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Victims of Linden unrest need more compensation – Finance Minister

 

Finance Minister, Winston Jordan has called on government to support him to provide more compensation for the the victims of the fiery and bloody 2012 unrest in Linden that had stemmed from a plan by the then government to increase electricity rates there.

Jordan issued the call in wrapping up debate on the 2019 National Budget in which GYD$5 million have been set aside for the construction of a monument in honour of the Linden Martyrs- Ron Somerset, Shemroy Bouyea and Allan Lewis who were gunned down during the unrest on July 18, 2012.

“I am asking my section here to revisit the compensation that was given to those people. Not only that they must get it but think about it. The total compensation given to those people was less than the compensation given to one commissioner…Shame! and I am asking my government to see it in their heart” Jordan told the House. The 32 PPP parliamentarians walked out of the House before Jordan began his presentation in what appeared to have been a tit-for-tat as the government MPs had done so before Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo had started.

Jordan accused the opposition parliamentarian, Vickram Bharrat of spewing  “misinformation” that the coalition-led administration   had budgeted GYD$100 million  to build a monument in remembrance of the Linden Martyrs. He said the actual amount was GYD$5 million.

The unrest had been sparked off by the decision by the then administration to remove the annual subsidy for electricity generation in the once thriving bauxite mining town. “They were unarmed people protesting for their rights and they were killed,” said Jordan who has in recent weeks been increasingly stepping into the political arena.

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In response to the above, one commentator (DW) wrote the verbatim quote below. How much of this is true?:

 

"The burning down of Govt. buildings were done by those same people who live there. It was their community that they were destroying. So now we must compensate them because they were dealt with in the only way the GPF could have.

So how about compensation for victims of the Wismar massacre of May 26th 1964? People who were living in that same area were brutalised, murdered, raped and their homes burnt simply because they were of a different ethnicity. How about that?"

V

Pressing the race button. The PPP murdered the protesters. That buildings were burned in the ensuing chaos is a consequence of angry people venting.  Innocent people must be compensated.

The killings occurred under the PPP's watch and loss suffered to innocents are the obligations of the state. The 64 race riots was under the British colonial offices. The colonials were obligated to to compensate any any who suffered losses under their watch. 

FM
Last edited by Former Member
D2 posted:

Pressing the race button. The PPP murdered the protesters. . 

The armed forces stood back and allowed terrorists to slaughter mostly Indians in their quest for power in the 2000s.  Then, few years later in Linden, protestors went on a rampage causing the shootings.  The police acted within their mandate with Brummel at the helm and mostly Afro ranks.  There was no cabinet level people at the scene giving orders.  How is it a race issue, how is it a political issue??

Baseman
D2 posted:

Pressing the race button. The PPP murdered the protesters. That buildings were burned in the ensuing chaos is a consequence of angry people venting.  Innocent people must be compensated.

The killings occurred under the PPP's watch and loss suffered to innocents are the obligations of the state. The 64 race riots was under the British colonial offices. The colonials were obligated to to compensate any any who suffered losses under their watch. 

You suffer from the anti-coolie-PPP syndrome. Gwan dah side and tek kare ah you sakawinki parrot.

FM

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