January 15, 2016 Source
PHANTOM KILLINGS …House clears Coroner’s Bill to probe Phantom killings
Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Basil Williams
DETERMINED to clear up the huge backlog of unresolved ‘unnatural deaths’, government on Thursday evening used its majority in the National Assembly to pass the Coroner’s Amendment Bill after a sometimes contentious debate. The opposition, People’s Progressive Party (PPP), which has been accused of failing to hold any proper inquests into the hundreds of unlawful killings that occurred during the “Phantom Squad” era and prison escapee-led crime spree, opposed the bill. The Bill among other things will see a minimum of four full-time coroners in Demerara, three in Berbice and two in Essequibo.
Attorney General Basil Williams explained that the passage of the bill will allow for the clearing of the backlog of inquest cases, which have piled up since 2000. Opposition members Anil Nandlall and Adrian Anamayah, in their presentations pleaded for the bill to be sent to a special select committee of the National Assembly, but the government side of the house did not agree. The AG argued against such a move, saying that such a procedure is reserved for complex bills.
PPP, MP, Anil Nandlall
The Coroners (Amendment) Bill – Bill No. 11 of 2015 seeks to insert an additional section immediately after Section 3. This section referred to as Section 3A states that notwithstanding anything in Sections 2 and 3, the Judicial Service Commission may appoint fit and proper persons as coroners. Additionally, it seeks to implement a system that would allow the County of Demerara to have at least three coroners, the County of Berbice at least two and the County of Essequibo at least one.
It also provides for coroners to have all the powers, privileges, rights and jurisdiction of a Magistrate and Justice of the Peace as are necessary for the performance of his duties. Williams, in tabling the Bill in the National Assembly had explained that at present “the magistrate of the magisterial district in which an unnatural death occurs, is the coroner. If that magistrate cannot conveniently or speedily be found or is unable to act, the nearest Justice of the Peace, who is able to act shall be the coroner.” He added, “The amendment affected by this Bill to the Act does not affect the law as it stands, except that it widens the meaning of a coroner.”
Families want to know
During the debate on the bill, Williams told the House that the legislation paves the way for the State to conduct inquests into unnatural deaths that happened years ago. “This is nothing partisan, I don’t know why anyone would have an objection to finding the truth…a promise was made to the families of those [who] died in the crime wave…families are still grieving and it is under these circumstances we have proposed the amendment to this Act,” he stated. Government has said recently that it will take up a United States offer to access the testimonies given by convicted drug-trafficker Shaheed Roger Khan, in order to open local investigations into the “Phantom Squad” which the self-confessed PPP government-backed crime-fighter had led. President David Granger himself back in August had given his administration’s clearest signal that he intends to investigate the Bharrat Jagdeo-era killings. Back in 2003-2006 Khan, had set up a criminal network here, including active policemen and a number of former ranks, ostensibly to go after criminals, but at the same time protecting his narco-trafficking interests. He was nabbed in neighbouring Suriname in 2006 while fleeing local police, and was later handed over to U.S. authorities. Although the PPP government has sought to distance itself from Khan, the drug-trafficker had stated publicly in an advertisement in local newspapers that he was fighting crime on behalf of the Bharrat Jagdeo-led government. Khan had also implicated former Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy in his escapades, and documents bearing the then minister’s signature authorising the purchase of a sophisticated wiretapping device were produced in U.S. courts during Khan’s trial. President Granger had said the opening of the cases is lawful. Among the deaths which will be investigated is that of former Minister of Agriculture, Satyadeow Sawh, his siblings and the security guard who were gunned down at their home in 2006. “When you have young men being shot in the backs of their heads with their hands tied; when you have so many deaths which have not been investigated; when a minister of the government has been assassinated and you don’t even have an inquest into his death, it is something stink. Something stinks, and we are going to investigate those deaths,” President Granger had told a gathering at Critchlow Labour College in August last year.
Necessary time
Williams, in his arguments to the House, said the bill comes at a necessary time when the period of 2000 to 2009 is taken into consideration. According to the AG, this period represents a time when there were unnatural deaths with bodies “turning up in trenches, isolated roads,[and] people’s living rooms.” The Attorney General said this bill serves to satisfy families of the bodies found, that were reported killed by death squads, phantom squads, specifically in cases where no causes of death were attributed, and where there were no police cases.
Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan
Placing blame at the foot of the former administration that now sits on the opposition side of the National Assembly, Williams said “the government of the day was either unwilling or they lacked the political will to investigate these unnatural deaths.”
The nature of the amendment proposed by the Attorney General was to increase the pool of persons designated as Coroners under the law. Williams said the original Act, added to Guyana’s law books in 1887, designates magistrates as coroners in their respective districts with the right to conduct inquests into unnatural deaths by murder. He said with this limited pool, “none of these inquests were completed.” Williams complained of the potential for intimidation of magistrates against completing inquests, even as they had their magisterial duties on a daily basis. “It was in these circumstances that we have proposed the amendment to the Coroners Act to increase categories of persons to perform functions of coroners.”
The bill, according to Williams, would grant the Judicial Service Commission a constitutional body, the power to appoint “fit and proper” persons as coroners with an additional amendment for persons “who shall be full-time coroners.”
Williams called it “unthinkable” that the opposition party would call for the amendment bill to be taken to a Special Select Committee in Parliament. While agreeing with a recommendation made some years ago for holistic amendments to the bill, the Attorney General said, “At this time… this would not be convenient.”
Cut and paste
Anamayah called the bill a “cut and paste” job that takes from similar legislation in Trinidad and Tobago. He questioned the “piecemeal amendment of the legislation,” calling it “laziness” and “incompetence” that does not reflect concerns in Guyana’s jurisdiction. He supported the need for families of unnatural death victims under his party’s rule to have justice, but he called for there to be qualifications set for Coroners outside of being “fit and proper” by the Judicial Service Commission.
Another Opposition MP, Clement Rohee, who served as Home Affairs Minister for almost a decade before elections last May, called the bill “politically inspired.” His main position was for the bill to go to a Special Select Committee in Parliament. However, Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan criticised the former administration for not passing those amendments.
He defended the “cut and paste” amendment “if it is going to meet the requirement the government is seeking.” He went on to defend the utilisation of the Judicial Service Commission since the body is “insulated from political mischief.” Nandlall for his part called for repeal of a section of the Bill which allows Justices of the Peace to act as coroners. He called on government to engage the opposition within the parliamentary system, and not at consultations held outside the Parliament.
