February 10th, 2010
Ramsammy's Letter to the Spy Shop approving the sale of spy equipment to convicted criminal Roger Khan.
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK: The New York based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) has renewed its call for Guyana’s Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, to resign for authorizing the acquisition of telephone spy and geographic intercepting equipment by convicted criminal Roger Khan. Khan was the head of a drug cartel and a violent gang called the Phantom gang, which has killed more than 400 individuals in Guyana
A CGID statement issued on Wednesday, February 10, 2010, announced that the institute has acquired a copy of Ramsammy’s letter approving the sale of the equipment to Khan on behalf of the Guyana government. The statement quoted CGID President, Rickford Burke, as saying that “There is incontrovertible evidence that Dr. Ramsammy is a nefarious crook who is part of a criminal enterprise. He must be removed from office and prosecuted for conspiracy and accessory to murder for aiding, abetting and assisting Roger Khan and his gang in the assassination of several individuals, including journalist Ronald Waddell.” UNESCO has ruled Waddell’s January 30, 2006 killing a political assassination.
Burke said that “It is repugnant for a Minister of government to be involved in a criminal enterprise that exported drugs into the United States and conducted murder for hire,” and added that “there needs to be justice for the victims who Khan has allegedly killed and their families.”
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January 15th, 2010
US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano
The Washington Post: The Obama administration announced Friday that it will allow an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 Haitians living in the United States illegally to stay and work in the country for 18 months as part of its response to Tuesday’s earthquake, but warned Haitians that leaving the country now “will only bring more hardship to the Haitian people and nation.”
Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said the decision to grant Temporary Protected Status to illegal immigrants from Haiti who were living in the United States as of January 12 was a gesture of compassion and an attempt to ensure that the flow of remittances and economic support to their devastated homeland continue.
“This is a disaster of historic proportions,” Napolitano said in a 5 p.m. conference call, “Providing a temporary refuge for Haitian nationals who are currently in the United States and whose personal safety would be ended by returning to Haiti as part of this administration continue effort to support Haiti’s recovery.”
However, Napolitano coupled that message with a caution to Haitians now seeking refuge outside their country. While she declined to specify the consequences for those caught trying to enter the U.S. illegally, she said, “At this moment of tragedy in Haiti, it is tempting for people suffering in the aftermath of the earthquake to seek refuge elsewhere, but attempting to leave Haiti now will only bring more hardship to the Haitian people and nation.”
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January 15th, 2010
CGID President Rickford Burke
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK: The President of the New York based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy, Rickford Burke, on Friday called on the United Nations (UN), US State Department, Organization of American States (OAS) and the Caribbean Community (Caricom), “to evacuate Haitians who have been injured in Tuesday’s devastating 7.0 earthquake to sister Caribbean States in the region for medical treatment, so as to avert further humanitarian catastrophe and to free-up resources and congestion in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital.”
Burke specifically called on Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrits of the neighboring Island of Dominica and Prime Minister Bruce Golding of Jamaica, to “step up and help the Haitian people in this hour of crisis, and allow some of the wounded to be treated in their country.” He also endorsed a call for some injured Haitians as well as some who would become refugees, to be temporarily resettled in the South American sister Caricom State of Guyana, located along the Atlantic Ocean.
Burke said that “Guyana is a country that is 83,000 square miles large with a population of only 650,000, who are mainly concentrated along the Atlantic coastline, occupying only about 40% of the country.” Noting that “More Guyanese live outside of Guyana, with approximately one million living in North America and the Caribbean alone, he observed that with about 60% of Guyana uninhabited, that country can easily accommodate a large number Haitians, and that the international community will be obligated to help the Guyana government manage that process.
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December 14th, 2009
CGID President Rickford Burke, second from left, with Consul General Coizer, left and Deputy Prime Minister of SVG Sir Louis Straker, third from left
Vincentians and other Caribbean nationals in New York last Sunday paid glowing tributes to the first New York Consul General, Cosmus Cozier, describing him, among other superlatives, as loveable, humble, compassionate, hard working and people-oriented.
The Bequia-born Cozier, who served in that capacity for 8 ½ years, finally retired on Nov. 30.
He was appointed by the incumbent Unity Labour Party (ULP) administration in June 2001.
The former Parliamentarian for the Grenadines said he will be returning home on Monday to spend his Golden Years on the “rock.”
“St. Vincent and the Grenadines has produced a man truly loved,” said the Rev. Dr. Glyger Beache, who hails from Prospect, before offering prayers at the celebratory event at the Friends of Crown Heights Educational Center in Brooklyn. The ceremony also served as the consulate’s annual Christmas Party.
“Not only have you represented us well, but you had a way of bringing us together,” added Rev. Beache, turning to Cozier.
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December 9th, 2009
Kaieteur News Report
Injuries sustained by the tortured 14 year old
Superintendent, ASP, Sgt., three constables departmentally charged – torture report
The long awaited report on the torture probe that was conducted to ascertain culpability of those who burnt the now 15 year-old boy at the Leonora has been released to the public.
The report that was released by the Ministry of Home Affairs yesterday states that the then Divisional Commander, Assistant Commissioner Paulette Morrison, knew that the lad had been burnt with methylated spirits but she claimed that she did not know the severity of the injuries.
According to the report she subsequently (later in day) instructed a Superintendent Kissoon that the tortured teen be given medical attention by the police surgeon. It was pointed out that while Ms Morrison was not diligent as she should have been, the ranks involved were concealing material information from her in order to cover up their dastardly acts.
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December 8th, 2009
Thorbjorn Jagland, Chair of the Nobel peace Prize Committee
It is the view of the Institute that Bharrat Jagdeo heads a brutal ethnocratic, narco-dictatorship which usurps the resources of the state for his ethnic collectivity; has made blood and drug money part of the official economy; is a rabid racist and a potential international criminal, who should not be considered for the Nobel Peace Prize but rather for prosecution for potential crimes against humanity and other human rights violations.
Consequently, CGID has taken a decision to lead a campaign to resoundingly defeat this nomination and hereby solicits your participation by writing to the Nobel Committee objecting to his nomination and highlighting the above atrocities committed by Mr. Jagdeo and his ethnocratic regime.
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December 1st, 2009
Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo who is under fire for massive corruption
NEW YORK: Corruption in the Guyana government is again coming into sharp focus as the Commonwealth Heads of Government conclude their meeting in Trinidad and Tobago.
The New York based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) Tuesday called on developed countries and Multilateral Financial Institutions (MFI) to halt financial aid to the Jagdeo administration in Guyana, charging that that regime is one of the most corrupt in the world.
The CGID statement came in reaction to Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo’s declaration to reporters in Trinidad and Tobago last weekend that the true cost of fighting climate change will top 300 billion dollars. Jagdeo said that leading economists have calculated that “the cost of action and mitigation would be about one percent of the global economy.”
“This is one percent of the GDP of a 30-trillion-dollar global economy,” he estimated. “If resources of that magnitude were available then you’d be able to take serious mitigation action immediately.”
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November 30th, 2009
President Bharrat Jagdeo who has been accused of harboring congenital racists in his inner circles
Last week CGID President Rickford Burke wrote to the editor-in-chief of Guyanese independent newspaper, the Stabroek News, Mr. Anand Persaud, pointing out that in a letter he authored which Stabroek News had published the previous day, all aspects of his call for a criminal investigation of Dr. Mahendra Chand, the medical doctor who had been complicit in the torture of the 14 year-old, had been edited out. In his note, Burke observed that the newspaper had been protecting Dr. Chand who appears to be a supporter of the PPP’s ethnocratic regime.
Burke’s letter which was disseminated to the Guyanese press corps triggered several angry, racist email responses from PPP financer and close personal friend of President Jagdeo Anand Persaud, proprietor of NTN Television, Channel 69 in Guyana, who carries the same name as the editor-in-Chief.
The PPP’s Anand Persaud who in his racist emails sought to impersonate the Stabroek News editor, referred to Burke as “Black” which has connotations of the word “nigger.” He also implied that Burke who is Afro-Guyanese needs a bath - atypical of how the PPP’s Persaud and his clan view Afro-Guyanese.
Persaud was also wallowing in ethnic triumphalism; boasting that we, infering “East Indians” are in power now and that Guyanese blacks must think about a “Third Term” for President Jagdeo.
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November 30th, 2009
Rickford Burke, President of the Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID)
It has now come to light that the 14-year-old boy who was tortured by Guyana Police officers at the Leonora Police Station was, while in Police custody, examined by Dr Mahendra Chand, at the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station on October 29, 2009, shortly after the abuse occurred. Dr Chand is a Government Medical Officer (GMO) and Police Surgeon, and was surreptitiously summoned to examine the child’s injuries – an indication that the Police Commissioner knew of the abuse but did not launch an investigation until the matter became public.
Detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) who were investigating the murder of ruling PPP government official, Ramnauth Bisram, arrested the lad and attempted to coerce him to sign a confession and to give up presumed information on the murder. When he refused, they beat him with a wood about the head and ears; stapled his genitals and doused it with a flammable liquid and lit him afire. He sustained second and third degree burns in the genital area.
The wounds were so severe that the command felt compelled to summon Dr Chand to examine the child. Having seen the “areas of brutality” as he puts it, Dr Chand failed to refer the case to child welfare or higher law enforcement authorities for investigation. The matter only became public when it was leaked to the press and a photographer gained access to the lad while in Police custody and published a photograph of his badly burnt genital area. Read the rest of this entry »
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November 12th, 2009
Rickford Burke
Two weeks ago, Guyana Police brutally tortured and maimed a 14 year-old boy at Leonora Police Station where the Force’s “D” Division is headquartered. They also tortured and maimed Deonarine Rafick, apparently fracturing his skull. These barbaric and evil acts of torture are the cruelest crimes against humanity, committed by Police officers in the Western Hemisphere in modern history.
The two were tortured in connection with the murder of ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) official, Ramnauth Bisram. Guyanese citizens are routinely tortured as an instrument of law enforcement whenever criminal investigations involve the pursuit of justice in the interest the ruling PPP.
Their modus operandi is to create structures and militias outside of the legitimate State security apparatus; comprising of political thugs and loyal Police and Army officers. These Schutzstaffel (SS) or Gestapos are granted carte blanche license to, with impunity, rampage through the society with unrivaled political venom to, like Teliban mujahideens, seek, torture and destroy any person believed to be guilty,. The upshot is arrant criminality like that which was perpetrated the 14 year-old.
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