Guiana on the 7th day of July 1980 It is also worthy of note that the same passport shows Cyril Milton Johnson re-entering Guyana on the 19th day of June 1982 These documents were produced by Sergeant Alexis Adams of the Immigration Department who also produced application form for a new passport on the expiration of Passport #268685 5 15 - On the evidence of Sergeant Alexis Adams there were flagrant irregularities with respect to the application form for Passport #0890057 for Cyril Milton Johnson made in 1999 which was marked as Exhibit ARW2 and admitted into evidence This evidence from an Immigration Officer completely undermines the credibility of the account given in the book as to Smith being facilitated in his departure from Guyana under the auspices of the WPA 5 16 - Evidence has also been presented to this Commission which establishes inferentially that the girlfriends of Gregory Smith subsequent to the explosion in 1980 were spirited away by the government It is the evidence of in-camera witness II that Gwendolyn Ramotar believed to be the same person as Gwendolyn Jones and her two sons who were fathered by Gregory Smith were sent out of Guyana by the government to New York 5 17 - There is also evidence from the police crime files concerning one Joan Melvin who described herself as the fiancé of Gregory Smith Joan Melvin in her statement given to the police on the 3rd of July 1980 averred that she was employed to the Ministry of Health and Labour as the confidential secretary to the Permanent Secretary until around the 23rd of June 1980 By the 3rd of July 1980 she had become a diplomat employed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was slated to depart Guyana on assignment to the Guyana Consulate in New York by the 6th day of July 1980 for an indefinite period 5 18 - There is common ground between Gouveia and Wagner that however Gregory Smith travelled to Kwakwani he was accompanied by a woman identified by Wagner as Gwendolyn Jones and children Anne Wagner in answer to questions posed by Counsel Mr Andrew Pilgrim confirmed the relationship between Gregory Smith and both Gwendolyn Jones and Joan Melvin She testified that at the time of her evidence they were both living in the United States 77 5 19 - Although some of the statements in the crime files on this and other points could not be tested as their authors did not attend and give sworn evidence they can nevertheless be accorded a high degree of credibility as there is supporting evidence about them from witnesses who appeared before the Commission And unlike Gregory Smith the authors of these statements cannot be said to fall into the category of persons with an interest of their own to serve 5 20 - The State agencies responsible for the institution of criminal prosecutions only issued a warrant for Gregory Smith’s arrest in 1996 following the visit of the investigating team from the International Commission of Jurists and their report published in 1995 The advice proffered by the then Director of Public Prosecutions Mr Ian Chang was that Gregory Smith be charged with the offence of murder though his personal recommendation for a charge of manslaughter was noted 5 21 - The evidence is that Gregory Smith re-entered the jurisdiction of Guyana on the 19th of June 1982 under the name Cyril Milton Johnson That was only two years post the 13th of June 1980 and the supply of a passport to him was by a process which circumvented the legal requirements That no warrants for his arrest had been issued prior to 1996 is instructive and there is no indication as to what diplomatic or other efforts were made to secure the extradition of Gregory Smith from French Guiana 5 22 - The evidence clearly points to the State procuring and facilitating Smith’s departure from Guyana ensuring that he remained outside of the jurisdiction and beyond the reach of its laws Back to Title Page 78 CHAPTER 6 To examine and report on the actions and activities of the state such as the Guyana Police Force the Guyana Defence Force the Guyana National Service the Guyana People’s Militia and those who were in command and superintendence of these agencies to determine whether they were tasked with the surveillance of and the carrying out of actions and whether they did execute those tasks and carried out those actions against the political opposition for the period 1st January 1978 to 31st December 1980 – TOR VII 6 1 - The totality of the evidence presented to us clearly and obviously painted a grim picture as to how the country of Guyana was run but our TOR limit the period from January 1 1978 to December 31 1980 We have no hesitation in concluding that the political directorate at that time under the leadership of the late Mr L F S Burnham Prime Minister and late President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and as Head of State was the supreme authority and Commander-inChief of the armed forces of the republic He was not only the head of the Guyana Defence Force Board but was also head of the National Security Committee and from all the evidence kept a very tight rein on all aspects of the country’s business 6 2 - The tight rein we have mentioned has its deep root and genesis in the concept of “party paramountcy ” a concept proclaimed by the then Prime Minister Mr Burnham David A Granger now President Brigadier Ret’d recorded in his book National Defence A Brief History of the Guyana Defence Force 1965-2005 2005 at pp 186-187 that “Paramountcy The increasing involvement of the Defence Force in party politics a marked departure from the apparent non-partisan stance taken in the immediate postindependence period raised public concern about the direction being taken by civil-military relations This pattern of politicization became more evident after the promulgation of the Declaration of Sophia on 14 December 1974 exactly 10 years after the PNC had first come to power “As a consequence of this thinking political participation was positively promoted and many officers and soldiers were encouraged to become members of the PNC in the ensuing period Similar ideas had been embraced by the GDF high command for several years and in 1977 the Chief of Staff Clarence Prince appeared in military uniform before the PNC’s 2nd biennial congress 79 and pledged publicly ‘ our loyalty and dedication to the Comrade Leader of the People’s National Congress and Prime Minister Forbes Burnham ’ committing the Defence Force to ‘ following the road mapped out by the party and government ’ This ritual pledge of loyalty was repeated in succeeding congresses up to Burnham’s death in 1985 although not by the Chief of Staff in person “As a result of these measures the civil administration was able to establish and maintain its control over the GDF It was not felt that there was need to install civilian political agents in military units as it was thought that there was already significant support for the PNC party in the force This interest was fostered by the attitude of the Prime Minister who as Minister responsible for defence started to appear regularly at official military functions dressed in uniform The significance of this symbolism was not lost on the public or the troops ” 6 3 - We accept the analysis given by Brigadier Ret’d Granger as accurate and it harmonises with the evidence in relation to the effect of paramountcy of the party on the military and paramilitary organisations of the country 6 4 - We are satisfied that Prime Minister Burnham used this platform in order to exert control over the military and para-military organisations of Guyana during that period 6 5 - We have heard the evidence of Senior Supt Leslie James the then head of the Criminal Investigations Department CID He told us that he entered the Guyana Police Force GPF on February 8 1987 6 6 - Mr James produced a number of files to the Commission but significantly and perhaps unsurprisingly did not produce all the relevant files through apparently no fault of his own He produced three 3 files which were labelled by the GPF as WPA8 WPA9 and WPA10 meaning Working People’s Alliance 8 9 and 10 These files came from Special Branch which is a branch of GPF Mr James said that these three files covered the period 1980 the very year when Dr Rodney was killed 6 7 - Mr James told the Commission that two 2 of these files reflect “Re Death of Dr Rodney Walters ” sic and the third is a murder file of the accused person “Gregory Smith ” This witness was unable to account for the missing files which Special Branch had at some point in time namely WPA 1 2 3 4 5 6 and 7 It is 80 to be noted that Mr James on our first day of hearing did accept that the “Walter Rodney” files were a matter of continuing interests but could not account for their absence 6 8 - Also Mr James whose role before the Commission was to produce and comment as best as he could on the files in custody of the police relevant to Dr Walter Rodney and his death and to Gregory Smith As discussed elsewhere of the three 3 files relating to 1980 two were entitled “The Death of Dr Walter Rodney” and the other was a murder file relating to Gregory Smith These files were at one point within the custody of the Special Branch Mr James could give no account for the disappearance of the files 6 9 - One possible explanation which we find unacceptable is that there was a serious flood in Guyana in 2005 and many of the files may have been destroyed That was a matter of some speculation and there was no hard evidence that the missing files from Special Branch were the victims of the flood 6 10 - There were too files missing from the GDF in relation to Gregory Smith and there was similar speculation that the missing Gregory Smith file might have been the result of the flood 6 11 - Snr Supt Leslie James expressed great surprise at the disappearance of the Special Branch files and said that in his experience that it was first time that he had ever heard off such a thing happening We fully endorse Mr James’ surprise and adopt it as our own 6 12 - Concerning the missing GDF file on Gregory Smith in the context of all the evidence presented before the Commission we are satisfied that this was a deliberate act for which the GDF must bear full responsibility 6 13 - Elsewhere in the report we have discussed the impact and implications of paramountcy on the civil service and on the State corporations But as Danns pointed out in his book the police force was seriously impacted as was the civil service bureaucracy 6 14 - In support of this contention Mr Danns refers to an address at pp 132-133 delivered by Prime Minister Burnham to middle-level management of the Police Force at a training course He said among other things 81 “You cannot enforce law and order in vacua Law and order have to be enforced within a particular context of values and objectives Incidentally I would prefer to drop the word “enforce” and its derivative “enforcing” and use instead “assisting fellow citizens to have a greater regard for the law and its norms I say without apology because there are still some who would say that the Police Force must be apolitical it must merely enforce the law ” Policemen are citizens first and then vocationally policemen “You will be judged by your performance not only professionally but as a citizen as a man as a builder of a new society I have hope nay a conviction that out of those series of courses there will come many real leaders in terms of the definition I have attempted to set out ” 6 15 - Minister Clement Rohee testified about the impact of paramountcy on the public service and on the military Referring to Sallahuddin in his book Guyana The Struggle for Liberation 1945-1992 who wrote at pp 308-309 where he is quoted as follows “Significant numbers of public servants and the military were expected to pledge allegiance to the PNC They did under the practice of party paramountcy a policy that placed the PNC over and above all other organisations and agencies and relegated the Parliament and the government to a position of subservience in relation to the PNC ” 6 16 - At p 308 of Sallahuddin’s book the following is recorded “ The death of WPA activist Walter Rodney on June 13 1980 widely regarded as a political assassination engineered by sources associated with the Burnham regime as a means of demolishing the rising tide of opposition to Forbes Burnham should not be regarded as a means of destroying the WPA only “In wider terms such an act has to be interpreted as conveying a powerful signal to other forces opposed to Burnham and to such potential forces as may have been contemplating an alliance with the WPA that Machiavelli had not written The Prince in vain “The involvement of person or persons associated with the military in the death of Walter Rodney is widely suspected 82 “The tragic and highly unusual circumstances surrounding the deaths of Father Darke and Walter Rodney have to be interpreted in the wider context of excessive political repression aimed at suppressing the rising tide of discontent even among Burnhams sic traditional urban supporters The 1979-80 period was one of intense WPA political activity centred mainly in the capital city the traditional Burnham stronghold Burnham could not stand by and allow his political stronghold to be usurped by newcomer Walter Rodney whose leadership of the WPA resulted in masses of Africans particularly the disadvantaged and dispossessed flocking WPA activity ” 6 17 - The views of Salluhuddin expressed herein were fully supported by Eusi Kwayana Karen De Souza and Edward Lawrence Rodney they all testified that in their judgment it was Burnham who killed Walter 6 18 - Karen De Souza also testified that there were policemen in plain clothes who were particularly vicious and used hockey sticks and police batons on members of the public who attended WPA meetings She went so far as to name a member of the Death Squad whose surname was “Fanfair ” 6 19 - Rev Reuben Gilbert testified in graphic detail about a large WPA meeting held at Bourda Green at which the police used teargas when Rodney was speaking in an attempt to break up the meeting Rodney’s reaction is worthy of mention In the words of Rev Gilbert he advised the crowd “Get down all you get down ” The whole crowd got down flat on the grass until the teargas subsided 6 20 - We have already commented on the sharp increase in the military establishment in the period under review What has not been earlier indicated is that the increased militarisation of the state led to an appreciable growth of the spy network It should be indicated however that there was no evidence implicating the Guyana National Service or the Guyana People’s Militia in surveillance activities against the political opposition for the period 1st January 1978 to 31st December 1980 That exemption however cannot be extended to the GPF and the GDF as those two 2 organisations were obviously and clearly tasked by the political directorate to carry out surveillance on the political opposition during the said period Support for that conclusion was found in the Special Branch files produced by Snr Supt Leslie James The evidence of Minister Rohee speaks to the surveillance of the PPP’s party leader Dr Cheddi Jagan and the headquarters of the PPP—Freedom House—as well 83 6 21 - Specifically Dr Jagan suffered frequent stops and searches at the airport when departing the country and when returning Any party literature which he was carrying was seized without reasonable or probable cause 6 22 - Edward Rodney testified to specific instances incidents that occurred during the 1978– 1980 period In support of his statement that Guyana was under a dictatorship he pointed to the persistent misuse and abuse of the military and paramilitary organisations in the country He identified the following  The GPF at that time was acting as an arm of the ruling party  The Police were being used to break up strikes against people who were standing in lines and being unruly or waiting to get bread kerosene or whatever  The mounted police were used to intimidate  There were some professionals amongst the Police Force who were not as antagonistic and violent as other police officers  There were the Bauxite Workers Union and the Guyana Stores workers’ strikes and the “brown clothes” policemen were used to intimidate those striking workers They were used together with the House of Israel operatives members to break up the strikes and intimidate workers  Persons who descended on the striking workers at Guyana Stores could be members of the House of Israel or the Young Socialist Movement YSM the Youth Arm of the PNC The attackers would pull away the pickets being carried by the striking workers and attacking them while the police were standing idly by without restraining the attackers 6 23 - The Commission also received evidence stating that there was also in circulation among police officers a Recognition Handbook—Working Peoples Alliance on WPA members Eusi Kwayana in his pamphlet titled Walter Rodney explained at p 38 what was the role and purpose of the Recognition Handbook He wrote as follows “About late March 1980 before Walter Rodney was denied the right to travel though he pledged to return to face his trial there came into his hand a copy of the Recognition Handbook—Working People’s Alliance A U S journalist who was shown it at a press conference said ‘Oh a hitlist’ ” The booklet carries the following under the caption “Foreword ” 84 “These notes are designed to provide a guide to the easy recognition of personnel of the Working People’s Alliance and vehicles that are associated with the organisation’s activities It must be appreciated that vehicle numbers and colour may change from time to time as is now a regular practice with that organisation ” 6 24 - A copy of the Recognition Handbook was presented to the Commission and in addition to the photographs of high profile members of the WPA contained therein there was also biographical data and passport numbers These would normally be outside of the knowledge and reach of ordinary persons In the circumstances we conclude that the Handbook was clearly and obviously compiled by an agency of the State which had access to personal and privileged information of those WPA members mentioned in the Handbook That Handbook was in regular use among police officers at that time 6 25 - It is of interest to record that evidence was received that shortly after Mr Odeen Ishmael took up his post as Ambassador of Guyana to the US based in Washington in June 1993 he came across a large number of documents entitled “The Walter Rodney Files” in the garage of the embassy The interpretation which we put on that find is that there were documents sent from Guyana to its embassy in Washington updating the embassy personnel about events and activities of the PNC administration at home in relation to its harassment and oppression The techniques were applied by consular and diplomatic personnel abroad as well 6 26 - This is supported by Mr Rohee who testified that Guyanese living in North America and who were members sic of the PNC often received harassing calls from consular and diplomatic officials 6 27 - Other prominent members of the Guyanese society also recognised the abuse of power by the PNC Administration Mr Ashton Chase S C founding member of the PPP lawyer and trade unionist writing in his book Guyana A Nation In Transit – Burnham’s Role reflected his views at pp 49 “It the National Security Miscellaneous Provisions Act Chap 16 02 Act No 7 of 1966B of the Laws of Guyana enabled his government to detain persons whom they were satisfied were acting or might act in a manner prejudicial to public order public safety or the defence of Guyana The detentions were authorised for three months but could be extended for longer periods after reference to a tribunal whose personnel were carefully chosen by him It also enabled the restriction of the movements of suspected persons Extended powers 85 as if under an emergency were given to the police Entry by police officers from the ranks of Inspector upwards without warrant was authorised in pursuance of an aim of the Act to control unauthorised possession or use of explosives firearms and ammunition “It was only a question of time before the Commissioner of Police and the force including prosecutors and the Director of Public Prosecutions DPP came under political as distinct from policy direction in the performance of their police and prosecutorial duties So with the security situation fully under control he commanded both respect and fear from his opponents His fingers were constantly on the pulse and he got information from every hamlet in the countryside and every nook and cranny in the towns of any political move or development that required his attention The weaklings in the opposition camps were easy prey for his network ” This particular aspect is supported by the clear and unequivocal evidence of Major General Ret’d Norman Mc Lean see Day 12 Transcript p 92 6 28 - Burnham’s grip and absolute control over the Guyanese society was so firm and extensive that he de-humanised and belittled many Guyanese by compelling them to clean “trenches ” canals or drains thus giving credence to the slogan “Trench or be Retrenched ” Mr Chase reflects the experience at p 158 of his book “The jobs done were basically unskilled work such as cleaning trenches drains canals weeding and under-brushing picking up coconuts fetching goods “The crux however was that while the various activities were taking place he would strut around on his horse stirrup whip et al from one field to another over the estate In this overseer role instructions were shouted to the unfortunate to do or do over this or that task The whip whacked and cracked in terrorem at some of these unfortunate victims ” 6 29 - We next turn to our consideration of Burnham’s speech in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief Prime Minister and leader of the PNC in his address at the Third Biennial Congress of the People’s National Congress Vol 2 August 22-26 1979 at the National Exhibition Park 6 30 - At that time Rodney and the WPA were attracting increasing numbers of all ethnicities at their public meetings The office of the General Secretary of the PNC 86 located in the Ministry of National Development had suffered damage as a result of a fire on July 11th 1979 The stature of Rodney on the political scene already large was growing rapidly The WPA led by Rodney in association with the PPP and with organisations across the country were seen to be united against Burnham and the PNC administration That was the context in which Burnham made the below-mentioned remarks at the conference and I sic quote “We are a party of peace but we are not pacifists and literally and metaphorically we promise to match steel with steel and fire with fire “So comrades let us deal now with another of them—the Worst Possible Alternative That is what they must be known by What does WPA stand for ” “Comrades they had better make their wills because so far as we are concerned we are not asking them for quarter sic and we will not give them any ” 6 31 - Burnham concluded his address to the conference after describing the WPA as the Worst Possible Alternative with the following words “The Peoples National Congress will never start violence The People’s National Congress did not ask for a confrontation But Comrades as I said on Thursday the battle is joined no holds are barred ” His final words were Comrades we are now in the Roman amphitheatre The lion and the gladiator cannot both survive one must die and we know that the People’s National Congress will live ” 6 31 - There has been much debate whether the words used by Mr Burnham represented rhetorical excess or whether they were serious and threatening words reflecting the extent to which Rodney and the WPA had become a matter of serious concern to him Many of the witnesses who testified before us were of the view that given the previous and subsequent events the words were in fact a serious threat to the WPA and its members particularly Rodney Those who so concluded were aware of the fate earlier suffered by Edward Dublin Ohene Koama Nazir Khan and others 87 6 32 - The unions too that had not fallen in line and were not supportive of the PNC administration did not escape police surveillance and harassment Eusi Kwayana in his book Walter Rodney 1991 recorded one of his experiences in these words at p 31 “The union which appeared to me to practise the highest level of internal democracy was NAACIE which on a decision of the executive appointed me on my application to work at organising classes taking my offer to work at the minimum wage I left full of respect for its democratic procedures and only when my presence there attracted all sorts of police surveillance the photographing of all those entering the building and a whole squadron of police measures which could not help an independent trade union to keep its integrity Yet such is the disrespect of the regime for trade unions and other organisations that they felt my presence there had something to do with politicising the union ” First published in 1988 by the “Working People’s Alliance” Guyana South America 6 33 - The Young Socialists Movement YSM was the youth arm of the PNC It was involved in violent activities in support of the PNC At one stage the YSM was led by Robert Corbin and it worked in close cooperation with the House of Israel in carrying out acts of violence and intimidation against WPA members Indeed Rev Gilbert testified that on one occasion he was grabbed beaten and rammed in his ribs by the YSM His experience resulted in two broken ribs before he was handed over to the police He was hospitalised for about one week 6 34 - He testified to a second incident in which he was forewarned by a neighbour and member the PNC that he was going to be visited one night by YSM hit men who were going to kill him and use as their reason for so doing that he had a gun in his guitar case He slept at the university that night and asked his brother to keep the house The next morning when he went home his brother informed him that members of the YSM had come to the home during the night looking for him That incident took place about two to three months before Rodney’s death 6 35 - The YSM’s roles as described above was reinforced by the testimony of Mr Joseph Hamilton He testified that there were a lot of coordination between the YSM cadet corps and the House of Israel The House of Israel he said had several points of coordination in the relationship with the PNC and he named Mr Hamilton Green Mr Robert Williams now deceased and Mr Emerson Simon who worked at the PNC headquarters 88 6 36 - Addressing Terms of Reference IV we have no hesitation in concluding that in the face of the evidence presented both the GPF and the YSM and those in command and superintendents of these agencies were tasked with the surveillance of and the carrying out of actions against the political opposition specifically the WPA and the PPP We find as a fact that those acts of harassment and surveillance included but were not limited to  Constant surveillance  breaking up of political meetings  harassing threatening assaulting or beating members or supporters of the political opposition  killing innocent persons who were associated with the political opposition  arresting locking-up or charging members or supporters or carrying out searches of homes and other places without reasonable or probable cause Back to Title Page 89 CHAPTER 7 To examine and report on earlier investigations and inquiries done on and into the death of Dr Walter Rodney – TOR V 7 1 - The four investigations which are relevant to Terms of Reference V are as follows 1 The inquest held by Coroner Edwin Pratt from February 4th – 15th 1988 2 The post mortem report of Dr H R M Johnson a consultant pathologist and Reader in Forensic Medicine who was attached to the Forensic Medicine Unit Department of Morbid Anatomy St Thomas Hospital Medical School London England dated June 30th 1980 3 An investigative report dated July 23 1980 from Dr Frank Skuse Forensic Scientist at the Home Office Forensic Science Laboratory Lancashire England 4 A Report issued by the International Commission of Jurists ICJ dated May 2 1995 the members of that body having visited Guyana from March 14 through March 19 1995 7 2 - It is common ground that Dr Rodney met his death in unusual circumstances In the words of the Coroner’s Act Cap 4 03 of the Laws of Guyana it was an unnatural death warranting the holding of an inquest with urgency However despite the fact that Snr Supt James testified that an inquest is normally held within two month of death in the case of Dr Rodney it was held almost eight years after his death No explanation was provided for this inordinately long delay but the police file did reveal that the request for the inquest was made by ASP Gentle to the coroner on 26th October 1987 7 3 - There were significant material irregularities in the inquest itself as the reports of the foreign experts Drs Johnson and Skuse were not tendered into evidence at the inquest or the trial of Donald Rodney Additionally Sergeant Trenton Roach was a witness at the inquest but was not called at the trial of Donald Rodney He conducted an important examination of the electronic equipment which consisted of three 3 domestic radio receivers one 1 very high frequency monitor four 4 walkie-talkies 2 Midland and 2 Lafayette They were all seized 90 from No 40 Russell Street Charlestown which was Gregory Smith’s former residence 7 4 - Since he was carrying out his examination on June 14th 1980 the day after Rodney was killed he thought that “this was WPA equipment ” However after his examination was concluded he wrote a statement of his findings and appended his signature thereon 7 5 - Notwithstanding the foregoing the typed and unsigned statement which was produced to the Commission from the police file contained material discrepancies and differed from the handwritten note found by Sergeant Roach on the monitor which had read “remember to work on the 14th” and then written over the “4” was the number “3” Both the date and month on typed statement produced said “Remember to work on 14th January 1980 but the number four 4 was overwritten on the number two 2 sic ” The significance of the discrepancies in this paragraph was intended to distort the record as it relates to Smith’s role on June 13th 1980 7 6 - The other significant discrepancies were the date of the statement given as June 27th 1980 and the date of the signature listed as 30th June 1980 7 7 - Sgt Roach strongly denied that the information on the typed record was correct Included in the file was a typed document signed by ASP Gentle dated 8802-03 which stated that he and a party of policemen executed a search warrant at 40 Russell Street and seized the equipment earlier referred on June 19th 1980 7 8 - This however was another attempt to cover up the true identity of the killer by the police in relation to Dr Rodney’s death Sgt Roach maintained that his examination was on the day after Rodney died 7 9 - Another attempt to hide evidence by the police arises from the fact that they never disclosed or made public the reports of the foreign experts which provide forensic support to show that Dr Rodney was murdered 7 10 - The stated position of the government soon after Dr Rodney’s death was that it would make all forensic reports related to his death public That they never did 7 11 - The ICJ’s report alluded to a number of short-comings by the police in their investigation into the death of Dr Rodney Having examined very closely the 91 evidence put before us we the Commission agree that they were several shortcomings 7 12 - Captain Gouveia was a Lt in the GDF at the time He voluntarily and freely admitted that on the morning of June 14th 1980 he flew his aircraft 8RGER from Timehri to Kwakwani On that flight he took Gregory Smith his girlfriend Gwendolyn Jones and their children He left at 9 08 a m and arrived at Kwakwani airstrip at 9 57 a m 7 13 - At the time Captain Gouveia testified that he had not realised that the adult male passenger was Gregory Smith He claimed that a few days later he saw a photograph in the Catholic Standard and he then realised that he had flown the same person to Kwakwani 7 14 - Given the chain of command he did not fly that aircraft of his own volition but had been instructed by his superiors so to do He further told us that his commanding officer in 1980 was Lt Col Godwin McPherson but he assumed that in June 1980 his commanding officer was Captain Baker 7 15 - Captain Gouveia testified that at that time of the events the State controlled the flow of news implying that he had not seen or heard anything on the government controlled media that Gregory Smith was wanted in connection with the death of Walter Rodney 7 16 - Captain Gouveia’s arrival at Kwakwani on June 14th 1980 with Gregory Smith and his family did not go unnoticed Several witnesses who lived and worked at Kwakwani saw the GDF aircraft 8RGER at the time Captain Gouveia said he landed 7 17 - These Kwakwani witnesses were 1 Avril Bourne aged 38 years old being the reputed wife of Robert Vanconten see below who lived at Kwakwani Park Berbice River Her witness statement is dated July 16 1980 2 Joel Southwell a supernumerary constable with Guyana Mining Enterprise Ltd at Kwakwani and dated July 15 1980 92 3 Robert Vanconten a corporal of attached to Guyana Mining Enterprise security department at Kwakwani who lived on the security compound with his reputed wife Avril Bourne and family and dated July 14 1980 4 Anita Thom a supernumerary constable employed by the Guyana Mining Enterprise Ltd at Kwakwani Her witness statement sic and dated July 15 1980 5 Egerton Causeway a supernumerary constable attached to the security department of the Guyana Mining Enterprise Ltd at Kwakwani and dated July 15 1980 These witnesses gave signed statements to Sgt Saigo 7 18 - What is significant is that of the five witnesses who saw Captain Gouveia and Smith and his family on June 14th 1980 three of them also saw when his aircraft arrived on June 17th 1980 They all stated that they say his aircraft land at about 9 24 a m on that day and left at 10 05 a m taking on board Gregory Smith alone 7 19 - On that very day Captain Gouveia returned to Timheri at 11 36 a m When that account was put to him he denied that he flew Gregory Smith from Kwakwani to Nickerie Suriname 7 20 - In attempting to explain the destination of his flight on June lth 1980 he told the Commission that he could not recall based on his memory However on perusing his pilot’s log book it was clear to him that he left Timheri went to Tacama and returned to Timheri on June 17th 1980 7 21 - On the evidence before the Commission we find that Gregory Smith was a passenger on the said aircraft on June 14th 1980 and June 17th 1980 More importantly Captain Gouveia admitted that the time stated in his pilot’s logbook was sufficient for him to have gone to Kwakwani and take Gregory Smith to Nickerie provided that all governmental approval was granted 7 22 - On the evidence there is clearly no conflict between the Kwakwani witnesses and Captain Gouveia with respect to the movement of Gregory Smith on June 14th 1980 93 7 23 - There were also statements in the police file from Gregory’s younger brother Aubrey Smith stating that he saw Gregory in GDF uniform and confirmed that Gregory Smith was enlisted in the GDF Also Pamela Beharry gave full details of Gregory Smith being in the GDF where he lived and with whom Ms Beharry knew these details because she had lived in the same house as Gregory his wife and his children 7 24 - The police file also had a witness statement from Joan Melvin a former civil servant who was made a diplomat and was posted abroad shortly after Rodney’s death She had described Gregory as her fiancé and kept two photographs of him in her locked desk drawer at work These photographs were removed without her knowledge and she has never seen them again 7 25 - In light of all of the facts matters and events set out in the above paragraphs we conclude that any well-functioning Police Force would have pursued all leads in order to locate and bring Gregory Smith in for questioning at least as the prime suspect in the killing of Dr Walter Rodney On the facts we draw the inevitable inference that there was a collaborative effort by agents of the State to conceal and keep Gregory Smith from the long arms of the law 7 26 - There were too many unexplained events which point irresistibly to that conclusion a The swift removal of Gregory Smith his girlfriend Gwendolyn Jones and their children from Timehri to Kwakwani by Capt Gouveia on a GDF aircraft on June 14 1980 with the approval of the High Command of the GDF b The removal of Gregory Smith from Kwakwani on June 17 1980 from Kwakwani to Nickere Suriname or some other destination by the GDF aircraft We rely on this from the statement provided by the Kwakwani constable on the police file c The sudden disappearance of Gwendolyn Jones and their children and removal to New York United States of America d The unauthorised removal of Gregory Smith’s 2 two photographs from the locked desk drawer of Joan Melvin coupled with her immediate promotion as a diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs To this must be added her posting on July 6 1980 to New York and later ended up in Toronto Canada She subsequently disappeared 94 e Denial by the Chief-of-Staff of the army at the time Major General Ret’d Norman Mc Lean that Gregory Smith was a member of the GDF at any time or a serving member of the maritime branch of the GDF f The unexplained disappearance of Gregory Smith’s personal file s with the GDF coupled with the unexplained disappearance of the WPA files 1-7 inclusive kept by the Special Branch of the Police Force in its secret registry was in our judgment deliberate and we so find g Gregory Smith being allowed to return to Guyana at least twice without being arrested or even stopped h The granting to Gregory Smith of 2 two inconsistent birth certificates with different and contradicting particulars and facilitating him with passports especially Guyana passport No 0890057 issued on May 21 1999 authorised by Commissioner of Police and Chief Immigration Officer of Guyana Mr Laurie Lewis In this context we note the following i A true copy of the extract of the Birth Register of District Georgetown for the year 1964 under the hand of the Registrar dated 2014-11-04 which showed that at Entry No 99 the child Gregory Smith was born on June 5 1946 at Public Hospital Georgetown whose given name at birth was William father’s name given as Cecil Smith Mixed of 64 Hunter Street mother’s name given as Anita Smith formerly Berry of 64 Hunter Street This we conclude is an accurate and true record of Gregory Smith’s birth particulars j A true copy of the extract of the Birth Register of District 8 Plaisance for the year 1982 after the killing of Dr Rodney under the hand of the said Registrar dated as well 2014-11-04 which showed at Entry 87 the child was born on 5 June 1946 at 17 Barr Street Kitty not Public Hospital Georgetown whose given names not name at birth were Cyril Milton not William father’s name given as Cecil Adolphe Johnson not Cecil Smith mother’s name given as Anita Johnson nee Simpson not Anita Smith nee Berry 7 27 - Starting with the Appendices in the book Assassination Cry of a Failed Revolution by William Gregory Smith and his sister Anne R Wagner the alleged birth certificate for Cyril Milton Johnson corresponds to that set out at 2 sic above 95 There is No 1 listed 2 The birth certificate on the second page of the Appendices corresponds to that set out at 1 sic above 3 The completed “Application Form For A Guyana Passport” dated December 17 1975 followed the particulars set out with a height of 5’ 8” which was signed by “William Smith” and had a copy of his photograph thereon and his occupation was given at that of an Electronic Technician this passport was issued in the name of William Smith 4 The completed “Application Form For A Guyana Passport” followed the particulars set out under 2 above which was unsigned by the applicant Gregory Smith and has a copy of Gregory Smith’s photograph thereon but this time his date of birth was stated as June 5 1943 not June 5 1946 and his occupation was changed to that of “Carpenter” not an “Electronic Technician” and his height had increased to 5’ 9” although he was much older This was the form that was approved by Mr Laurie Lewis on May 21 1999 and a Guyana passport was issued in the name of Cyril Milton Johnson 5 A copy of the passport No 0890057 was issued under the name of Cyril Milton Johnson 6 The copy of the passport on the 3rd page of the Appendices of the book over the by-line “Passport Cyril Johnson provided by the WPA” is a copy of a previous passport issued to Gregory Smith 7 The knowledge of the police about Gregory Smith’s involvement in the killing of Walter as borne by the evidence of ASP Mc Rae and refusing to act and 8 The acceptance by Snr Supt James that the police investigation was unprofessional 7 28 - The combination of these unassailable facts and circumstances point irresistibly to official involvement in the removal of all traces of Gregory Smith and persons closely connected to him prior and subsequently to the killing of Dr Rodney These in turn point to a conspiracy and collaboration in the killing of Dr Walter Rodney by between or among the State officials the GPF the GDF and Gregory Smith 96 7 29 - Additionally when considering alongside all the other pieces of evidence in determining who was responsible for killing Dr Rodney it is clear that the police had actual possession of the post mortem report dated June 30 1980 from Dr H R M Johnson and investigative report dated July 23 1980 from Dr Frank Skuse These reports point to the involvement of Gregory Smith in the death of Dr Walter Rodney It is therefore difficult to understand why the police took no active steps to find or apprehend Gregory Smith apart from the police posting on its Wanted Men Board that Gregory Smith was a wanted person 7 30 - In fact at Dr Rodney’s inquest when Mr Jainarine Singh attorney-at-law was cross-examining Snr Supt Gentle Counsel asked him when he went with a party of policemen to search the premises at Lot 40 Russell Street Charlestown Georgetown where Gwendolyn Jones lived whether he was looking for Gregory Smith Mr Gentle amazingly answered “At that time no ” That prompted counsel to ask him the further question whether he was saying up to this day February 10 1988 his investigations did not show that Gregory Smith resided there at 40 Russel Street and his answer was “My investigation did not include looking for Gregory Smith ” On this evidence Mr Vernon Gentle and the police were clearly implicated in the conspiracy to conceal and distort the truth relating to the killing of Dr Rodney and events immediately following his death 7 31 - The pattern of distortion and concealment did not stop with Snr Supt Gentle It transcended or infected the highest echelon of the GPF As examples we quote certain statements made by certain police officers — a At the trial of Donald Rodney for being in “possession of explosive without lawful authority” before Magistrate Norma Jackman Deputy Superintendent Ignatius Mc Rae being sworn on 11th February 1982 stated as follows “I do not know that Gregory Smith had a girlfriend working at the Ministry of Health I do not know that if immediately after the incident she was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs I do not know that she lived at Ruimveldt I do not know if she was subsequently posted to the Guyana High Commission in Canada During investigation I might have heard the name Gwendolyn Jones I do not know that she had several children for Gregory Smith “I heard that Gwendolyn Jones was interrogated by the police and I do not know if she gave a statement I do not know who interrogated Gwendolyn 97 Jones I do not know where Gwendolyn Jones is now What I have told the court about Jones is true ” “On one occasion Mr Roberts Mr Cecil “Skip” Roberts the Deputy Crime Chief who had supervision and control of the investigation according to Mr Mc Rae called all members of the investigating team for consultation ” 7 32 - The above statements except the last part were clearly untruthful because on the basis of what we have set out above 7 33 - At the same trial see p 5 of ARG4 Mr Mc Rae in answer in crossexamination to Mr Doodnauth Singh attorney-at-law said “I would not recognise hand book WPA sic was circulated among the members of the Guyana Police Force I have seen a copy of this book I know that this booklet has been published but I do not know that it was circulated among the security forces And as the booklet sets out it is a guide to personnel of the WPA The first paragraph is of Rodney Roopnarine and Omawale I know that these three leaders were charged for arson of a building in Camp Street I do not know the building is the office of the General Secretary of the People’s National Congress but I know it is the Ministry of National Development ” 7 34 - The above statements by Mr Mc Rae were inaccurate or untruthful because of fact such that judicial notice can be taken of them that the raison d’etre for the Recognition Handbook was to assist the police in their surveillance of the members leaders of the WPA and it had been established that the building in Camp Street had housed both the Ministry of National Development and the Office of the General Secretary of the People’s National Congress Significant Findings 7 35 - In the end it is clear to us that the police were unprofessional extremely inefficient in turning a blind eye to the obvious or deliberately botched the investigation in Dr Rodney’s killing or were complicit with others including the GDF in hiding or shielding Gregory Smith from facing the brunt of the law for having murdered Dr Walter Rodney 98 7 36 - Given all the relevant facts events and circumstances set out in the Report we unhesitatingly conclude that Gregory Smith was not acting alone but had the active and full support participation and encouragement of and or was aided and abetted by the GPF the GDF agencies of the State and the political directorate in the killing Dr Walter Rodney 7 37 - Dr Walter Rodney was a man of large and significant stature both in Guyana and beyond at the time of his death He could only have been killed in what we find to be a State organised assassination with the knowledge of Prime Minister Burnham in the Guyana of that period It was a controlled society and Burnham had a large and detailed knowledge of whatever was being done by the state and its agencies 7 38 - Mr Laurie Lewis then head of Special Branch and later Commissioner of Police is dead We find however that there is prima facie evidence that he along with Major General Norman McClean Ret’d then Chief of Staff of the GDF and Mr Cecil “Skip” Roberts the Deputy Commissioner of Police and Crime Chief had significant roles to play in the conspiracy to kill Dr Walter Rodney and the subsequent attempt to conceal the circumstances surrounding his death 7 39 - Further given the manner in which the country was run coupled with the threats issued by Prime Minister Burnham to the members of the WPA and the evidence of Mr Robert Allan Gates we conclude that Prime Minister Burnham knew of the plan and was part of the conspiracy to assassinate Dr Walter Rodney 7 40 - We have relied too on the testimony of Robert Allan Gates and on the relevant circumstances and events described in the Report for that finding Resulting from the premature termination the Commission none of those alive and herein identified was given the opportunity to testify and to resist this finding 7 41 -The result is that we make no firm and specific determination concerning their roles beyond what is indicated herein Back to Title Page 99 CHAPTER 8 Critical Findings and Summary on Gregory Smith 8 1 - We accept that Gregory Smith gave Donald Rodney an anti-personnel device namely a remotely controlled explosive in what appeared to be a walkietalkie a communications device 8 2 - At the time Gregory Smith was a sergeant in the Defence Force in the marine department 8 3 - We accept too that Gregory Smith was encouraged in providing that device by prominent members of State agencies 8 4 - We find on the balance of probabilities that Walter Rodney had intended the walkie-talkie to be a communications device which would have permitted him to be in relatively easy contact with fellow WPA activists and for no sinister purpose The point must be made at this stage that telephones were not easily available and there was discrimination in the distribution which was controlled by a State agency and which in all likelihood would have been denied the WPA 8 5 - We find further that Donald Rodney whose testimony we accept was on the night of 13th June 1980 doing no more than accompanying his brother Walter to collect what they thought would have been a walkie-talkie 8 6 - There is no evidence before us to suggest that the reason for collecting the device was other than indicated by Donald 8 7 - Further we are satisfied on the evidence presented that Smith was protected by the State and this inference is strengthened when it is borne in mind 1 That within a matter of hours after the explosion and resultant death of Walter Rodney Smith was taken to Kwakwani in a Defence Force aircraft 2 He was given a passport not in the name of Gregory Smith which name he carried as a member of the Defence Force but in the name of CYRIL MILTON JOHNSON 100 8 8 - We hold that the change of name was intended to conceal the true identity of the killer of Walter and that it could only have been achieved with the cooperation and support of the Passport Office which was part of the Police Force 8 9 - It is significant that that the head of the Immigration Department at the material time was Laurie Lewis 8 10 - We accept that Gregory Smith renamed Cyril Milton Johnson received State assistance in going to French Guiana The choice of country was deliberate and was no doubt informed by the fact that French government of which French Guiana was a Department had a policy opposed to the death penalty In short it would have been difficult virtually impossible to secure the extradition of Smith Johnson from French Guiana 8 11 - That Gregory Smith returned to Guyana on more than one occasion and received a new passport on one such visit according to the evidence of Woman Police Sergeant 1725 Alexis Adams is also accepted On that occasion the Passport Office was acting on the instruction on the then Commissioner of Police Laurie Lewis 8 12 - The inspection of the passport form produced before the inquiry revealed that Smith renamed Johnson was not required to sign the form and fill in the necessary particulars required 8 13 - Allan Gates was an important witness on our findings in relation to Gregory Smith Cyril Johnson Gates’ testimony is that he and Gregory Smith grew up in neighbouring districts and that he knew Gregory for years He further testified that Gregory Smith told him that once Dr Rodney was dead he would receive US$1 million and that he and his wife girlfriend and child would be facilitated in being relocated out of the country 8 14 - It must be indicated that Allan Gates a former policeman and an instructor in security matters was at the time of his testimony serving a period of imprisonment for several offences of obtaining money by false pretences 8 15 - At the heart of the offences for which he was convicted is dishonesty 8 16 - There is no rule of evidence or of human experience that because a man is in prison or has been convicted his testimony must be rejected 101 8 17 - We nevertheless ask ourselves as we felt obliged to whether we should accept Gates’ evidence not always corroborated in every material particular and what weight should be attached to it 8 18 - Having so advised ourselves we felt confident in accepting Gates’ testimony He was unruffled in the course of testifying he looked the Commissioners straight in their eyes he was unshaken in cross-examination and his evidence is supported by events which occurred subsequent to Rodney’s death That series of coincidences was not accidental and we found that Allan Gates was a witness of the truth Importantly no evidence was produced by anyone contradicting his testimony 8 19 - The book purportedly written by Gregory Smith and his sister Anne Wagner entitled Assassination Cry of a Failed Revolution The Truth About Dr Walter Rodney’s Death is a self-serving account of what took place on the night of 13th June 1980 In the words of the publication itself it was intended to present Gregory in a good light in the eyes of history In Anne Wagner words at page 17 “My brother’s one unfulfilled wish was to clear his name Hence my solemn promise to him and to myself to let the world know the truth even if it kills me ” Unfortunately her account as set out in the book does not harmonize with the evidence presented at the inquiry 8 20 - The suggestion that Walter Rodney was killed on the initiative of his own party WPA has no support on the evidence In any event Rodney was highly respected if not idolized by WPA members who had difficulty travelling and could not have arranged Smith’s sudden and disguised exit from Guyana They had no capacity so to do They often had to resort to what has been called the back track to exit Guyana themselves 8 21 - It is inconceivable that a party whose executive members had difficulty travelling could either have secured a passport for Gregory Smith in the name of Cyril Johnson and or secured the services of a Defence Force aircraft to support his exit from Guyana with his family 8 22 - We have no hesitation in holding that Gregory Smith was responsible for Dr Walter Rodney’s death on 13 June 1980 and that in so doing he was acting as an agent of the State having been aided and abetted so to do by individuals holding positions of leadership in State agencies and committed to carrying out the wishes of the PNC administration 102 8 23 - Gates further testified that three days before Rodney’s death Burnham met with Skip Roberts Laurie Lewis and Norman McClean to be briefed on the plot to kill Rodney His evidence is that Burnham insisted that Carl Ram Doobay be present Doobay was close to the President and with the President rode horses with Skip Roberts 8 24 - Gates’ still further testimony is that subsequent to Rodney’s death he interviewed a number of persons to satisfy himself as to who killed Rodney and how he died He said that it was Sgt Mark Johnson who informed him that the meeting three days before Rodney’s death took place at the President’s official residence He said that as part of his investigation into Rodney’s death he looked at intelligence clippings and spoke to Sgt Liverpool and Sgt Saigo He concluded that it was his judgment that “Rodney’s death was State sponsored and to Burnham’s knowledge ” 8 25 - He said that Burnham and the PNC administration were concerned with following 1 The increasingly large crowds which were attracted to WPA meetings and which “were seen” as a threat to the government 2 Rodney’s infiltration of the intelligence and security forces 3 His activities were seen as interfering with the smooth function of the State 8 26 - After Smith Johnson was in Cayenne Anton Barker was sent there to keep watch on him and that assignment was given Barker by Major General Norman McClean Ret’d He gave Norman McClean’s code name as “Moon River ” Back to Title Page 103 CHAPTER 9 Recommendations 9 1 - Resulting from the findings of fact set out in the body of the report the below-mentioned recommendations are made 9 2 - Every effort should be made to have a well-trained and highly professional Police Force with a thorough appreciation of its duty to serve impartiality regardless of ethnicity or party affiliation and loyal to the best interests of the country and to the constabulary 9 3 - This will in turn call for a heavy investment in training at every level and on an ongoing basis with attention to appropriate values in addition to proper policing techniques 9 4 - The army too must be professional Nothing is worse than an army in a country striving to be an ideal functioning democracy being partial to any political party whether in government or otherwise An army by definition has a near monopoly of the legitimate instruments of violence and must be trained at act responsibly at all times 9 5 - The coroner In this case there may have been more than one coroner over the eight-year period that elapsed before the coroner’s inquest into the death of Dr Rodney started That delay did nothing to assist in maintaining confidence in the justice system Every inquest hereafter should commence within 6 six months of a death in unnatural circumstances or in any circumstances warranting an inquest That is the goal to which all coroners should aspire The coroner should be encouraged to exercise his or her own discretion judgment in such instances It should be added that ACP Ignatius McCrae did describe Rodney’s death “as unnatural ” 9 6 - The police should be aware of the need to act with reasonable dispatch in these matters and should be preparing their investigative files so as to meet the timeframe indicated with oversight from the office of the DPP 9 7 - It was conceded by the police in the course of the inquiry that a thorough investigation was not done into Rodney’s death In fact the evidence is that the police did not act with professionalism thoroughness or speed The recommendation is that the department in the Police Force tasked with 104 responsibility to investigate serious crimes like murder should at all times strive to do so with thoroughness and urgency without compromising the investigations and those in authority should make it their duty to so ensure Failure to pursue their investigations professionally as in the Rodney case may be regarded as an adverse reflection on the society’s regard for the right to life which is one of the hallmarks of a civilized society 9 8 - Some important records inclusive of files with evidence relating to the Walter Rodney case and in the custody of the police and the army were not made available to the Commission as requested The explanation provided was that they could not be found That is an adverse commentary on the thoroughness efficiency and security of their record keeping systems 9 9 - The recommendation is that a thorough and prompt review of the systems be undertaken so as to ensure that an improved efficient and reliable system of record keeping is provided to both the army and the police Such a system will call for properly trained personnel to manage and maintain it A secure computerized system may go a long way in achieving this objective 9 10 - No party in government should be permitted to tamper easily or at all with the electoral system such as to secure an unfair advantage The electoral system should be entrenched in the Constitution and should only be amendable by a twothirds majority Besides the Chairman of the Elections Commission should be a person of the highest integrity and non-political and his her appointment which sic should meet with the approval of opposition groups and sectoral interests If felt necessary the Chairman may be sourced from a Caricom country The political opposition and other interests should be adequately represented on the Commission Serious changes should not be undertaken except after a thorough and meaningful public education programme and after consultation too with the opposition party parties and pursuant to a two-thirds majority vote in parliament 9 11 - Consistent with the spirit of Caricom integration in each and every general election observers from across the Caricom region the United States Canada and the United Kingdom should continue to be invited to monitor the elections And in that exercise every facility should be afforded them 9 12 - The ethnic divide in the Guyanese society constitutes a fragile fault line General elections produce an environment that puts that fault line under stress Many of the recommendations made herein assume the existence and maintenance of a sense of ethnic harmony But it has to be worked at Every government has a 105 continuing responsibility to work in close consultation with national associations and diverse interest groups to design and implement a programme intended to strengthen ethnic harmony and a sense of national unity Back to Title Page 106 Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry Tendered Exhibits Evidence Master List No Label 1 LJ1 2 LJ SB WPA Date 28-Apr-14 28-Apr-14 3 LJ SB WPA 28-Apr-14 4 LJ SB WPA 28-Apr-14 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 LJ CID WR1 LJ CID WR2 LJ CID GS1 LJ AW GS2 KDS 1 KDS 2 LER 1 LER 2 RG 1 LER 3 28-Apr-14 28-Apr-14 28-Apr-14 28-Apr-14 29-Apr-14 29-Apr-14 29-Apr-14 29-Apr-14 30-Apr-14 02-May-14 15 LER 4 02-May-14 16 17 18 EK 1 EK 2 EK 3 27-May-14 28-May-14 28-May-14 19 20 21 22 EK 4 EK 5 EK 6 EK 7 28-May-14 28-May-14 28-May-14 28-May-14 23 24 25 EK 8 EK 9 EK 10 28-May-14 30-May-14 30-May-14 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 EK 11 EK 12 JH 1 NGM1 ARG1 ARG2 ARG3 02-Jun-14 02-Jun-14 02-Jun-14 05-Jun-14 06-Jun-14 06-Jun-14 06-Jun-14 Description Leslie James Crime Chief Witness Statement dated 24 4 2014 Guyana Police Force Special Branch Files on Working People Alliance 1980 1 Guyana Police Force Special Branch Files on Working People Alliance 1980 2 Guyana Police Force Special Branch Files on Working People Alliance 1980 3 Guyana Police Force Crime Files re Death of Walter Rodney 1 Guyana Police Force Crime Files re Death of Walter Rodney 2 Guyana Police Force Crime File Gregory Smith Arrest Warrant Gregory Smith dated Karen De Souza Witness Statement dated 29 4 2014 Karen De Souza excerpt from Inquest Lawrence Edward Rodney Witness Statement dated Lawrence Edward Rodney excerpt from Inquest Rueben Gilbert Witness Statement Assassination Cry of a Failed Revolution - Book by Ann Wagner pp 30-31 Device Schematic Image Assassination Cry of a Failed Revolution Book by Ann Wagner Witness Statement Eusi Kwayana Booklet “The Assassination of Dr Walter Rodney” Speech LFS Burnham at the Biennial Congress of the PNC 2226 --- 1979 Guyana Chronicle Article “Sydney King Sophia Declaration “The Struggle Goes On” Walter Rodney Speech 20 7 1979 “Pseudo Socialism” Eusi Kwayana Speech to UWI 1976 interpreting the Sophia Declaration Dayclean Global Vo 1 No 8 2007 “Rodney the Question of Power” Chapter 8 by CLR James 1966 amended 1970 Constitution of Cooperative Republic of Guyana “Boiling Pot What’s in it ” Letter from Eusi Kwayana dated -“Walter Rodney” by Eusi Kwayana Booklet Joseph Hamilton Witness Statement Norman Mc Lean Witness Statement Allan Robert Gates Deed Poll Allan Robert Gates Birth Certificate Allan Robert Gates Witness Statement 107 33 34 35 36 37 ARG4 ARG5 TO1 TO2 GG1 23-Jun-14 24-Jun-14 25-Jun-14 25-Jun-14 26-Jun-14 38 39 40 41 GG2 NW1 NW2 NW3 27-Jun-14 30-Jun-14 30-Jun-14 30-Jun-14 42 NW4 30-Jun-14 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 PW1 PW2 PW3 PW4 CK1 CK2 SCJ1 SCJ 2a SCJ 2b MR1 CK3 29-Jul-14 29-Jul-14 29-Jul-14 29-Jul-14 30-Jul-14 30-Jul-14 30-Jul-14 30-Jul-14 30-Jul-14 31-Jul-14 05-Aug-14 54 CK4 05-Aug-14 55 56 57 58 59 LJ2 SCJ2c SCJ 2d SCJ2e SCJ2f 06-Aug-14 25-Aug-14 25-Aug-14 25-Aug-14 25-Aug-14 60 SCJ2g 25-Aug-14 61 SCJ2h 25-Aug 62 63 64 65 SCJ2i SCJ2j SCJ2k SCJ3 25-Aug-14 25-Aug-14 25-Aug-14 25-Aug-14 66 67 68 SCJ4 1-8 SCJ2b i SCJ5 25-Aug-14 26-Aug-14 26-Aug-14 Leslie Stafford vs Donald Rodney 7634 1980 Court Record Catholic Standard Newspaper August 17 1980 excerpt Tacumah Ogunseye Witness Statement WPA Recognition Handbook Gerald Gouveia Captain Witness Statement with Appendix A Logbook 1980 Map of Guyana with Kwakwani and Tacama marked Nigel Westmaas Dr Witness Statement Catholic Standard Newspaper August 16 1979 excerpt Stabroek News June 24 2007 article “A Short History of Dayclean” Dr Walter Rodney Statement dated 18 9 1974 on University of Guyana Employment issue Lt Colonel Patrick West Witness Statement Guyana Defence Force Alphabetical Register 12 Q-S Guyana Defence Force Male Numbering Ledger Guyana Defence Force Payroll Ledger 1975 76 77 79 79 Lt Colonel Cargill Kyte Witness Statement The Colonial Air Navigation Order No 2316 1961 Lt Colonel Sydney James Witness Statement Issue Receipt -Issue Receipt -Father Malcolm Rodrigues Witness Statement Letter 13 12 1990 GDF Joseph Singh to President HD Hoyte re airplanes Letter 24 1 1991 GDF Joseph Singh to Yacoob Ally re airplanes Guyana Police Force Standing Order No 50 Special Branch GDF Arms issue voucher dated 10 8 79 - Cde Skeete MND GDF Arms issue voucher dated 10 8 79 - Cde Skeete MND GDF Arms Issue Voucher dated 19 5 1976 - Cde Skeete GDF Arms Issue Voucher dated 18 5 1976 - Cde R Corbin PS OPM GDF Arms Issue Voucher dated 19 5 1976 - Cde R Corbin Nat Develop GDF Arms Issue Voucher dated 6 7 1978 - Cde Skeete Nat Develop GDF Arms Issue Voucher dated 13 10 1976 - Cde Skeete GDF Arms Issue Voucher dated 13 10 1976 - Cde Skeete GDF Arms Issue Voucher dated 14 10 1976 - Cde Skeete Report dated 08 01 2011 by S C James to GAR Best on GDF missing weapons GDF Special Stores Register Weapons excerpt GDF Arms Issue Voucher dated 10 8 79 - MND GDF Table of number and percentaged Weapons issued to 108 69 70 71 72 SCJ6 SCJ7 SCJ8 SCJ9 26-Aug-14 26-Aug-14 26-Aug-14 26-Aug-14 73 74 SCJ10 MR2 27-Aug-14 28-Aug-14 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 JD1 PR1 ICJ1 OO1 OO2 NRK1 NRK2 NRK3 28-Aug-14 20-Oct-14 24-Oct-14 28-Oct-14 28-Oct-14 29-Oct-14 29-Oct-14 29-Oct-14 83 84 NRK3a NRK3b 29-Oct-14 29-Oct-14 85 86 87 NRK3c NRK3d NRK3e 29-Oct-14 29-Oct-14 29-Oct-14 88 NRK3f 29-Oct-14 89 NRK3g 29-Oct-14 90 91 NRK3h NRK3i 29-Oct-14 29-Oct-14 92 NRK3j 29-Oct-14 93 NRK3k 29-Oct-14 94 NRK3l 29-Oct-14 95 NRK3m 29-Oct-14 96 NRK3n 29-Oct-14 97 NRK3o 29-Oct-14 98 NRK3p 29-Oct-14 external agencies and returned GDF SOP Logistics GDF SOP Security of Documents GDF SOP Orders for Investigations Letter 13 06 2014 “Report - Non-accountable of 4141 W Smith’s Personal File GDF Weapons on Loan to External Agencies table Catholic Standard February 17 1980 article “Accountable to No One” Jocelyn Dow Witness Statement dated 6 August 2014 Patricia Rodney Dr Witness Statement dated 30 6 2014 International Commission of Jurists Report 1995 Omawale Witness Statement dated 8 8 2014 Walter Rodney Carl Blackman interview Nirmal Rohit Kanhai Bio Statement dated 29 9 2014 Nirmal Rohit Kanhai Resume and Certificates Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “Analysis of Skuse Report” dated 29 9 2014 Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “Frank Skuse Report” dated 23 07 1980 Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “Harris’ Radio Communications in a digital age” Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “Harris AV 1979 pp 79-82 Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “Harris Instructions Manual RF 2800” Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “Kai Chang RF and Microwave Wireless Systems” pp 152 260 Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “Assassination Cry of a Failed Revolution” pp 27-39 Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “Donald Rodney Statement” from LJ CID WR2 Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “Article from Virgin Island Daily News” Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “CID Report on Walter Rodney 22-31982 – unsigned V Gentle” Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “H Johnson Forensic Report 30 June 1980” Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “Walter Rodney Inquest from Journal of Caribbean Studies” Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “Thomas Lee “The Design of CMOS Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits” Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “ICJ Report dated 2 May 1995 “Preliminary Assessment of Dr Walter Rodney’s Death” Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “Booklet “The Assassination of Dr Walter Rodney” Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “James Thurman Practical Bomb Scene Investigation” pp 276-277 Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “George K Danns Domination Power 109 99 NRK3q 29-Oct-14 100 NRK3r 101 NRK3s 29-Oct-14 29-Oct-14 102 NRK3t 29-Oct-14 103 NRK3u 104 NRK3v 29-Oct-14 29-Oct-14 105 NRK4 30-Oct-14 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 TR1 TR2 TR3 TR4 TR5 CRR1 LS1 31-Oct-14 31-Oct-14 31-Oct-14 31-Oct-14 31-Oct-14 03-Nov-14 04-Nov-14 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 NKG1 NKG2 NKG3 NKG4 NKG5 NKG6 NKG7 NKG8 05-Nov-14 05-Nov-14 05-Nov-14 06-Nov-14 06-Nov-14 06-Nov-14 06-Nov-14 06-Nov-14 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 NKG9 ARG6 ARG7 ARG8 ARG9 ARG10 MB1 NKG10 06-Nov-14 26-Jan-15 26-Jan-15 26-Jan-15 26-Jan-15 27-Jan-15 28-Jan-15 29-Jan-15 129 130 131 132 133 CJR1 DHR1 DR2 CJR2 ‘A’ CJR3 29-Jan-15 30-Jan-15 30-Jan-15 09-Feb-15 09-Feb-15 in Guyana” excerpt Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “Letter dated 19th June 1978 from PA Reid General Secretary Office of the General Secretary Ministry of National Development” Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “Instruction Manual HB 28” Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “Understanding Receiver Selectivity by Ian Poole” Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “Politics Corruption and the Police” by George Danns Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “Human Rights and Civil Liberties” Nirmal Rohit Kanhai “A Nation in Transit Burnham Rules Ashton Chase” front page and last page pgs 49 158 160 Part Transcript from Arson Trial State vs Omawale Roopnarine Rodney Trenton Vivian Roach Witness Statement Trenton Roach Certificate Trenton Roach Certificate Trenton Roach Certificate Trenton Roach Certificate Charles Rishiram Ramson Justice Witness Statement Witness Statement Leon Saul Sunday Chronicle dated 15 06 1980 Nanda Kishore Gopaul Dr Witness Statement “Resistance Change” Book by Nanada K Gopaul NAACIE Press Release dated 13 8 1979 Picture of Court of Appeal Building Guyana Chronicle dated 24 08 1979 Guyana Chronicle dated 22 08 1979 Report of Referendum dated 10 7 1978 “Something to Remember” Report of the International Team of Observers at the Elections in Guyana dated December 1980 Letter Circular dated 10 5 1979 Further statement of Robert Allan Gates 11 01 2015 Article letter from Chronicle dated 27 7 2013 Leave to File Appeal Out of Time Bail Pending Appeal Order Guyana Police Force Search Form Mark Britton Witness Statement dated 16 6 2014 Criticism From Carib Lawyers’ Group From Caribbean Contact dated 1979 Clement James Rohee Witness Statement dated January 2015 Donald Horatio Rodney Witness Statement dated 24 01 2015 Donald Rodney Witness Statement from LJ CID WR2 Justice The Struggle for Democracy pages 103-105 Guyana The Struggle for Liberation 1945-1992 110 134 CJR4 09-Feb-15 135 CJR5 09-Feb-15 136 CJR2 ‘B’ 137 CJR6 09-Feb-15 09-Feb-15 138 CJR7A 139 CJR7B 140 CJR7C 09-Feb-15 09-Feb-15 09-Feb-15 141 CJR7D 09-Feb-15 142 143 144 145 a1 a2 CJR8 HGY1 12-Feb-15 13-Feb-15 16-Feb-15 17-Feb-15 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 DHR3 DHR4 DHR5 ARW1 ARW2 ARW3 AA1 AA2 AA3 19-Feb-15 19-Feb-15 23-Mar-15 24-Mar-15 27-Mar-15 27-Mar-15 27-Mar-15 27-Mar-15 27-Mar-15 Contrast Newspaper – July 26 1979 “Guyana on the verge of collapse” New Constitution of Guyana by Ralph Ramkarran Vol XII 1980 Thunder of PPP Justice The Struggle for Democracy pages 111-113 A manoeuvre to avoid general election Vol V No 2 AprilJune 1978 Thunder of PPP Picture of the front of the car – PBB 2349 Picture of the back of the car - PBB 2349 Picture of Congress Secretariat being renovated by members of army Picture of Fr Darke on day of death outside Ministry of Home Affairs building In-camera In-camera Mirror Newspaper article dated Tuesday 25 April 1978 Holland Gordon Yearwood Witness Statement dated 02 02 2015 Map of Georgetown from Sussex Street to South Road Lands Registry Act Chapter 502 Part III Commission of Title Amnesty International Report 1983 Anne Wagner Mr Cyril Milton Johnson Passport #0890057 Passport Application Form for Cyril Milton Johnson Alex Adams witness statement dated 26 March 2015 Alex Adams witness statement dated 26 March 2015 Passport Application Form for Cyril William Smith Back to Title Page 111 GUYANA Commission of Inquiry to inquire into and report on the circumstances surrounding the death in an explosion of the late Dr Walter Rodney on the thirteenth day of June one thousand nine hundred and eighty at Georgetown Procedural Rules In exercise of the powers conferred on it under section 9 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act Cap 19 03 the Commission of Inquiry appointed by the President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana on the 6th day of February 2014 and whose appointment was published in the Official Gazette on 8th February 2014 makes the following rules PART 1 Interpretation 1 In these Rules i “Commission” means Sir Richard Cheltenham K A Q C Ph D Mrs Jacqueline Samuels-Brown Q C and Mr Seenath Jairam S C being the persons appointed as Commissioners by His Excellency the President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana on the 6th day of February 2014 under the provisions of the Commissions of Inquiry Act Cap 19 03 ii “Commission counsel” means counsel appointed to the Commission and retained by the Government of Guyana to act as counsel to the Commission iii “document” includes any paper writing or material that is in electronic audiotape or videotape form digital reproductions photographs maps graphs microfiche and any data or information recorded or stored by means by any device iv “party” means a person group of persons or organisation that has been granted standing by the commission under part 3 of these Rules PART 2 The Inquiry 112 2 The Commission’s mandate established by its terms of reference is – i To examine the facts and circumstances immediately prior at the time of and subsequent to the death of Dr Walter Rodney in order to determine as far as possible who or what was responsible for the explosion resulting in the death of Dr Walter Rodney ii To inquire into the cause of the explosion in which Dr Walter Rodney died whether it was an act of terrorism and if so who were the perpetrators iii To specifically examine the role if any which the late Gregory Smith Sergeant of the Guyana Defence Force played in the death of Dr Walter Rodney and if so to inquire into who may have counselled procured aided and or abetted him to do so including facilitating his departure from Guyana after Dr Walter Rodney’s death iv To examine and report on the actions and activities of the State such as the Guyana Police Force the Guyana Defence Force the Guyana National Service the Guyana People’s Militia and those who were in command and superintendence of these agencies to determine whether they were tasked with the surveillance of and the carrying out of actions and whether they did execute those tasks and carried out those actions against the political opposition for the period 1st January 1978 to 31st December 1980 v To examine review and report on earlier investigations and enquiries done on and into the death of Dr Walter Rodney 3 The Commission is governed and guided by the Commissions of Inquiry Act Cap 19 03 4 The proceedings of the inquiry shall be conducted in public unless in-camera proceedings are deemed necessary or desirable in the opinion of the Commission The Commission will hold public hearings at the premises of the High Court of the Supreme Court of Judicature Victoria Law Court Avenue of the Republic or such other place as the Commission directs on dates to be determined by the Commission The administrative offices of the Commission will be located at the 113 top floor of the Supreme Court Library Building Victoria Law Courts Avenue of The Republic Georgetown 5 Notice of dates of hearings will be provided in a timely manner 6 Unless otherwise directed by the Commission hearings shall commence at 9 30 a m and conclude at 1 30 p m or such other time as may be necessary There will be breaks as may be convenient 7 All parties and their counsel shall be deemed to undertake to adhere to these rules Any party or the Commission itself may raise any issue of non-compliance with these rules with the Commission The Commission shall deal with a breach of these rules as it sees fit including but not restricted to revoking the standing of a party and imposing restrictions on the further participation in or attendance at the hearings by any party counsel individual or member of the media 8 The Commission may depart from these rules when it considers it appropriate to do so 9 The Commission may amend these rules or dispense with compliance with them as it deems necessary in order to ensure that the hearing is thorough fair and timely 10 The Commission may postpone any date set for any hearing or application or the doing of anything The Commission shall notify all counsel and any person organisation or office affected by the postponement of the new date PART 3 Standing 11 Commission counsel shall assist the Commission throughout the inquiry and are responsible for ensuring that the inquiry is conducted in an orderly fashion and that all matters bearing on the public interest and falling with the scope of the Commission’s mandate are brought to the Commission’s attention Commission counsel have standing throughout the inquiry 12 Persons groups of persons or organisations who wish to participate in the inquiry may apply for standing before the inquiry The Commission may grant standing if it is satisfied that an applicant has a substantial and direct interest in the 114 subject matter of the inquiry or that the applicant’s participation in the inquiry may be helpful to the Commission in fulfilling its mandate 13 The Commission shall determine on what terms a party may participate in the inquiry and the nature and extent of such participation 14 a As provided for in Part 4 counsel representing a witness who is called to testify before the Commission may participate during the hearing of that witness’s evidence without the necessity of applying for standing b Persons or organisations granted standing by the Commission may be represented by counsel provided that where any person group or organisation is represented by more than one attorney only one of the attorneys may provide verbal representation at any single sitting of the Commission PART 4 Evidence A General 15 The Commission may receive any evidence that it considers to be helpful in fulfilling its mandate whether or not such evidence would be admissible in a court of law B Preparation of Documentary Evidence 16 All parties granted standing under part 3 of these rules shall as soon as practicable after being granted standing produce to the Commission true copies of all documents in their possession or control having any bearing on the subject matter of the inquiry Documents in the possession or control of a party that are already in the possession of the Commission shall be listed but need not be produced unless specifically requested by the Commission Upon the request of the Commission parties shall also provide originals of relevant documents in their possession or control for inspection 17 Upon the request of the Commission any non-parties shall produce to the Commission true copies of all documents in their possession or control which have any bearing on the subject matter of the inquiry Documents in the possession or control of a non-party that are already in the possession of the Commission shall be listed but need not be produced unless specifically requested by the Commission 115 Upon the request of the Commission such non-parties shall also provide originals of relevant documents in their possession or control for inspection 18 All documents received by the Commission shall be treated by the Commission as confidential unless and until they are made part of the public record or the Commission otherwise directs This does not preclude the Commission from producing a document to a potential witness prior to the testimony of the witness as part of the Commission’s investigation nor does it preclude the Commission from disclosing such documents to the parties to this Commission of Inquiry pursuant to and subject to the terms and limitations described in rule 19 below 19 Any party or non-party required to produce a document or documents pursuant to rules 10 or 17 above or pursuant to a subpoena or summons issued under the Commissions of Inquiry Act Cap 19 03 and who claims privilege in respect of such document shall produce a list of the documents in respect of which privilege is claimed stating the basis and reasons for the claim of privilege The Commission shall determine whether such claim of privilege is justified 20 Where privilege is claimed under rule 19 the Commission shall not disclose any disputed documents to the other parties but may with the assistance of the party or non-party claiming privilege prepare and produce a summary of the document C Witness Interviews and Disclosure 21 a The Commission with or without the assistance of Commission counsel may interview persons believed to have information or documents bearing on the subject matter of the inquiry The Commission may choose whether or not to attend an interview and Commission counsel shall provide the Commission with a transcript or report of all interviews conducted in its absence b Persons interviewed by Commission counsel may choose to have legal counsel present during the interview but are not required to do so c Persons whose interview is requested by the Commission or Commission counsel shall answer all relevant questions and produce any relevant documents 116 d A subpoena or summons may be issued if the person to be interviewed requests one or if the Commission or Commission counsel deems it prudent to compel the attendance of the person 22 Where the Commission or Commission counsel determines that a person who has been interviewed should be called as a witness in public hearings the Commission may cause a statement of the witness’s anticipated evidence or a transcript of their interview to be prepared and may provide a copy of this statement or the interview transcript to the witness before he or she testifies in the hearing After the statement or transcript has been reviewed by the witness copies shall be disclosed to any relevant parties on their undertaking to use it only for the purposes of the Inquiry and on the terms described in rule 23 below 23 a Where Commission counsel determines that it is necessary for a person who has been interviewed to be called as a witness in public hearings Commission counsel may tender the witness statement or transcript to the Commission at the hearing and the Commission may consider the information in the witness statement or transcript when making its final findings conclusions and recommendations b Where the Commission or Commission counsel interviews a person and decides not to call that person to testify at the public hearings Commission counsel may provide relevant parties with a transcript of the interview if available or a summary of the relevant information provided by that person c A party may apply to the Commission for permission to call any person as a witness or for a direction that that person be called as a witness 24 a Unless the Commission orders otherwise all relevant non-privileged documents in the possession of the Commission shall be disclosed to the parties at a time reasonably in advance of the witness interviews and or public hearings or within a reasonable time of the documents becoming available to the Commission b Before these documents are provided to a party or a witness the witness must undertake to use these documents only for the purposes of the inquiry to keep their contents confidential to himself or herself and their counsel before the Commission unless and until those documents have been admitted into evidence during a public phase of the Commission of Inquiry and to 117 abide by such restrictions on disclosure and dissemination as the Commission considers appropriate c All documents provided by the Commission of inquiry to parties and witnesses and which have not been admitted into evidence during a public phase of the Commission of Inquiry and all copies made of such documents shall be returned to the Commission—in the case of witnesses on completion of their testimony and in the case of parties within seven days of the Commission issuing its final report d The Commission may upon application release any party or counsel in whole or in part from the provisions of an undertaking regarding the use of disclosure of documents or information D Witnesses 25 A summary of the material which any party or person intends to put before the Commission shall be provided to the secretary to the Commission in accordance with such time limits as may be specified by the Commission 26 Written and signed statements of persons intended to be called as witnesses shall similarly be delivered to the secretary in accordance with such time limits as may be specified by the Commission All such material shall be provided in both hard copy and in electronic form where possible 27 a Witnesses may testify in person by video link and or by audio link b Witnesses who testify shall give their evidence under oath or upon affirmation 28 Prior to giving evidence witnesses who have provided signed statements shall be invited to confirm on oath their written statements which shall be accepted as the evidence of that person and which shall be subject to cross examination by any interested party as allowed by the Commission 29 Witnesses are entitled to have their own counsel present while they testify A witness’s counsel has standing in the inquiry for the purposes of that witness’s testimony and may examine the witness as provided for in rules 32 and 33 30 Witnesses may be called to give evidence in the inquiry more than once 118 31 a Where it considers it advisable the Commission may issue a summons or subpoena requiring a witness to give evidence on oath or affirmation and or to produce documents or other things b A summons or subpoena may be issued in relation to i pre-hearing interviews Commission counsel conducted by the Commission or ii pre-hearing requests for documents or iii the public hearings 32 The Commission shall admit any evidence provided that it is relevant to the inquiry Where evidence is challenged or objected to on any ground the Commission shall give only such weight to that evidence as it determines to be appropriate having regard to all the circumstances E Oral Examination 33 Subject to rule 34 the order of examination of a witness shall be as follows a The Commission or Commission counsel may examine the witness at any stage of the proceedings The Commission or Commission counsel may adduce evidence from a witness by way of leading or non-leading questions b The parties who have been granted standing shall have an opportunity to cross-examine a witness to the extent of that party’s interest and in accordance with such time limits as the Commission may direct If parties are unable to agree the order of cross-examination the Commission shall give directions which must be complied with c Subject to Rule 34 counsel for a witness shall examine the witness as directed by the Commission regardless of whether or not counsel is also representing another party d The Commission or Commission counsel shall then have the right to examine or re-examine the witness Except as otherwise directed by the Commission the Commission or Commission counsel may adduce 119 evidence from a witness during or after re-examination by way of leading or non-leading questions 34 A witness’s counsel may apply to the Commission for permission to present that witness’s evidence-in-chief If permission is granted the witness shall be examined in the following order a Counsel shall examine the witness in accordance with the normal rules governing the examination of one’s own witness in court proceedings unless otherwise directed by the Commission b The other parties with standing shall be entitled to cross-examine the witness as provided for in Rule 33 b c The Commission shall then be entitled to conduct an examination of the witness as provided for in Rule 33 d d Counsel for the witness shall then be entitled to re-examine the witness 35 After a witness has been sworn or affirmed at the commencement of his or her testimony no counsel or party other than Commission counsel may speak to that witness about the evidence he or she has given until the witness has completed his or her evidence Commission counsel may not speak to the witness about his or her evidence while the witness is being cross-examined by other counsel except with the permission of the Commission 36 a Where the Commission has indicated that it shall not be calling a particular witness to testify at the public hearings a party may apply to the Commission and request that the witness be called to give evidence b Where the Commission is satisfied that the witness’s testimony is required the Commission may direct that the witness be called in which case Rule 33 applies or may allow the requesting party to call the witness and adduce his or her evidence-in-chief in which case Rule 34 applies F Use of documents at hearings 37 Before a witness testifies at the inquiry the Commission may where practicable and appropriate provide the witness and the parties with a binder 120 bundle or a list of those documents that are likely to be referred to during the witness’s testimony 38 Without the permission of the Commission no document shall be used in cross-examination or otherwise except copies of the documents have been provided to the Commission in a timely manner pursuant to Rules 15 and 16 G Access to hearings and to the evidence 39 Subject to Rule 40 the hearing referred to in Rule 4 will ordinarily be open to the public The press television and public radio broadcasters shall have access to the hearing at any time subject to Rule 40 below The Commission may direct that broadcasting be suspended at any time in the interest of avoiding disturbance to the proceedings 40 Where the Commission is of the opinion that it is necessary in the interest of the maintenance of order or the proper administration of justice or the due conduct of the inquiry to exclude all or any members of the public from the hearing room it may after hearing submissions from interested parties direct that such part of the hearing as it deems appropriate be conducted in the absence of the public or on such terms and conditions as the Commission may direct 41 Applications from witnesses or parties to conduct any part of the hearing in the absence of all or any members of the public may be made verbally or in writing to the Commission at the earliest possible opportunity 42 The transcripts and exhibits from the hearings shall be made available as soon as practicable for public viewing and to the parties and the public Transcripts of any part of the hearing held in the absence of the public pursuant to Rule 40 above may be made available for public viewing on such terms as the Commission may direct if after hearing the evidence and any submissions the Commission concludes that it is in the public interest to release these transcripts PART 5 Opening Speeches 43 The Commission may invite parties or their counsel to make opening speeches before the commencement of the testimony of witnesses and on such terms and conditions including time limits as the Commission may direct 121 PART 6 Submissions 44 All counsel may make submissions as directed by the Commission subject to any restrictions that the Commission deems appropriate 45 The Commission shall direct when submissions are to be made and whether they are to be made orally and or in writing PART 7 Amendments to the Rules 46 These rules may be amended and new rules may be added if the Commission considers it advisable to do so in order to fulfil its mandate and to ensure that the inquiry is conducted fairly thoroughly and with appropriate transparency PART 8 General 47 The Commission may in any circumstances in which it shall see fit extend or abridge the time appointed by the Rules or fixed by any order or direction of the Commission for doing any act or taking any step in this inquiry 48 Where at any stage in the course of or in connection with this inquiry there has by reason by anything done or left undone been a failure to comply with the requirements of these Rules or any order or direction of the Commission whether in respect of time place manner form or content or in any other respect the failure may be treated as a mere irregularity and shall not nullify any step taken in this inquiry or any document order or direction 49 1 The Commission may on such terms as it thinks just by order extend or abridge the period in which a person is required authorised by these Rules or by any order or direction to do any act or take any step in this inquiry 2 The Commission may extend any period as is referred to in sub rule 1 hereof although the application for extension is not made until after the expiration of that period 50 Where the time prescribed by these Rules or any order or direction of the Commission for doing any act or taking any step expires on a Saturday Sunday or 122 any other day on which the Secretariat is closed and by reason thereof that act or step cannot be done on that day the act or step shall be in time if done on the next day on which the Secretariat is open 51 No step or act under these Rules or any order or direction of the Commission shall be invalidated by any formal defect or by any irregularity unless an objection is made to the step or act before the Commission and the Commission is of the opinion that substantial injustice has been caused by the defect of irregularity and that the injustice cannot be remedied by any order or direction of the Commission 52 Notwithstanding Rules 33 to 36 inclusive hereof the Commissioners or any one of them may ask any question or seek any clarification of any witness at any stage of the inquiry 53 Subject to the Commissions of Inquiry Act Cap 19 03 the Commission may act without regard to technicalities and legal form and shall not be bound to follow the rules of evidence stipulated in the Evidence Act but the Commission may inform itself on any matter in such manner as it thinks just and may take into account opinion evidence and such facts as it considers relevant and material but in any such case the parties to the inquiry or any one of them shall be given the opportunity if they so desire of adducing evidence in regard thereto 54 The Commission may require evidence or argument to be presented in writing and may decide the matters in which it may hear oral evidence or argument 55 1 Where the Commission acting pursuant to Section 10 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act Cap 19 03 summons any person who in the opinion of the Commission is able to give such information as it considers necessary the Commission may in its discretion and subject to such conditions it may impose disclose so much as it thinks fit of the information so produced or made available and the Commission may also prohibit the publication of any portion thereof 2 Where the Commission exercises its power to summon a person to give information under sub-rule 1 hereof the Commission may direct that all or any part of the information requested be disclosed in-camera and the Commission may enjoin any person or party privy to the disclosure from disclosing any such information given in their presence and hearing 123 56 Commission counsel may be assisted from time to time in the interviewing and recording of statements from any witness or potential witness by an investigator or investigators Issued by the Chairman on behalf of and with the concurrence of the Commissioners this 22nd day of April 2014 Signed Sir Richard Cheltenham K A Q C Ph D Back to Title Page 124 Correspondence between the President and the Chairman of the Commission 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 Back to Title Page 132 Editorial Note The above is a digitalized text of an “unofficial” printed copy of the Commission of Inquiry Report on the death of Dr Walter Rodney which occurred on the evening of June 13 1980 in Georgetown Guyana The text for this version is transcribed from a printed copy similar to that submitted to the Guyana government It is noted that even though the “Contents” section of the Report shows “List of Witnesses who gave Oral Evidence ” and “Names of Counsel who appeared on behalf of Witnesses” these are not displayed in the “Appendices” section since no such section appears in the “hard copy” of the Report from which the text has been digitalized However names of witnesses appear in the “Tendered Exhibits Evidence Master List ” The “hard copy” also has a number of typographical and spelling errors which have been corrected—wherever they are detected—in this edition In addition a few minor editorial additions are inserted in the general text There are also some incomplete “sentences” in the “hard copy” but these remain as they are in the original May 16 2016 Return to Title Page 133