International Criminal Court has jurisdiction in Guyana's 200+ 'Murdergate' Scandal

With the over-kill of the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy in the media, and an inextinguishable desire for breaking news, up comes self-confessed Guyana ‘death squad’ member Sean Hinds, virtually delivering a can of worms on a platter, after walking through dry places, seeking rest and finding none. 

Guyana death squad former member and whistle blower Sean Hinds.

 While Sean Hinds, in his television interview with a Guyanese journalist confessed to being a member of a death squad which he alleges received cover and support from the Guyana Police Force, with the direct knowledge and sanction of at least two government ministers, between 2002 and 2006, he refuses to say who the intellectual authors of the crime wave were.

Recent remarks by former head of the Guyana Police Force's infamous and feared Target Special Squad, retired Assistant Commissioner Steve Merai, that he had confidence in the police to exonerate him in murder-for-hire allegations, underscores the fact that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is the only body, in my view, that can impartially investigate the wide-spread allegations that government-backed, funded and directed death squads operated in Guyana between 2002-2006, during which more than 200 citizens were killed or disappeared.

Many theorists have put the figure of those who were murdered or disappeared during the dark days in Guyana from 2002 to 2006, as high as 400, but this blog uses a conservative number of 200+ because this article seeks to address specific legal issues under international law relating to crimes against humanity, according to Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Feared former head of the police Target Special Squad, retired Assistant Commissioner Steve Merai

I would be the first to argue that several of the murders that happened between 2002 and 2006 were as a result of regular criminal activity and would not fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC. What I am concerned with is whether or not the state, its agencies or groups under its control, were engaged in repeated or sustained plots to murder, torture or cause the disappearance of citizens of Guyana.

Why would Steve Merai, whom it is alleged by Sean Hinds, was there when popular journalist and talk show host Ronald Waddell was executed by unknown gunman, and who, just the mention of his name alone, used to send chills down anyone’s spine, be seeking a meeting with the same police force that has constitutional authority to investigate Mr. Hinds’ allegations against Merai?

Many people might disagree with a call for the Government of Guyana to invite the ICC to investigate the events of 2002-2006, but when you have 200+ people being murdered in one country and evidence linking two government ministers to the now-imprisoned head of merciless phantom and death squads, the ICC mechanism can be activated, as Guyana is a member of the ICC.

Killed by the death squad or phantom squad. Journalist Ronald Waddell.

The information being offered in this blog is not an opinion, it is the United States, Britain and Canada that first called on the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) government to launch an investigation into the reported existence of phantom and death squads. Following international pressure, a half-hearted inquiry was launched, but quickly fizzled. The scandal resulted in the resignation of Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj.
There are many other questions that need international judicial pronouncements. One of the questions is, whether or not the then Government of Guyana, through former Minister of Health Leslie Ramsammy, bought and imported spy equipment with tax-payer dollars and subsequently delivered the said equipment to the head of the infamous phantom squad to aid in the extra-judicial killings of Guyanese citizens.

Former Minister of Home Affairs, Ronald Gajraj.

Almost a decade has passed since the end of the 2002-2006 crime wave in Guyana, but as far as the ICC is concerned:

Article 19

Non-applicability of statute of limitations

The crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court shall not be subject to any statute of limitations.

Article 27

Irrelevance of official capacity

 1. This Statute shall apply equally to all persons without any distinction based on official capacity. In particular, official capacity as a Head of State or Government, a member of a Government or parliament, an elected representative or a government official shall in no case exempt a person from criminal responsibility under this Statute, nor shall it, in and of itself, constitute a ground for reduction of sentence.

2. Immunities or special procedural rules which may attach to the official capacity of a person, whether under national or international law, shall not bar the Court from exercising its jurisdiction over such a person.

 Article 14 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court states:

Referral of a situation by a State Party

1. A State Party may refer to the Prosecutor a situation in which one or more crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court appear to have been committed requesting the Prosecutor to investigate the situation for the purpose of determining whether one or more specific persons should be charged with the commission of such crimes.

2. As far as possible, a referral shall specify the relevant circumstances and be accompanied by such supporting documentation as is available to the State referring the situation.

The statute defines crimes against humanity as: “acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.”

Article 7 lists several acts which constitute crimes against humanity, but the acts that are relevant to the 2002-2006 crime spree are: murder, torture and enforced disappearance of persons.

·         The ICC has jurisdiction in Guyana if murder was:

  "Attack directed against any civilian population" means a course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts referred to in paragraph 1 against any civilian population, pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy to commit such attack."

·         Jurisdiction in torture:

"Torture" means the intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, upon a person in the custody or under the control of the accused; except that torture shall not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to, lawful sanctions."

·         Jurisdiction in enforced disappearance of persons:

"Enforced disappearance of persons" means the arrest, detention or abduction of persons by, or with the authorization, support or acquiescence of, a State or a political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give information on the fate or whereabouts of those persons, with the intention of moving them from the protection of the law for a prolonged period of time."

Former Minister of Health Dr. Leslie Ramsammy. Allegedly organized importation of spy equipment for phantom squad.

As a member of the ICC, Guyana can start by asking the international judicial body to interview Sean Hinds who may provide it with information to widen the investigative net and let the chips fall where they may. While Sean Hinds’ allegations have not been proven in a court of law, here is a transcript of his confession to Guyanese journalist Travis Chase in a television interview:

“Years ago they said I was in some killing squad. I can’t deny that. I would not sit here and deny that. If I wasn't a part of the killing squad, the country (Guyana) would not have had law and order, because they had Dale Moore, Sean Brown and Chip Teeth (criminals)…there was a phantom squad and there was a death squad. I was part of the death squad…we used to go after these people; not us alone, the police were included…the police force was a part of it”

“We used to get guns from the police. I used to go and uplift a machine gun from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters…so this thing was not a one-sided affair...so don’t feel that I was operating on my own, or Axel Williams (Hinds’ boss) was operating on his own…we were guided and were in communication with senior people from CID headquarters.”

“All my orders came from CID headquarters and there is evidence to this day. I have evidence with me and people communicating, saying what needed to be done…and how it needed to be done…the kind of gun that needed to be used…what must not be done and how we must do it…and don’t do this one like this; don’t leave him in the streets and that kind of thing….but when the sh*t hit the fan, I alone got charged (for murder)”

Sean Hinds’ involvement in the death squads was first revealed by death squad informant George Bacchus years ago. George eventually became the target of the same death squad to which he provided the names of Guyanese men who would later turn up murdered in a hail of bullets or by a single bullet to the head. Bacchus claimed that the then Minister of Home Affairs, Ronald Gajraj's home,  served as a command centre for the death squad and that guns were issued from the minister’s home office.

 Dead squad informant George Bacchus

In a twist of faith, Bacchus’ brother was gunned down while standing in front of their Georgetown home by a car load of gunmen who really meant to kill the informant Bacchus instead. However, persistent to eliminate George Bacchus, who was spilling the beans, they successfully arranged to have him shot dead in his home.

Before George Bacchus died, he left the following two affidavits”

See the link below:

http://www.guyanapnc.org/MediaCentre/PressRelease/GEORGE%20BACCHUS.html

No Guyana-Venezuela Territorial Dispute Exists

Venezuela has been covertly entrapping Guyanese at home and abroad to use phrases like, “Guyana-Venezuela border dispute” and “Guyana-Venezuela territorial dispute”. Let me set the record straight. Any territorial dispute that Guyana had with Venezuela was settled, once and for all, in 1899, in favour of Guyana, by a United Nations arbitration tribunal.

President Nicolas Maduro

More than 100 years ago, Venezuela willingly agreed to take that dispute before the arbitration tribunal and had no issue with the outcome, until decades later, contrary to international law. There exists, however, a border controversy created by Venezuela for economic dominance in the region.
Venezuelan government ministers have been traversing Latin America beating the drum of international law by demanding that Guyana cease all oil exploration in the "disputed” Essequibo region and adhere to the Geneva Agreement of 1966. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez, was even quoted in Caracas publication El Universal as saying, “there is no historic or political doubt regarding the legitimate rights of Venezuela over the Essequibo”. 
Venezuela is the country that has been violating international law by failing to recognise the 1899 UN arbitration tribunal award declaring Essequibo Guyana's territory. In fact, the Venezuelans have injected the term dispute into the dialogue and many Guyanese are using the term loosely without even realising the connotation. The same 1966 Geneva Agreement entered into by the British, Venezuela and British Guiana, in the run-up to independence in 1966, never uses the word dispute. Dispute is an illusionary and deceptive term. The Geneva Agreement uses the term controversy throughout the text, implying that the dispute had already been settled in 1899, as seen below:

VENEZUELA

and UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN

AND NORTHERN IRELAND

Agreement to resolve the controversy over the frontier between Venezuela and British Guiana. Signed at Geneva, on 17 February 1966

“The Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in consultation with the Government of British Guiana, and the Government of Venezuela; Taking into account the forthcoming independence of British Guiana; Recognising that closer cooperation between British Guiana and Venezuela could bring benefit to both countries; Convinced that any outstanding controversy between the United Kingdom and British Guiana on the one hand and Venezuela on the other would prejudice the furtherance of such cooperation and should therefore be amicably resolved in a manner acceptable to both parties; In conformity with the agenda that was agreed for the governmental conversations concerning the controversy between Venezuela and the United Kingdom over the frontier with British Guiana, in accordance with the joint communique of 7 November, 1963, have reached the following agreement to resolve the present controversy :

Article I

A Mixed Commission shall be established with the task of seeking satisfactory solutions for the practical settlement of the controversy between Venezuela and the United Kingdom which has arisen as the result of the Venezuelan contention that the Arbitral Award of 1899 about the frontier between British Guiana and Venezuela is null and void.” 

(https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/.../volume-561-I-8192-English.pdf)

The Essequibo River

I feel strongly that the United Nations Good Offices Process, set-up to facilitate dialogue on the territorial controversy, was and is a waste of time, makes Guyana look weak and could ultimately undermine Guyana’s sovereignty over Essequibo. President David Granger and Foreign Minister Carl Greenidge took the right decision when they announced that Guyana was no longer interested in the UN Good Offices mechanism and the only option was to have the issue pronounced on judicially, at the international level.
Guyana’s position on ending this controversy judicially is absolutely necessary based on the fact that the Venezuelans seem to be operating without reason or rationale with President Nicholas Maduro stating publicly that President Granger was not really running Guyana. Maduro suggested that Granger was receiving directives from certain Western powers who were the real architects of what he called "provocation against Venezuela".

Venezuela has broken international law by ordering its military to operate in Guyana’s waters if necessary to protect that country’s co-called territorial integrity. With Exxon Mobil exploring for oil in the Atlantic Ocean off-shore Guyana, the next time Venezuela enters into Guyana’s waters, the Government of Guyana must mobilize the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom to bring strong sanctions against the Spanish-speaking nation.

Article 2.4 of the United Nations Charter specifically states:

“All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”

This is the same President Maduro who is accusing President Granger of provocation while breaking international law himself. Maduro is on the brink of political suicide. It is just a matter of time that his political strategy of bullying smaller neighbouring nations in the Caribbean who are too timid to speak out for fear of losing oil deals with Venezuela, will implode. Venezuela is facing an internal economic crisis with sky-rocketing inflation and lack of basic necessities on the shelves, so Maduro’s solution is to turn to land grabbing.

President of Guyana, Brigadier (Retired) David Granger.

In a rambling rant during a television interview last week with teleSUR, a desperate Maduro declared, “There is a brutal campaign against Venezuela of lies, funded by Exxon Mobil, a U.S.-based oil transnational linked to the gun lobby in Washington, which has great influence within the Pentagon. While Obama is the president of the United States, his empire's influence goes far beyond him. Exxon Mobil has funded TV, radio and press campaigns, as well as political factions in the Caribbean, specifically Guyana.”

A fired-up Maduro continued,“...President Granger, if you see this video, read the story of the signing of the Geneva Accord, the British Empire recognizes that the (Essequibo dispute) has not been resolved, with negotiations and definitions pending. That agreement was signed by the Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister, Ignacio Iribarren Borges, and the foreign minister for Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Michael Stewart, and Forbes Burnham, who was a leader in Guyana and prime minister of British Guiana,” 

The aforementioned statement by Maduro actually contradicts the spirit and intent of the Genera Accord. Maduro uses the word dispute when the actual document repeatedly talks of a controversy. It also merely states that Venezuela now does not accept the decision of the 1899 UN arbitration tribunal award of Essequibo in favour of Guyana, which Venezuela is bound to do in international law. It is for these reasons that I say again, there is no territorial or border dispute, but a controversy invented by Venezuela.

Venezuela unveils strategy to seize two-thirds of Guyana’s territory

Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro refuses to back down from his country’s dangerous mission to deny Guyana the right to exist as a sovereign state, by illegally claiming two-thirds of Guyana’s territory, and Atlantic sea, as its own. It matters not how the chips fall, but Maduro’s madness must be stopped by all means necessary.

Maduro and his long line of predecessors’ illegal claim,  although settled by adjudication in 1899 by a United Nations Tribunal, in favour of Guyana, would leave hundreds of thousands of Guyanese, stateless, homeless, dispossessed, displaced and trapped forever in a strange Spanish-speaking enclave, forever cut off from their family and friends, as has happened on the Korean peninsula.

President Nicholas Maduro

President Maduro is apparently now suffering a psychotic meltdown by accusing little Guyana of orchestrating a sophisticated covert international conspiracy with Western governments, to create political instability within Venezuela.

It is not surprising that President of Guyana David Granger and Charge d'Affaires of the United States Embassy in Guyana, Bryan Hunt, both moved swiftly to dismiss President Maduro’s outrageous claims that the two countries were colluding to destabilize Venezuela.

All Guyanese in the diaspora must add their voice to the condemnation of Venezuela by reviving the ‘Not a Blade of Grass’ campaign. In my opinion, instead of worrying about a 2 am. drinking curfew, people should spend more time worrying about an annexation of Essequibo and its Atlantic waters. Those who disagree with this view should begin learning Spanish from now.

Breaking news out of Caracas over the weekend, indicates that Venezuela’s annexation of Essequibo, an area of about 150,000 square kilometers, is imminent in the light of Guyana’s recent discovery of significant oil deposits by ExxonMobil off-shore its Atlantic Coast. This find resulted in President Maduro issuing two decrees giving his military authority to operate in Guyana’s waters.

On Friday, Venezuela’s dangerous war games with Guyana came to a head with Caracas-based media outfit, El Universal quoting Retired colonel Pompeyo Torrealba Rivero, Advisor to President Nicholas Nicolás Maduro on Essequibo, as saying the government of Venezuela proposes to:

1. Issue identity cards to the 200,000 estimated inhabitants of the Essequibo
2. Launch a diplomatic strategy to recover the territory of the Essequibo.
3. Teach the matter of the Essequibo as a subject in universities and elementary and high schools.
4. Initiate an awareness campaign to make the population of Guyana understand that the territory belongs to Venezuela.
5. Set up a presidential or diplomatic initiative addressing the matter of the Essequibo.
6. Contact the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, to urge him to advocate Venezuela's right over the territory of the Essequibo.

President David Granger

Maduro seems bent on committing criminal economic sabotage against Guyana by threatening and actually using military force against foreign investors in Guyana’s Essequibo region. Two cases in point are President Maduro’s October 2013 military eviction of U.S. seismic oil exploration vessel, RV Teknik Perdana, from Guyana’s territorial waters and the proposed Dallas-based Beal Aerospace rocket launch site in Essequibo. After intense pressure from Venezuela, Beal cancelled the US$100M investment in 2000.

Despite diplomatic rhetoric and assurances to Guyana, Maduro has long lost his credibility as evidenced by his actions which counter everything that comes out of his mouth regarding his baseless territorial claim to two-thirds of Guyana, and now a huge chunk of its territorial sea, land-locking the English-Speaking nation of 750,000 people.

In fact, Venezuela has ramped up its aggression against Guyana by recalling its ambassador to Georgetown; refusing to renew a rice-for-oil deal with Guyana, thus undermining the critical rice industry; reducing the personnel at the Venezuelan embassy in Georgetown to a mere skeleton staff; directing its foreign minister to review all diplomatic relations with Guyana; and giving its military generals authority to conduct military exercises and manoeuvres in Guyana's territorial waters.

Venezuela is claiming the red part of the map of Guyana.

The road ahead will not be easy as Venezuela will use all the diplomatic and other resources available to it to take the Essequibo region, but Guyana must also continue to build a fortified global alliance not only by diplomatic rhetoric by friendly countries, but by signing official communiques of support.

Guyana currently enjoys the support of CARICOM, the Commonwealth group of nations and the United Kingdom. The United States has said that it is interested in a peaceful resolution and supports Guyana’s desire to have the border controversy settled judicially at the international level once and for all.

                                           

Drug Lords Are Single Most Threat to Guyana’s Security After Venezuela

During the past week, the Government of Guyana has spent an unprecedented amount of time responding to the elevated level of aggression by Venezuela, which is now armed with a new decree to illegally annex a sizable part of Guyana’s oil-rich territorial sea.

The threat to Guyana’s sovereign territory posed by Venezuela has seen the President of Guyana, David Granger, taking his country’s protests to the CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting in Barbados – the highest political forum in the English-speaking Caribbean. As a graduate of international relations, I can state categorically that the number one role of a government is to protect its country’s territorial integrity.

With that said, the second most important role of a government is to maintain internal security, which, in the case of Guyana, is under threat with the high level of crime, mainly because drug lords have flooded the streets with a mind-boggling number of illegal guns smuggled from overseas.

Quoting verbatim from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security’s ‘Guyana 2014 Crime and Safety Report’:

“Drug trafficking organizations are prevalent and pose the biggest challenge to law enforcement in Georgetown. Airport security and customs officials frequently detain and arrest individuals attempting to smuggle drugs to the United States or other destinations. Apprehensions of drug "mules," often U.S. citizens perceived to be able to travel easily with their U.S. passport, have increased this past year... The most recent information from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime lists Guyana’s 2010 homicide rate as 18.4 per 100,000 people -- the fourth highest murder rate in South America behind Venezuela, Colombia, and Brazil. Guyana’s murder rate is three times higher than the United States... Defendants linked to drug organization often use attorneys, who are effective in getting cases dismissed or postponed until they seem no longer active. As a result, criminals go free on a regular basis.”

                                 
                                 This illegal submarine recently was found in Guyana.

While crime in Guyana is nothing new, over the last two decades it has changed in character with guns being the first choice of criminals. Many Guyanese can remember the days of 'choke and rob' when bandits would give you two slaps and two kicks, rob you at knife point and be on their way. 

Although Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, recently announced his intention to implement an amnesty for illegal guns, he needs to also urgently and aggressively attack this scourge at its source – the Guyanese drug lords who import the guns.

Guyana’s vulnerability to be swamped with illegal guns on the streets is extremely high because of the country's status as a preferred transshipment point for cocaine and other illegal drugs from Colombia. South America’s porous borders, its web of rivers and creeks, and the challenges security forces face patrolling the harsh rain forest, allow drug cartels to transport cocaine across the continent virtually undetected.

Cocaine in lumber for transshipment.

There are a number of reasons why there is a direct link between the transshipment of drugs and a rise in the number of illegal guns. Guyanese drug lords who successfully facilitate the shipment of South American cocaine to Canada, the United States and Europe, receive payment in cash, cocaine and guns. It is easy to bank or invest the cash or to ship the cocaine they receive in fish, logs, shrimp or in suitcases through the international airport, but there is only one way to convert the guns to cash and that is to sell them in the streets of Guyana. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that the average street criminal in Guyana does not have the means to smuggle guns and ammunition into the country. Gun smuggling is organized crime, which is directly linked to drug trafficking.

There have been instances of drugs entering Guyana in the bumpers of vehicles shipped from Miami, in shipping barrels, and smuggled across the borders from Venezuela, Brazil and Suriname. One thing I am certain of is that where there are drugs, there are guns; it’s like smoke and fire. 

One of the illegal guns and ammunition.

This point in Guyana’s history is an opportune time to cleanse the country of known drug lords who have over the past decades been operating openly and flaunting wealth which goes unquestioned by the Guyana Revenue Authority.  Chargé d' Affaires of the United States Embassy in Guyana, Bryan Hunt, has signaled his government’s intention to work with the recently elected APNU+AFC coalition government on a number or areas including drug trafficking.

For too long the judicial system in Guyana has acted as the refuge of well-known drug lords by stalling deportation proceedings on outdated legal grounds. The laws need to be changed immediately to allow for speedy extraditions of drug lords. The Minister of Public Security should only have power to appeal a decision of the court, but not power to block an extradition once the courts have decided that there is sufficient evidence for an extradition. The point here is, let the courts decide.

While the U.S. and Guyana are said to be working on several key amendments to their extradition agreement, perhaps of equal importance is for the Government of Guyana, through an Act of Parliament, to grant the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) powers to independently intercept drug shipments on Guyana soil and make arrests of drug lords only in cases where extradition is warranted.

This proposal might come in for some criticism, so any drug lord arrested should be handed over to Guyanese authorities within 12 hours because the government still has an obligation to protect all its citizens at home and abroad. Allowing the DEA to arrest drug lords on Guyana soil would put a huge dent in the drug trade and thus reduce the number of illegal guns on the streets.