Special Call for Action From CGID: Campaign to oppose obscene nomination of Bharrat Jagdeo for the Nobel Peace Prize

December 8th, 2009

Thorbjorn Jagland, Chair of the Nobel peace Prize Committee

Thorbjorn Jagland, Chair of the Nobel peace Prize Committee

Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2010. He and his government’s sordid history of endemic corruption, rabid racism, gross human rights violations, extra-judicial-killings, murders and execution by members of the security forces and the Phantom death squad - acting as agents of the PPP government, of young black men, complicity with convicted criminal and drug lord, Roger Khan, etc., make this nomination an abomination to the ideals of the Nobel Peace Prize and a disgrace to Guyana.


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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New York Institute tells International community: “Don’t give Jagdeo another cent”

December 1st, 2009

Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo who is under fire for massive corruption

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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Burke’s questioning of whether newspaper was protecting Dr. Mahendra Chand leads to racial slur and tirade from PPP financier and personal associate of President Bharrat Jagdeo.

November 30th, 2009
jagdeo-whose-friend-is-a-racist

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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Commentary: Medical doctor complicit with torture of 14 year old in Guyana should be prosecuted and barred from practicing medicine

November 30th, 2009

Rickford Burke, President of the Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID)

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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President Jagdeo holds the worst Human Rights record in the Western Hemisphere - Commentary by Rickford Burke, President of the Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy

November 12th, 2009

Rickford Burke

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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Guyana Police under fire from New York Caribbean Institute over brutal torture of 14 year-old

November 1st, 2009
photo-1-14-year-old-guyana-police-torture-victim

The 14-year-old who was tortured by Guyana police displays his wounds to the press

NEW YORK: The Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) Sunday harshly condemned the brutal torture of a 14 year-old boy by Guyana Police at the Leonora Police Station, West Coast Demerara. The Institute also accused the force of an attempted cover-up, and is calling for the removal of Guyana’s embattled Police Commissioner, Henry Green as well as the command of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Force’s “D” Division, headquartered at Leornora Station.

“The brutal torture of this 14 year-old boy at the hands of evil Police officers should invoke the outrage of the Guyanese nation and the world as well as condemnation of the active policy of torture, which has been countenanced by the government of President Bharrat Jagdeo,” the New York based Institute said.

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Evidence in Simels trial proves Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo and Health Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy to be chronic liars who have breached the public trust, they must resign forthwith - New York Group

August 3rd, 2009

LIAR - Guyana’s embattled Minister of Health Dr. Leslie Ramsammy

LIAR - Guyana’s embattled Minister of Health Dr. Leslie Ramsammy

NEW YORK: The New York based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) announced Sunday that its legal committee has analyzed transcripts of testimony and evidence presented by the United States (US) Justice Department in the trial of Robert Simels in Federal Court in New York. “The evidence establishes that Guyana’s President, Bharrat Jagdeo and Health Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, “Are crooks who are alleged accessories to murder, and who allegedly countenanced the killing of hundreds of Guyanese citizens,” the organization said.

“The evidence has proven both Mr. Jagdeo and Dr. Ramsammy to be chronic liars who have breached the public trust. We call on them both to resign forthwith,” the Institute declared. CGID also called on Guyana’s Police Commissioner Henry Green to resign, saying “Commissioner Green has blatantly mislead the public and intentionally overlooked hundreds of murders by a network of “Phantom” hit-men, some government Ministers and members of the security forces. He must resign so that the Guyana Police Force can be reformed and its integrity rehabilitated.”


The Institute noted that since Guyana’s Police, Military and Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), appear to be irredeemably corrupt, they cannot be trusted to conduct a professional or credible investigation of these matters. Hence, it called for Jagdeo, Ramsammy and other accomplices to be hauled to the International Criminal Court in The Hague and prosecuted for ‘crimes against humanity.’ “They deserve to be thrown in jail like other international criminals such as Slobodan Milosevic, Manuel Noriega and Charles Taylor, Jr.,” the CGID statement said.

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New York Caribbean Institute condemns NYPD shooting death of Guyanese American Shem Walker - Calls on DA to charge suspect

July 19th, 2009

Shem Walker

Shem Walker

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK: The New York based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) is calling on Brooklyn District Attorney, Charles Hynes, to charge an undercover NYPD narcotics cop with manslaughter, for what it called “The willful shooting to death of Guyanese-American and United States Army veteran, Shem Walker, last Saturday.”

Walker, who was visiting his sick mother, Lydia Walker, at her brownstone home at 370 Lafayette Ave, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, had just finished feeding her dinner, at around 7:45 P.M, and had gone outside for a smoke, when he encountered a man sitting on his stairs. He reportedly asked the stranger to leave, and a struggle may have ensued.

However, the trespasser turned out to be an undercover Police officer from the Brooklyn North Narcotics squad, who was purportedly equipped with headphones and allegedly listening in on a drug buy.

The New York Post reported that the two wrestled and fell to the ground, and that the cop broke free, reached for his gun and shot Walker in the head and chest. Walker was taken to the nearby Brooklyn Hospital Center where he was pronounced dead.

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Arrest in Guyana of Lewis, Benschop and Witter constitute unlawful acts of political thuggery by the PPP Narco-dictatorship - CGID

July 16th, 2009

CCL General Secretary Lincoln Lewis

CCL General Secretary Lincoln Lewis

NEW YORK: The New York based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) has harshly condemned the July 15, arrest of Lincoln Lewis, General Secretary of the Caribbean Congress of Labor; Norris Witter, General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress as well as journalist and former political prisoner, Mark Benschop, by the Guyana Police.

The three high profile Guyanese were protesting against human rights violations and atrocities by the Guyana Government and Police, during a Police Awards Ceremony outside of the Guyana Police Headquarters.

They were subsequently arrested and taken into custody. They are being held at the “A” Division Police Headquarters, Brickdam Police Station, Georgetown, and have been denied access to their Attorneys. The Police Station was immediately besieged by supporters and well wishers, who commenced a massive impromptu vigil outside the compound.

Guyana’s Police Commissioner, Henry Green, while addressing the ceremony, mocked the three and referred to them as “the three Musketeers,” and made special mention of CCL General Secretary, Lincoln Lewis.

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New York Caribbean institute says Guyana government is the biggest violator of the human rights of Guyanese, not Barbados

July 3rd, 2009

Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo

Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK: Guyana’s President, Bharrat Jagdeo, in his address to the 30th Meeting of Caricom Heads of Government, which began in Guyana yesterday, appealed for the human rights of Guyanese to be respected by Barbadian Immigration authorities. But Jagdeo himself is not getting a pass from the New York based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID). The Institute is demanding that Jagdeo heeds his own words.

CGID President, Rickford Burke, said Friday that although he agrees in principle with the Guyanese leader, Jagdeo has no honor on the subject of human rights and must heed his own counsel. Burke added that “Barbados is not the chief abuser of the human rights of Guyanese – the Jagdeo government is. The lack of respect the Guyana government demonstrates for its own citizens and its mediocre, despotic governance, invite the mistreatment of Guyanese in the region,” Burke observed.”


On May 5, 2009 Barbados Prime Minister, David Thompson, implemented a controversial new immigration policy of deporting undocumented Caricom nationals who entered Barbados after December 2005. Since then, immigration officials have conducted early morning raids on the homes of some suspected undocumented Caricom nationals, and have “deported” or “removed” them from Barbados. Guyanese constitute the largest immigrant block in Barbados. Over eighty percent of the Barbados deportees have been Guyanese.

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