Kaieteur News

Monday Edition

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April 22, 2013 - Vol. 5 No. 16

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Online: www.kaieteurnews.com Guyana’s largest selling daily & New York’s most popular weekly

Learning Channel controversial contract…

Jagdeo is guilty of insider trading to enrich friends - APNU Parliament will revisit Three shot the broadcast - APNU’s in separate legislation Joe Harmon incidents

Eyewitness identifies men who beat Cuyuni miner to death - but cops release suspects Even though the police have warned against persons travelling in the tray of motor vehicles, some motorists and their passengers continue to pay scant regard to the dangerous practice.

GDF Medic drowns in E’bo River Turks and Caicos Ex-Premier, Ministers to stand trial for corruption and money laundering

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Kaieteur News

Monday April 22, 2013

Monday April 22, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Opposition leader’s budgetary allocations “wholly inadequate” - Granger

By Abena Rockcliffe This year’s budgetary allocation of $14.8M for the Office of the Opposition Leader is being dubbed “wholly inadequate” by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Leader, David Granger.

Granger noted that it’s just not enough to do the things needed to be done.

APNU, which occupies the majority of seats on the Opposition’s side in the National Assembly had, since early last year, disclosed that it is not accessing sufficient funding from the government to carry out its mandate as stipulated by the constitution.

In addition, many members of the party had voiced that the government is intentionally seeking to stifle the office.

Granger made no qualms to express that exact concern in the National Assembly last week, when it passed an $8.1M allocation for his office to carry out its functions.

A further $6.7M was granted to the office to procure furniture and office supplies.

During the sitting, Granger told the House that around the same time of the 2011 elections, the furniture that had been stored in Parliament Office, to be given to his office, had been disposed of; therefore, when he assumed office there was no furniture available. He lamented that his office has since been operating without furniture.

APNU Member of Parliament Joe Harmon told the House that the removal of furniture was an order taken by the Parliament

O ff i c e f r o m H e a d o f Presidential Secretariat, Roger Luncheon. But Presidential Advisor, Gail Teixeira argued that the instruction was one from the then Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran.

However, when c o n t a c t e d y e s t e r d a y, Granger noted that irrespective of whoever gave the instruction, the fact remains that his office has been struggling with the shortage of furniture, amongst other things.

The Opposition Leader said that the $6M allocated for furniture— that should have been there from the inception— is not being deemed a luxury by his party.

“So basically, we have been granted $8.1M to carry out the functions of a shadow cabinet, an amount which is way less than that allocated

West R/veldt fears disease outbreak from poor drainage systems A resident removing water from the clogged drain

Try to imagine walking daily in and out of a house that is surrounded by water polluted by the bacteria of the neighbouring trenches and the solids of a septic tank.

Such is the situation of approximately 800 residents of the West Ruimveldt Community.

A section of the community is surrounded by drains filled with stagnant water that overflows into the front and back yards of many houses.

Yesterday, inhabitants of the Hibiscus and Cactus Street West Ruimveldt area told this newspaper about the unhealthy surroundings which are products of the poor drainage systems.

They claimed that for the past 14 years, this issue has been brought to the attention

of the Mayor and City Council, but there has been nothing but “unfulfilled promises”, which they are utterly disgusted with.

Charles DeJonge, a resident of the area for over 20 years, told Kaieteur News, “For about 14 years now, the area is always flooding. The water in the trench remains stagnant and in order to remove it, we have to take buckets and dip the nasty water out of the trench so that the water does not end up in our house and covering the bridges completely. But even that doesn’t work. Whether rain fall or not, we got to deal with the flooding and the swampy areas around our homes that is a mixture of septic tank water and gutter water.”

DeJonge’s neighbours

also related that “the nasty water is very unhealthy for us. We are getting sick every other day. There is a young baby who is also being seriously affected by the c o n t a m i n a t e d w a t e r. ” Residents are pleading with the relevant authorities to make the necessary arrangements to remedy the issue that has plagued the community for close to 14 years.

They recommend that four culverts be built within the area and that the trench located directly opposite the Demerara Ice Factory be cleaned immediately. It is their strong belief that the clogged trench is one of the primary causes of their present health issues as well as the major contributing factor to the polluted water that pervades their space.

- maintains that the govt. is trying to stifle the shadow cabinet for the Office of the First Lady.” Granger said that even with the consideration of the $6.7M, the amount is “wholly inadequate.”

He noted that the party had petitioned for vehicles, and requested funding to facilitate a hiring of more staff members, none of which was granted.

According to Granger, it is unfortunate that the Opposition cannot raise the amount presented in the budget; only reduce it.

Granger, yesterday again sought to explain how long his office has been operating under these constraints.

He said that the government still owes 50 per cent of the rent for the building in which the Opposition Leader’s office is housed for the entire of last year. This Granger said is because even though the government has been furnished with the lease

agreement, only half of the monthly rental fee is being paid out of the Treasury.

In a previous interview, Granger explained that the government took the stance that it is only paying half of the rental for the building based on an agreement signed 10 years ago. The government is seemly not willing to renew that agreement.

He said back then, even office items that were part of the agreement have not been fully provided. “We were given a small amount of necessary office supplies,” Granger declared.

He said that his office forms the shadow Cabinet and is in receipt of several complaints from citizens all across Guyana. “It is becoming harder to meet the needs of citizens with the limited resources,” Granger stated.

An Act of Parliament

provides for an office of the Leader of the Opposition to be funded through the national coffers.

The Act mandates the government to provide a “rent free office” for the Opposition Leader, and security for both the provided office and the home of the Opposition Leader. Granger said that his team is committed to serving the people of Guyana and can’t do so effectively at the moment.

Some roles of the Opposition Leader include holding the executive accountable, preparing the opposition to become an ‘alternative government’; scrutinizing and ensuring that proposed legislations are in the best interest of the people, engaging the government as specified by the Constitution, in meaningful consultations on important appointments such as Chief Justice, and adequately representing in the National Assembly and generally, the interests and concerns of citizens.

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Kaieteur News

KAIETEUR NEWS Printed and Published by National Media & Publishing Company Ltd. 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown, Guyana.

Publisher: GLENN LALL Editor: ADAM HARRIS Tel: 225-8465, 225-8491 Fax: 225-8473, 226-8210

Editorial

New Bridge Financing In a letter to the press, one of Guyana’s most experienced civil engineers questioned the numbers proffered by the General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation for the construction of a new, concrete bridge being considered to replace the present floating structure.

The Manager suggested that the fixed cost might be US$225 million. Concerns were raised about the projected overall costs and tolls that would be collected.

But we have an additional concern: the proposed method of financing which the General Manager announced: either a loan from the Exim Bank of China or a Public-Private partnership.

The latter would presumably be the ‘Build, Own, Operate and Transfer’ (BOOT) model that was employed to construct the Berbice Bridge. During his budget presentation, the Minister of Finance mentioned that studies were presently underway, so presumably, the decision on financing has not yet been made.

The public has hopefully been sensitised to the most salient feature of the BOOT option through the wellventilated debates and protests over the toll structure on the Berbice Bridge: the need to pay off the private financier(s) within a fixed time frame, typically twenty years.

As we have discovered, this arrangement is covered by a contract which can only be breached at the country’s peril, since the repercussions in the international financing community would be very negative. Prospects for attracting other types of Direct Foreign Investment would be in peril.

But in the last two decades, this type of financing for infrastructural projects has been steadily growing. In the past, practically all of such projects which included bridges, roads and water supply, were financed by national governments.

The loans were supplied by the World Bank or one of the other regional development banks that had been established specifically for this purpose. “Development” in the third world after WWII, in fact, had been established as the installation of such infrastructure which would then act as an enabling environment to attract foreign direct investment.

Recently, private capital funds have grown immensely in the developed countries, and with the liberalisation (read ‘removal’) of financial controls in the third world and other developing countries, this capital has sought new avenues to invest in - and of course make large profits. With the World Bank scaling back its funding for infrastructure, this has provided a new vent for private capital.

The World Bank’s move is not mere happenstance. In the first five years of this decade more than US$500 billion have been directed into infrastructure from private funds.

This has even dwarfed the funds being loaned by China, which itself has surpassed the World Bank in infrastructural financing.

The choice facing Guyana in financing the new Demerara Harbour Bridge is one that most other developing nations are facing, but it is somewhat a case of being between the devil and the deep blue sea.

With the BOOT option, even though the traffic across the present Demerara Harbour Bridge is eleven times that of that across the Berbice Bridge and the suggested building costs for the new bridge is six times the latter’s cost, the new tolls will have to be raised by a factor of at least 20 to 30 times the present rates. We will therefore be placing similar pressures on the people of West Demerara and Essequibo as those being borne by Berbicians. This will not do.

It might appear then, that the loan from China might be the automatic way to go: the rates are reasonable and the funds are available from the US$3.5 trillion that they have sloshing around in their reserves.

But there are two downside risks that this presents.

Firstly, if they provide the loan they will insist on building the bridge and we have the bitter experience with the Skeldon Sugar Factory of their shoddy workmanship that the rest of the third world, especially Africa, know to their cost.

The second dilemma is their propensity to connive with domestic authorities to siphon off large chunks of the loans into the latter’s pockets.

Monday April 22, 2013

Letters... Where your views make the news

The regime should stop undermining the Public service DEAR EDITOR, The Home Affairs Minister for now, Mr. Clement Rohee reportedly said “an air of uncertainty currently looms over the Home Affairs Ministry and believes workers’ job security is in limbo” as quoted on the biased PPP media NCN, due to the proposed budget cuts by the opposition, mainly the AFC. The majority opposition rationalized the 2012 Budget by some G$20 billion and not one job was lost.

So what is all this hysteria and paranoia about? There goes the PPP propaganda machine again of untruths and distortions headed by the “no confidence” minister.

Does this minister not realize that he has no credibility or integrity left in his person to even speak publicly much less to support Jagdeo’s statement at the Pandit’s funeral? Does he not realize that the people including their own supporters are tired of their lies?

Does this minister not realize that some of his colleagues believe that he is an embarrassment to the government and the party and that he should bow out of office?

The AFC has said that it has lost confidence in the office holder who leads the Ministry of Home Affairs and as a result of this loss of confidence it is expected that they will interrogate the spending of that Ministry the most.

During this interrogation of the numbers, we were advised by the interrogators that they found the Minister took the liberty of increasing the number of

contract workers from 115 persons to 168 persons despite a serious warning from the opposition a year ago not to do so. Does he not realize that the majority opposition would not be bullied by the minority PPP regime? Maybe, if the minister does the honorable thing and resign, the impending budget cuts will be suspended.

Well this Minister really got some brass to ignore the majority in Parliament especially when he is in an untenable situation where he is a “persona non grata” in the books of the majority of the Parliament. Further, the majority in Parliament could not have been clearer during the 2012 debates to indicate their position on the discrimination against public servants in favor of contract workers, many of whom are unqualified and inexperienced PPP stooges.

The regime should cease its hypocritical practice of undermining the Civil/ Public Service.

Thus recognizing these clear and justifiable positions, any increase in the number of contract workers was deemed unacceptable by the opposition but Mr. Rohee has ignored the opposition because he felt that it was within his power to hire 53 additional contract workers in 2013 and not expect a patient majority opposition to react.

His lack of respect for the majority in Parliament and his poor track record clearly shows that he is unfit to remain as a minister.

So all these crocodile

tears from the Minister today are a clear indication that his comprehension of the English Language is a challenge, or too poor to understand what NO MORE CONTRACT WORKERS means. The people want a professional public service with more public servants and with the full security of tenure and not unqualified PPP cronies.

If the minister can check the recommendations for rationalization; it is pellucid – only the Secretariat of the Minister was rationalized; not personnel from the Police

Force, not from the Fire Service, not from the Prison or for that matter; not any other personnel within the Ministry of Home Affairs.

It is time President Ramotar appoint a competent Minister of Home Affairs and bring a halt to the expansion of the army of unqualified Contract Workers and rebuild and professionalize the PUBLIC SERVICE. It is our hope that good sense will prevail or is this the season where the minority bullies the majority?

Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish S. Singh

I am undaunted by these attacks DEAR EDITOR, Two things happened to me over the past week. On Sunday morning I was awakened at 6:30am by a phone call. It was a close relative of mine. We arranged to meet immediately since he had some disturbing news for me and he could not reach my home at the time.

When we met he bluntly told me to watch my back. He related how he was asked to warn me because someone had threatened to harm me over the letters I pen to the media. He said this threat came as a direct result of the two pieces I did on the police brutality at Marudi.

The other incident concerns the house I am presently renting. My landlord was accosted by a businessman and was rudely asked why did he decide to rent me the house. The

landlord rightfully replied that it was none of his business.

Mr. Editor, these two incidents must not be taken as isolated incidents.

Throughout the years I had claimed that there was a centrally orchestrated plan to ruin me. The architects of that plan have succeeded somewhat. They have made me virtually penniless. All I am left with is my pride, my intellect and my life; and I will defend those ruthlessly.

I am undaunted by these attacks, though, because I am satisfied that my writings are making the impact that they have been intended to make, and the detractors cannot handle that. They cannot handle the truth.

Hence the old adage that the pen is mightier than the sword holds true.

Carl Parker Regional Councillor

Monday April 22, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Letters... Where your views make the news... Letters... Where your views make the news Let not the Sexual Offences Act be another Building the new Demerara piece of paper sitting on the shelf DEAR EDITOR, I was totally appalled and disgusted when I opened the Kaieteur Newspaper dated Thursday 11th April 2013 and turned to page two, which states “ Mother of 14-yearold rape victim speaks out”, about how her daughter was raped by a 35-year-old man on Phagwah Day. I am very upset that the doctor allegedly told this mother not to report the matter. It is so sad that we have a Sexual Offences Act which was passed in 2010 and is not yet implemented.

What is the use of the Law when there is no justice? It is our duty to protect children and yet we are doing the opposite. Under the Sexual Offences Act

2010 Section 20 (1) (a) it is an offence to prevent a child from giving a statement to the police.

We are calling on the authorities to implement the Sexual Offences Act so that justice c a n b e g i v e n t o persons who are being raped.

In a separate incident reported in the Saturday 13 April 2013 edition of Kaieteur News, an 89-year-old woman was brutally raped and murdered at Cove and John Village, East Coast Demerara.

To date, although the police have arrested several persons, nobody has been charged.

In closing, I would like to say that the police need to do a proper job of

investigating, taking into account all of the evidence at the crime scene and not waiting a lengthy time (as was reported by the DPP in the Sunday edition of Stabroek News dated March 31 2013) before sending the files to the Director Of Public Prosecutions so that the persons committing these acts could be placed before the courts and their victims get justice for the crimes committed against them.

I have gone to court with many survivors of rape and witnessed how the police dealt with matters and it is disgusting to see how long you have to wait to get justice for these persons.

Vanessa Ross Red Thread

Guyana has come a long way in terms of race relations DEAR EDITOR, Guyana has come a long way in terms of race relations.

Many sociologists have attempted to analyse the issue of race and ethnicity and how it has impacted on Guyana’s development.

There is broad consensus that Guyana is a plural society where the various races and ethnicities co-exist peacefully and where there is a high level of tolerance and appreciation for diversity.

There are those who because of the nature of our ethnic make-up see our society as ethnically polarized with the two major

race groups East Indians and Africans in perpetual competition for political and economic space.

This competition is manifested in several ways such as the desire to ensure that their children and offspring get a better shot at educational opportunities and hence more become competitive in the job market. More fundamentally, it is seen in voting preferences which favour one or the other of the two major politically parties.

Regardless of how we may wish to look at it, the fact

remains that we all inherited a demographic structure over which we had no control. Except for our Amerindian population, all the other ethnic groups were imported into the then colony of British Guyana mainly to provide cheap labour for the sugar planters.

In this regard we were a “transplanted colony” whose main reason for being was to create wealth for the “sugar gods” who enjoyed the good life at the expense of the blood, sweat and tears of our ancestors.

Hydar Ally

Bridge would not be a profitable investment for any developer

DEAR EDITOR, I refer to the Government’s proposal to build a two-lane, each-way bridge across the Demerara River using reinforced concrete and to comment as follows: First of all, this structure cannot be built in reinforced concrete on account of the spans required.

The central span which has to be 50 metres above high water and the span 100 metres to enable ships to pass under would have to be a steel truss arch design or pre-stress beams.

In addition, the soil bearing the structure would be unable to support the loadings emanating from the loadings on the bridge. On the coastlands you have to deal with soft clays and mud.

There is a layer of stronger clay known as coropina clay below the soft material but its strength would not be suitable to support the bridge loadings.

These types of bridges are normally supported on rock foundation.

The estimated cost to build the bridge in the region of $250-300MUS proposed

by Mr. Adams G.M.of the Harbour Bridge is also ridiculously low for the 2.25 Km Bridge.

Let’s assume a developer is interested in building the bridge on a BOT system for an assumed 300MUS. Using a figure of 2000 cars a day crossing the bridge and paying a one way toll to cross the river it will cost the developer over a period of 4 years $330M to build the bridge using a figure of 7% interest rate.

Using a capitol recovery factor he will need an annual cost of revenue of $28.32US a year over a period of 25 years. Total annual cost including operation and maintenance works out to be $31.32 MUS per year.

From the calculations

above vehicles crossing the bridge one way would have to pay a cost of $43US per day, i.e. $8600.00 G a day- a ridiculous cost indeed for the poor traveling public in Guyana to bear. People will resort to use the small boats to cross the river.

Guyana is a poor country with a small population where 90% of the people live on the low-lying coastlands and it would have been far cheaper for consumers and cars to traverse the river using the ferries as were the case during colonial times.

I feel Mr. Adams manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge should have done his homework calculating costs etc before venturing to ask Developers to build the bridge on a BOT System.

M. Alli

A mini health check is the first step to donating blood

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Kaieteur News

Monday April 22, 2013

Youths For Guyana volunteers continue to impress The Youths for Guyana (YFG) Volunteer Group continues to impress with its various initiatives that are making a positive impact on the local environment.

“Instead of standing up and saying ‘We want change’ as opposed to going, we go out and do it ourselves,” reported Shawneé Thompson, Public Relations Officer of the youth based organization when asked to elaborate on the merits of the organisation.

The YFG, a voluntary organisation, funded mainly by private citizens and overseas based Guyanese, consists of and is completely run by young people who want to see a change in Guyana.

Members assembled in the National Library’s Conference room, yesterday, in which the Habitat for Humanity Guyana hosted a Volunteer Orientation session aimed at encouraging youths to volunteer in order to help develop communities.

As opposed to the usual Saturday night syndrome where young adults ‘party til the morning’ and sleep-in on Sunday mornings, these spirited youths have a somewhat different agenda for Sunday mornings, where they host a cleanup campaign

called ‘a block a week’. The ‘block a week’ clean up is one of the biggest projects currently on-going.

According to the YFG President, Orin Phillips, this cleanup campaign started in February last and it aims to improve the physical appearance of communities in and around Georgetown.

Attired in long boots, gloves and protective masks and armed with spades, forks and rakes, these valiant volunteers venture out into the streets, clearing overgrown bushes in drains; removing the waste that clogs such drains and clearing the roadways of scattered garbage. So far, four communities, mainly in the Lodge area have benefited from this “keep Guyana beautiful” initiative.

Although the ‘Block a week’ cleanup campaign is the leading activity that is currently undertaken by the group, it is definitely not the only initiative recognized.

Since its establishment, the volunteer group has beautified the Georgetown Seawalls, clearing the area of garbage from Camp Street to the Pegasus Hotel; hosted a two week summer camp at the YFG headquarters on Bent Street, Georgetown, which

Members of the YFG cleaning the drains in the Lodge area.

attracted some 87 youths of ages between four and 18 years old; fed several homeless people within the vicinity of Georgetown and started a 1000 book drive for the purpose of donating the literature to various orphanages and youth organisations. They have

already acquired more than 150 books in this regard.

Apart from these, YFG members intend to accumulate a number of ‘slow down’ signs to be mounted in various school zones and to institute a variety of

projects by the end of this year, all for the purpose of “making a positive change in society and to give back to the community”. These include a literacy programme which is intended to run from September 2013 to July 2014

and their second annual summer camp in August.

Members of the YFG volunteer group have so far sought many methods to publicize their projects in an effort to expand and have a wider volunteer base.

Take politics out of the banking system - GWMO

The perception being fuelled by some Government Officials that miners could easily access financing from local banks is being rejected by the Guyana Women Miners’ Organization (GWMO).

According to Simona Broomes, President of GWMO during a community meeting at Port Kaituma on Friday last, miners face the same dilemma that others face when approaching local banks for loans.

She stressed that the politics should be removed from the banking system since it is not an easy task for small and medium scales miners to access loans.

Broomes believes that miners, according to the type of their operations, should be granted duty-free concessions. These duty-free concessions could assist miners to cut production cost, reinvest in their operations and live a reasonably comfortable life.

She emphasized that while it is the miner who toils in the ‘gold bush’, enduring the harsh conditions, risking his or her life, persons like the goldsmiths are benefiting from tax exemption. She questioned the logic behind this rationale.

“We are working the gold, getting the malaria. We women cannot work without

- miners complain of unfair concession allocation the men. Our men work like McGyver slinging on trucks to go and work in the bush bottom,” Broomes said.

According to Broomes, miners deserve better than what Government is offering, especially since billions of dollars is being earned by this industry.

During the meeting, miners described what they claim to be unfair allocation of mining concessions to one particular person. They want Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) and Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Robert Persaud to revisit this situation.

According to a female miner, Stephanie Miguel, she is puzzled as to how GGMC could award one person mining concessions at Big Creek and Five Star. She claims that GGMC wants miners to remove from the area claiming that they belong to an individual.

Miguel said that miners from the area should have been the ones with first preference for the mining concessions since mining is the main economic activity in the district.

Commenting on another

troubling issue, Miguel said that social workers need to have a physical presence in the Baramita area where underage smoking, drinking and sexual exploitation are occurring.

The woman related that during a recent visit to the area, she was saddened to see a pre-teen girl in a drunken state. She said that the community is in an immoral state and help is needed to sensitize residents of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, alcohol addiction, legal age of consent and dangers of smoking.

Highlighting a new form of exploitation of miners, Broomes said that large companies selling machinery are requesting miners to finance their staff visits in the interior to repair machines even in the warranty period.

She related that recently a miner complained that he was forced to pay for the flight and accommodation of a staff of a large retailer of heavy-duty machinery just to repair his damaged machine.

The man had no other option but to finance the trip because he needed his equipment repaired.

Monday April 22, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Kaieteur News

Monday April 22, 2013

President Donald Ramotar seems ready to root out corruption

By Ralph Seeram “We have to deal with it (bribery) from both ends. We must make this (bribery) intolerable. We must make the morality of our society strong enough for anyone to resist giving a bribe and for an official to resist accepting a bribe”.

The quote comes from a speech made by the President while speaking at the opening of a Financial Crimes Stakeholders meeting, held earlier this week in Guyana.

Very strong words coming from the Guyanese President whose administration has

been accused of corruption, most of which he inherited.

The President was also quoted as saying, “Our actions are not only because we want to meet our international commitment and our international treaty obligations, but it’s also important for the moral life in our society.”

Some twenty months ago I spoke to the very Donald Ramotar who was then candidate for President, about corruption in Guyana. He did not hesitate to accept that there was a measure of corruption in Government but could not determine to what

level.

There is no question that since assuming the office of the Presidency, Mr. Ramotar has been making the government more open.

Contracts and other issues that were once kept secret by the Jagdeo administration have been disclosed by this President.

In fact, it’s the disclosures made by President Ramotar that opened up the PPP government to more charges of corruption, never the less this President has been trying to make his administration more open, unlike his predecessor. Truth be told, he has been taking the blame for most of the ills of the Jagdeo administration.

The Financial Crimes Stakeholders Meeting was sponsored by countries that are in reality the biggest market for illicit drugs.

Those countries, the United States, England, Canada and the European Union want to help Guyana to strengthen its money laundering laws.

Implementing and ENFORCING those laws are important for Guyana’s image on the international scene.

You don’t want to give

the impression that you are condoning drug traffickers.

Those advanced countries, the U.S, Canada, the British and the European Union with all their resources have failed miserably to control the flow of drugs into their countries, and try to shift the blame for their failure to control their society to poor countries like Guyana.

They have failed to give countries like Guyana the resources and “tools” to combat corruption and interdiction of drug trafficking.

President Ramotar’s speech has some irony in the sense that he was emphasizing that if there are no “bribers” there will be no “takers” hence no corruption.

The irony is if there is no market for the drugs in those western countries there will be no need for suppliers hence no money laundering laws, however we live in a real world and we know it’s not going to work that way.

To bring the conversation back to the local level, the President’s theory of “no bribers”, “no takers” will remain just a theory as well intentioned as it is.

The President singled out the business community where “the bribers are located”.

One must sympathize with the President when he says that he has to deal with corruption “from both sides”— those offering the bribe and those officials accepting the bribe.

What comes to my mind is that I have not read of a single case in Guyana where someone was charged for offering a bribe. Mr. Ramotar may have a point here; charge the person offering the bribe.

Problem is how you can prove that if the officials accept the bribe.

The solution is not as simple as that, the corruption seems institutionalized, from obtaining a birth certificate, a driver’s license, the traffic police on the street and as you work your way up to public servants, senior government officials up to cabinet ministers.

The business community is in the business of making money. If the businessmen refuse to pay a bribe, their competitor will be willing to pay. So here is the problem; the potential briber is in catch 22 situations. Don’t bribe and you lose the contract etc.

because the next person is going to pay to get the business.

The real problem is not the briber, but the taker; this is where the President must start.

Let me take it at the street level. Here in Florida, if a traffic policeman gives you a ticket, he gives you with a smile and all the courtesy telling you where to pay or challenge it.

A speeding ticket runs you about US$250. He will not ask you for a bribe and you dare not offer a bribe; you will be arrested immediately and looking at some jail time.

Compare that to when a traffic police officer stops a driver in Guyana. We all know the answer and that is just corruption at the street level.

So President Ramotar has a tough job to root out corruption. Where should he start? Like the Kaieteur Falls, at the top. Instill some “moral fiber” in his Cabinet and like the water falls it will flow down to the bottom.

Good luck Mr. Ramotar, remember no takers no bribers.

Ralph Seeram can be reached at: email ralph365@hotmail.com

Monday April 22, 2013

Kaieteur News

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STEP ASIDE CHEDDI; HERE COMES BHARRAT! The reaction to former President Jagdeo’s outburst at the funeral of Reepu Daman Persaud has been all too much. Do the comments, which speak to an upsurge in anti- Indian sentiments, really deserve the attention that they are receiving?

After all, this was just the opinion of someone who felt that the departed was not a bigoted individual and whose passing is taking place in the context of what he (Mr. Jagdeo) feels is an upsurge in anti-Indian sentiments.

You do not need to go to a funeral to hear those things.

(In fact you should not have to listen to such talk at funerals). Similar sentiments have been expressed on more than one occasion throughout our history at many types of social occasions.

Wikileaks earlier this month released a compilation of the Kissinger Cables.

Much of that material was already declassified and available publicly for public viewing for some time now.

But some of the new material released is quite interesting.

One of the newer cables dealt with the arrest of Eusi Kwayana, Brindley Benn and Thelma Reece in 1976 for publication of the Dayclean newspaper. In that cable it was

noted that at the commencement of his trial, Kwayana issued a statement condemning “the constitutional violence of the government against the people” and alleged that the PNC government practiced racial discrimination against East Indians.” No one said then anything about any incitement to racial animosity.

Throughout our history and from all sides there have been charges and counter charges about racial discrimination and about antiIndian and anti-African sentiments being stirred up.

Nothing really has changed when it comes to these charges and counter charges.

Mr. Jagdeo therefore is being taken too seriously. Mr. Jagdeo though a former President, does not hold any public office and was not speaking on behalf of his party.

In fact, initially, one party spokesperson indicated that the comments were those of a private individual and not that of the party. It was also stated that the party had not met and it was not known whether they would meet to discuss it or whether for that matter any discussion was warranted at all.

That should have been in the end of the matter. But it

now seems that the PPP has become a transformed institution which is now being placed at the defense of Mr. Jagdeo. The party has now, and quite ill-advisedly, issued a statement saying that it supports Jagdeo’s comments.

Now what a thing for the party to do!

Instead of allowing the matter to fade into the mist from which it came, the party has now rushed to the defense of its former President. It is not clear whether the party leadership met or whether the statement issued was the product of round-robin discussions.

By issuing such a statement, the party is now confirming what has long been suspected: that Mr. Jagdeo owns the PPP in the same way that the Jagans dominated it in the past.

Why else would the party have come out in support of the funeral comments, especially considering the fact that one of its principal leaders had described the statements as that of a private citizen?

If Mr. Jagdeo still has that influence on the party that would allow it to want to rush to his defense, the opposition in Guyana are wasting their time in trying to cut the Budget. They should be

Dem boys seh

Ah Kneel got to come wid a new excuse

People start fuh change dem opinion of Donald. Dem start fuh believe that he surround heself wid so much crookishness that he and all getting to look like a crook.

He hug up everything that dem give when he tun president and now he start fuh look like he just like dem people and things that dem give he.

Jagdeo lef he wid a radio licence problem that he coulda change but he tekking all de blows like if is he give way de radio licence. He didn’t got to do that and when de real pressure come is he name dem gun call, not Jagdeo.

He got to hear how GPL suh bad that people rather live in blackout than give extra money to de power company.

Is not that people ain’t getting blackout when dem in de midst of something important.

Jagdeo build two new power station and Brazzy join wid Sam and announce how blackout is a thing of de past.

Dem lie.

Corbin was de man who had more blackout and he didn’t pretend that things good. He use to print blackout schedule suh people coulda

expect dem sixteen hours a day. He never try fuh defend de blackout.

Now Ah Kneel seh that people got to pay higher bill.

He got to do de same unless de people got to pay he bill.

Dem got to pay Donald own and Jagdeo own suh he got to find another excuse. De people done expect that.

That is why people want know why Donald trying fuh defend de radio licence when is not he fault. He woulda never share out dem things fuh free. And since dem people in parliament cut de budget he can still tek back de licence and sell dem. Then he can mek more money than dem cut from de budget.

But dem boys seh that he

like wha happening. Imagine de new radio dem got people changing wha dem use to get accustom to.

Dem careful not to seh certain things because Jagdeo claim that Guyana got anti-Indian sentiments.

Hoyte and Burnham never tell de nation that dem had anti-black sentiments.

But while he talking bout anti-Indian sentiments Uncle Adam already twisting up he hand and foot, Michael Jordan wining he neck and Dale Andrews trying fuh wine like Avinash Balgobin.

De radio thing wukking already.

Talk half and watch out fuh de whole country dancing Dhaka Dalay.

forcing free and fair election because the people of Guyana will NOT re-elect a PPP in which it is perceived that Mr. Jagdeo remains a highly influential figure. If the PPP wants to regain its legislative majority, its only logical choice is to distance itself as far as possible from Bharrat Jagdeo.

This year’s Congress in August offers the PPP an opportunity to free itself of

the baggage that hurt the party at the last election and is hurting it even further in light of revelations concerning the granting of radio licences by Mr. Jagdeo.

The upcoming Congress of the party offers the party the opportunity to send Mr. Jagdeo into political retirement thereby removing any liability his presence and future participation in the party may have on any future

elections.

However judging from its most recent statement, instead of distancing itself from Mr. Jagdeo, the PPP is more likely in August to coronate Mr. Jagdeo as the greatest leader the party ever produced.

THREE SHOT IN TWO SEPARATE INCIDENTS Three men are hospitalised after being shot in two separate incidents over the weekend.

Courtney Persaud, 30, and Ralph Paul, 43 of Land of Canaan, East Bank of Demerara, were shot while at a house party in the same village on Saturday night.

According to Persaud, he was having beers with a group of friends in the front yard of the Block X residence where the party was being held, when two unidentified men barged in.

This caused an argument

to ensue between them and another patron.

Persaud added that one of the two “party crashers” started firing into a section of the crowd.

Persaud, who was just an onlooker, was shot twice. One of the bullets is still lodged in his left shoulder, while the other grazed his right arm.

Paul, who was also a mere spectator to the whole argument, is nursing a single gunshot wound to the right side of his neck. The shooter remains at large while investigations continue into the incident.

Meanwhile, at around 01:15hrs the following day, mini-bus driver, Rabindra Samaroo, 26, of Owen Street, Kitty, was the victim of a drive by shooting.

Samaroo was standing in the vicinity of Owen Street when shots were discharged at him from a motor vehicle that was driving by.

A press release from the Guyana Police Force said that Samaroo was hit to his abdomen, and has been admitted to GPHC for medical treatment.

Investigations are also continuing into this incident.

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Kaieteur News

Monday April 22, 2013

GDF Medic drowns in Parliament will revisit the broadcast legislation Essequibo River The body of a 29-year-old Guyana Defence Force (GDF) medic was yesterday fished out of the Essequibo River in the vicinity of Shanklands Resort, hours after he disappeared from the surface.

Dead is Kevin Calder of Lot 2716 Pilot Street, New Amsterdam, Berbice.

According to sources, Calder who is attached to Jungle and Amphibious Training School at Makouria went for a bath around 08:00am yesterday and later disappeared.

A search was subsequently carried out and the body of the father of one was recovered two hours later. It was subsequently brought to the city late yesterday by an army helicopter. In a telephone interview with Kaieteur News yesterday, the dead man’s mother, Hermina Thomas said she last saw her son two weeks ago, just before he left to return to work at Makouria.

Dead: Kevin Calder The devastated woman said she was in church when she received a call from one of her son’s friends around 08:20 hours yesterday informing her that Calder had disappeared.

“They told me that he was doing some washing and he disappeared and they searched but didn’t find him

and that they are still searching,” the dead man’s mother related.

She added that around 10:00 am yesterday, she received another call from the same person; this time the person told her that her son’s body was found and it was being air-dashed to the city.

“They said that they found him but he wasn’t responding so they send for a helicopter and they bringing him out.”

“It was only yesterday (Saturday) he called me and reminded me to go to a funeral of his friend’s mother today (yesterday) and I promised I will go but now everything just happen so,” Thomas related.

Calder, who was described as a very loving and caring person, served as a member of the GDF for the past nine years. He leaves to mourn his mother, his wife, siblings and his three-yearold son.

The radio frequencies is a natural resource of this nation and it has to be dealt with in a way which is most benefitting to the country, t h e v i e w o f Member of Parliament for the Opposition, A Partnership for National Unity, Joe Harmon.

Harmon told Kaieteur News that he has looked at the legislation surrounding the Broadcast Act. According to him there is the need for some “serious’ amendments in the Act. Harmon told this publication that as soon as Parliament is completed with the 2013 budget, the matter will be raised in the National Assembly. According to Harmon, former president Bharrat Jagdeo had an “overbearing” hand in the country’s affairs.

“Jagdeo was behaving as though the country’s assets were his own….more so, he acted outside of being President and out of his remit,” Harmon stated.

Harmon also raised the issue of the members of the Broadcast Authority Board, and that its composition should also be reviewed.

On Sunday, leader of the Alliance for Change, Khemraj Ramjattan, had told Kaieteur News that the main reason that the Jagdeo administration gave out radio frequency licences to friends, families and cronies was so that they could dominate the airwaves with their Propaganda. Ramjattan was at the time responding to questions about the process which Jamaica has taken to

- APNU’s Joe Harmon publicly auction off their frequencies.

According to Ramjattan, the idea which Jamaica has adopted is something which happens around the world.

“What Jamaica did was to look for a means to earn revenue, but in Guyana they use the worst practices in their incestuous self,” Ramjattan said.

The administration never sought to look at what was beneficial for the ordinary Guyanese, but what was beneficial for the “cabal”. He further told Kaieteur News that it would have been much better had the government auctioned off the radio frequencies and this would have created some balance in the distribution.

Last week it was reported that Jamaica publicly indicated that it is preparing to auction some of these limited resources, which is the spectrum.

Jamaica’s Spectrum Management Authority, similar to that of G u y a n a ’s N ational Frequency Management Unit (NFMU), has said it will be selling to the highest bidders two 700-megahertz (MHz) band licences to improve Internet penetration in that country.

It will highlight how valuable Jamaica considers its spectrum, a resource that is jealously guarded worldwide by Governments because of the power of radio, TV and the internet.

The issue of limited spectrum has also been a cause of much concern in Guyana after former President, Bharrat Jagdeo, used his executive powers to grant several persons, including his party’s newspaper, The Mirror, five frequencies to broadcast across the country.

Representing Mirror is Dharamkumar Seeraj, a PPP Parliamentarian.

This happened days before his Presidential term was due to end in November 2011 when General Elections were held.

The move has widely been seen as carefully planned by Jadgeo and the ruling party to control the airwaves of Guyana. Jagdeo also granted five frequencies to his personal friend, Dr. Ranjisinghi “Bobby” Ramroop and another five to Omkar Lochan, Permanent Secretary of Natural Resources Minister, Robert Persaud. Persaud happens to be the nephew-in-law of Jagdeo. The former President did not stop there. He also granted two television cable licences to close associates– Brian Yong and Vishok Persaud.

Persaud is the son of the late former Government Parliamentarian and Agriculture Minister, Reepu Persaud, while Yong was a candidate for the ruling party during the 2011 elections.

Monday April 22, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 11

Learning Channel controversial contract…

Jagdeo is guilty of insider trading to enrich friends Guyana needs to move its legislation forward to prosecute those who use privileged information for the unjust enrichment of their friends, as in the case of former President Bharrat Jagdeo, who contracted TVG, owned by his best friend, to air the Guyana Learning Channel for a hefty sum of $3.6M monthly.

According to Joe Harmon, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s Member of Parliament, the granting of the contract by Jagdeo to his best friend, Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop, is a clear indication that Ramroop was privy to Government’s plan to establish the Learning Channel and as such made the necessary investments in the relevant technologies to air it via satellite. He stated that this scenario is called insider trading and it is a criminal act in most developed countries. He pointed out that in the United States of America persons were jailed for trading inside information to enrich their friends.

According to Harmon,

- APNU what Jagdeo did was deceitful and criminal and the contract should be examined by the National Assembly. Trying to clarify Government’s move to contract Ramroop, Dr. Roger Luncheon said, when former Education Minister Shaik Baksh made his initial presentation for the Learning Channel, he was sent back to redesign the project to ensure it was equitably distributed.

Redoing the design meant that the National Communication Network would air contents of the Learning Channel terrestrially on the coastland and TVG would be contracted to air the Learning Channel via satellite in far-flung communities.

Current Education Minister Priya Manickchand recently told the National Assembly that “the Guyana Learning Channel has the use of a teleport (owned by TVG) that was created at the time of its set-up, since there

APNU’s Member of Parliament, Joe Harmon

Dr. Roger Luncheon

Former President Bharrat Jagdeo

Dr Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop

was no other teleport capable of up-linking video signals in existence in Guyana, before or since.”

According to Harmon, APNU, which has 26 seats in the House, would examine the contract thoroughly to ascertain pertinent details such as procedure used in granting it.

The Member of Parliament said that a lot of contracts issued under President Bharrat Jagdeo were good ideas but unfortunately they were designed to financially enrich his friends, pointing to the blatant example of the

Learning Channel.

He said that the Learning Channel is educational and beneficial, something that would not be opposed; but the deal behind the Learning Channel is wrong.

He indicated that the discovery of this ‘secret deal’ between Jagdeo and his best friend is not surprising.

There were other ‘secret deals’ involving Jagdeo and Ramroop, such as the purchase and storage of pharmaceuticals and the issuance of five radio frequencies. Harmon stressed that Jagdeo behaved like if this country belonged

to him and ruled arbitrarily.

This form of governance is being continued under the Donald Ramotar presidency.

He attributed this to the fact that Ramotar retained the m a j o r i t y o f J a g d e o ’s Cabinet.

According to Harmon, another unjust move by Jagdeo in granting his friend the contract was the absence of a public tender. He said that at no point was it public knowledge that Government would be contracting a television station to air the Learning Channel and that channel would need specific technologies. He contended

that had there been a public tender and Ramroop was awarded the contract justly, it would have been a nonissue since others in the media business would have gotten a fair opportunity.

The Member of Parliament emphasized that this is precisely why Guyana needs the Public Procurement Commission urgently, since taxpayers’ monies are being exploited.

However, a more serious look needs to be taken at the operations at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board, he added.

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Kaieteur News

Monday April 22, 2013

Injured globetrotter leaves Guyana to get married The American globetrotter, who was hospitalized at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) after he met with an accident in Berbice, has left Guyana to go back to his home in Racine, Wisconsin, USA to plan his wedding which is scheduled for August.

The man, Ben Krijger, left his home in July last year, and has been traveling the Americas on his motorcycle ever since.

Guyana has been his fifteenth country, and Krijger was on his way to Suriname when his motorcycle crashed in Skeldon, minutes away from the ferry terminal.

Krijger had been nursing several lacerations about the body. He also underwent surgery to remove pieces of glass from his neck.

The 34-year-old man, who has absolutely no relatives in Guyana, was greeted by his fiancée who subsequently learnt of his condition from the US Embassy and flew to Guyana to his aid.

After he was discharged, Krijger and his fiancée

- wants to return in a few months and continue touring the Americas on his motorcycle stayed at a hotel until he was strong enough to fly back to the US. In speaking to this publication minutes before take off at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Krijger said that he wishes to return and complete his 23country mark.

The man explained that while in Guyana, he was well taken care of. Apart from a generous man named “Bernard” who afforded him a place in his home, Krijger mentioned a Nurse Mohamed from the Skeldon Hospital who took good care of him, as well as a man named “Kevin” who took him to the hospital and waited until he was stable.

Krijger also praised the treatment that he received at the GPHC. “The nurses there were also really nice, but I still have to go back and get checked over there and make sure everything is okay.”

He crashed twice here in Guyana. His first accident

occurred on the Lethem trail.

While his bike “Maggie” did not suffer much damage during the first crash, most of Krijger’s fingers were dislocated, and had to be pulled back in place; something that caused him to bite his lips, as he did the finger relocation by himself.

Initially, the man told Kaieteur News that while he was looking forward to some of the most thrilling experiences while traveling the Americas, he was mostly interested in learning the different cultures, eating the different foods and especially, changing the mindsets of his peers who especially consider that all North American countries are the same.

“People don’t know the difference, and the thing that I want to do, is travel these countries…I hope I’ll be able to tell people about all these different countries and how different they are…look at Guyana for starters, you guys speak

English,” he had said.

Meanwhile, in relating some of his experiences here on the third day of his stay, Krijger said that after his accident on the Lethem trail, he experienced one of the most beautiful moments of his life.

“I was tired, and my fingers were in pain, and it was also getting really dark, so I set up tent at the side of the road (the Lethem trail), and I was lying there when suddenly I heard this really loud buzzing sound,” Krijger said.

The smiling man added that he did not know where the sound was coming from, but all he could think of was a really scary and oversized bee.

“I honestly, at first, I kept thinking to myself, oh my God, there is a giant bee outside, but after listening to the sound for a while, I thought that I was being too childish, so, I unzipped the tent and here comes this really beautiful humming bird…it just flew in and right up to my face, I kept staring at it, and it just would not move. I just kinda waited for it to peck my eyes out or something, but soon after, it just flew away…I think that was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. I love animals, especially birds, and to have an experience like that, for me, it was just amazing.

Krijger said he has always wanted to travel the world. He recalls being at a party at age 17, not dancing,

Ben Krijger poses with his bike in front of Kaieteur News one day prior to his accident

and trying to get with the ladies, but rather, staring at a world map.

“Well, I was at a party actually, and I should be talking to people, talking to the girls, having fun, but no, I was staring at a world map…and to see how the countries connect…the roads, rivers, it was just kind of like a moment, and I just told myself that I can do this…I suddenly wanted to do it, and years after, the thought was just kind of sitting at the back of my mind.”

He added that after working in hospital management for a few years, and aging way beyond 17, he finally opted to follow his dreams.

“So, I quit my job, sold my things, and now I’m on this trip…I haven’t seen my girlfriend, or my family since…I call them though.

When I get to another country, I call them. And, they also get to see my updates and my pictures on Facebook. I also have a w e b s i t e c a l l e d www.allpointsouth.com”.

Monday April 22, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 13

Hocus crocus When I was a little boy, the only toothpaste around was Colgate. Even though other brands of toothpaste came on the market, people used the word “Colgate” to mean toothpaste.

It was not surprising to hear in the village store, “Mammy say to sen’ a Colgate for she.” The response from the shopkeeper was inevitably, “What kind you want?

Crest? Pepsodent?

Colgate?”

It was the same with the newspaper. The Port-ofSpain Gazette was first published on September 21, 1825 and closed down in 1956.

T h e Tr i n i d a d Guardian was founded in 1917 and so co-existed with the Gazette for about thirtynine years. Despite this, and long after the Gazette newspaper had ceased circulation, people continued to refer to the “Guardian” as the “Gazette” and to all newsprint as “Gazette” paper.

In the rural areas and the poorer parts of the cities, “Gazette” paper was mainly used as toilet paper. It was not Plush or Charmin and might have been everhard instead of Eversoft but it had

the Confidence of its users.

In that sense every movement was duly gazetted. This spin-off or use of the Guardian for a purpose beyond its core function may have created some branding issues for the newspaper. Even now some malicious people express the view that nothing has changed in that regard. The good news is that for a while every newspaper was flush with the news of the day and, even in the era before electronic storage and flash drives, could be wiped out.

In the United States, President Truman is said to have written to a critic, “I have your newspaper before me and pretty soon it will be behind me.” One such remnant from the past is the “crocus” bag. Any time I see the term “crocus bag” in a newspaper I know that the story came directly from a police source since these are the only people who still use the term. Essentially what is called a “burlap” or even “jute” bag was known as a “crocus” bag. In the rural communities of the Caribbean, especially Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad, nothing was wasted.

In Trinidad the white flour bags were used to make shirts, pillowcases, bed sheets and underwear for men and even women. The former Prime Minister of Trinidad, Patrick Manning, recalled that his parents used to buy 50-pound bags of flour which were made from a fabric that was washed and used to make his school shirts. The rice and sugar bags were made from jute, a strong vegetable fibre, or a type of hemp that was also the key ingredient in “matting” wickets.

In Trinidad the bags were used by people of East Indian descent as mats.

Somewhere along the line they became “crocus” or in Jamaica “cruckuss” bags although the materials used did not come from the “crocus sativus” (saffron).

Also called “burlap”, crocus bags were associated with slavery and indentureship.

Plantation workers recycled the sacking materials into uncomfortable though serviceable garments which helped to protect them from the insects, heat and dust in the fields. The national costume of St Kitts and Nevis uses a similar material and in this sense pays

homage to the humble crocus bag.

I saw an interesting discussion on a website (wordreference.com) where the crux of the problem was crocus. Someone wrote “I have problems with this text.

It is a mixture of English and Jamaican. It is about a mad woman in trouble who wants to publicly wash away her guilt, getting naked on the street. This is the sentence: ‘see wan stanpipe deh!/ so mi strip aff all de crocus bag dem/ an scrub unda mi armpit...’ I have problems with the underlined part.

How is it linked with the rest of the text?

Could someone please help me writing it down into standard English?” One helpful person said, “Crocus bag is defined as a garbage bag at a site I Googled, but I can’t post links here. So she goes to the standpipe, strips off her clothes, puts them in a garbage bag, and washes her armpits.”

Fortunately, someone called “Skongo” saved the day with, “Crocus bag refers to a burlap bag or gunny sack. The addition of ‘dem’(them) pluralizes the singular noun it follows. A mad woman in Jamaica

would probably have been wearing the burlap material and ‘strip aff all de the crocus bag dem’ was describing her undressing.”

So what do the police and the media who quote them mean by “crocus bags”? Let’s look at the context.

The Jamaica Gleaner reported “..the Trinidadian coastguard later seized two crocus bags of ganja on a vessel transporting clinker from Jamaica to Trinidad.” The Gleaner also reported that a body was placed in a crocus bag cemented in the wall.

In other words, the person croaked. The Trinidad Guardian reported, “Authorities said upon searching the vessel, they found 11 crocus bags containing a total of 472 lbs of marijuana.” The Trinidad Express said, “POLICE are in search of the man who dropped a crocus bag bulging with firearms and more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition in Cap-deVille…” and the Trinidad Newsday tells us about “crocus bags of ganja” being found.

What I find interesting is

that although few people use the term and many of the present generation do not use it, the media continue to talk about “crocus bags” because the police use the term.

What the police and the media should know is that “crocus bags” are big in the fashion business and are not just containers for marijuana or corpses. I just saw that the L.K. Bennet Crocus Bag line (at US$300) each was sold out.

This leads me to another police and media term. The “pig-tail” bucket as in (Newsday, Trinidad) “ROGER RAMSINGH, 32, who only two weeks ago appeared before a Princes To w n M a g i s t r a t e f o r trafficking in marijuana and cocaine, returned to court yesterday following his arrest on Saturday for possession of a pigtail bucket of compressed marijuana and cocaine.”

Is the pig-tail bucket any plastic bucket or is it one of those police expressions that no longer hold water? *Tony Deyal was last seen saying that terms like a “pig-tail bucket” give him food for thought.

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Kaieteur News

Monday April 22, 2013

Monday April 22, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 15

UG will change for the better GTUC seeks intervention into GPL work related deaths under new Vice Chancellor

By Leon Suseran Professor Daizal Samad is confident that the University of Guyana (UG) will be changed for the better, especially under its new Vice- Chancellor (VC), Professor Jacob Opadeyi.

Samad, who has recently commenced serving his third consecutive term as the Director of the University of Guyana Berbice Campus (UGBC), met last week with Professor Opadeyi at Turkeyen, where they put forth plans and decisions that will influence the future of both university campuses.

The University of Guyana, the country’s main tertiary institution, has been plagued with a plethora of p r o b l e m s f r o m administrative to financial in recent years, but Samad is confident that the new VC has what it takes to turn that situation around.

“I have a very strong feeling that UG will finally change for the better,” he said.

The new VC, he stated, is different “because he is action and results-oriented, meaning that you will not sit there and talk forever; you must have solid outputs and action.”

Because of this, Samad strongly believes that the university “is flying” at this point.

The new VC, he stated “is a man of conscience and our campus [UGBC] will see a new day again and I am very optimistic.”

A s t r o n g e r administrative structure

- new UGBC Director

Prof. Daizal Samad

Prof. Jacob Opadeyi

comprising of an Advisory Committee that includes the Director, private sector individuals and students, was also proposed at the meeting between Samad and Opadeyi.

“His [Prof. Opadeyi] thinking is also identical to mine that a university must be accountable to the society and must open up itself to Guyanese—and I am loving what the man has said because that is what we have done at UGBC over the past four years.”

The private sector, Samad added, will be reengaged to have a greater influence in what happens at both campuses. “ We c a n n o t k e e p running an institution that keeps depending on government money, so we have to find ways of generating our own income.”

Also on the cards is the establishment of an

Information Technology room dedicated to teleconferencing so that Lecturers from both campuses can participate in meetings without having to travel back and forth.

It was proposed, too, that each academic division in the university should consist of a Student/Staff Liaison Committee, whose job it will be to report on matters and problems that are being faced on campus, in relation to courses, the registration process, grades and transcripts.

“So you know right away the kinds of problems happening and the kinds of ideas of improvement that they have.”

Professor Samad noted, too, that very shortly, an Agricultural International Conference comprising individuals of Trinidad, Suriname among other countries will be convened in Berbice.

T h e N a t i o n a l Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) is fearful that some employees of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) are working under dangerous conditions and nothing is being done to rectify the situation.

Despite several deaths and injuries due to GPL employees being shocked, receiving burns and falling off electricity poles over the years, NAACIE head Kenneth Joseph said calls for safer work conditions are falling on deaf ears, while requests to address the matter, “Can’t seem to get past certain levels.”

What seemed even more stressful to the union head was the poor attention given to the incident when it occurs, and the lack of investigations into an employee’s death or injury.

Joseph told media operatives last week that this issue is a growing one at GPL and it is becoming a major burden for the union since they are seemingly unable to get through to the GPL hierarchy.

After relating two recent work-related deaths and one injury, Joseph said relatives of those persons are still to receive compensation from the state owned electricity agency.

He however said that GPL was warned a long time ago that people were being endangered. “We told the company since 2009 that they are putting peoples’ lives at risk.”

He said it is unthinkable to allow people to lose their lives, “because you want to pay less.” He said, “I don’t know how the Ministry that is concerned with GPL can allow, without investigation, the incidents occurring.”

Joseph said that not only are the gear or tools an issue but the attention being placed on safety precautions and other vital areas is lacking. He however noted that issues of safety are something that top brass officials should be paying keen attention to.

Added to this, Joseph had also called for massive investigations into GPL and its functioning before any more budgeted funds are

NAACIE Head Kenneth Joseph pumped into the company.

Matters of safety were one of the areas which he said need to be investigated, while touching also on the hiring and management process.

It was reported that in 2012 at Victoria, a GPL worker was burnt while working on an electricity pole. Joseph said the man is still in a wheelchair awaiting compensation. In Berbice a young man also died after falling from a pole and on February last, another was badly burnt at West Coast Berbice.

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Kaieteur News

Monday April 22, 2013

Invest more in the youths - Sophia residents tell police

A section of those present during community talks

S

ophia residents are of the view that there is a great need for more investment in the youths of their community.

This view was put forward by the residents when a team of senior police officers from the Guyana

From left: Inspector Easton Harte, Divisional Commander Eric Bassant and Cadet Officer Antonio Fredricks.

Superintendent Stephen Mansell engages the gathering.

Police Force’s C Division visited the area in another community outreach programme.

On Thursday last, the ranks headed by Divisional Commander Eric Bassant engaged residents of ‘A’ Field to ‘E’ Field, North and South Sophia in discourse at

the Sophia Primary School.

This was to get a firsthand look at difficulties facing the residents, particularly the young people. Selling the same idea which has already proven successful in other communities along the East Coast of Demerara, Assistant Commissioner

Bassant and his deputy, Superintendent Stephen Mansell invited parents to involve their young in the soon-to-be-launched Police Youth club.

The idea, which was launched some time back, has already seen communities like Buxton come on board; and now Sophia is being asked to let the police help shape the lives of the community’s youths. The officers promised that children will be involved in various skills training exercises.

“They will take trips, attend camps, learn survival skills and, “Possibly grow from their experiences to become professional people.

All free of cost,” Mansell encouraged parents.

He emphasized that parents would merely bear the cost of shoes and socks while uniforms and any other accessories for club members would be free.

Summer camps would see children having opportunities to get involved in forensics and photography training among other things.

The police highlighted that they recognize the need for them to engage communities so as to become more efficient in crime fighting.

Mansell imparted that the community has a major role to play in preventing crime and assisting crime fighting.

It is for this reason the police urged the community to have an open mind about establishing a cohesive working relationship with the force.

Sophia is known as one of the prevalent crime-prone areas in Guyana, with a number of armed robberies

mixed with several petty criminal activities occurring with unnerving frequency.

Several issues of petty robberies, break and enter, domestic violence among other things were raised by residents. Even matters out of the hands of the police were raised causing one resident to suggest that, “There is so much the police can do, but if there is nothing for the youths to do they become idle and find themselves in trouble.”

“In other words”, the man added, “there are no investments in the communities. We have one play field and it’s covered in grass.” The man identified himself as Colin Marks.

He said he is a community consultant, the Vice Chairman of the Pattenson Community Development Committee and community facilitator attached to Help and Shelter.

According to Marks, Sophia, like many “ghetto” communities, lacks opportunities, while much emphasis is not being placed on development. “ Yo u n g p e r s o n s , especially young men have nothing to do, and some of these persons come from testing backgrounds.”

He highlighted a massive school dropout rate in the community before noting the lack of rebound facilities for “straying or lost youngsters”.

Marks said that the community of about 41,000 residents, benefit from one vehicle twice a week to serve the Community Policing Group. This is not good enough the residents agreed, before highlighting that the group has been dormant for a while.

The visiting officers

assured Sophia of assistance to revive the policing group and they also assured Marks that the police are committed to aiding the youths in whatever way through the Police Youth Group.

Residents went on to highlight poor lighting in the community which they said give confidence to preying criminals who wait in dark corners and streets to rob passersby.

They spoke of the incidence of domestic violence before suggesting that some ranks are somewhat unsure about dealing with the matter.

In relation to house break-ins, a resident claimed that the police never seem to find the perpetrators, and attributed this to the lack of police/community union.

Residents next touched on corrupt cops and made various comments about “persons’ wrongs turning into rights, after passing a small change.” They spoke about officers collecting money from persons on the streets, and slammed those paying off the police for minor infractions, suggesting that it encourages the dishonest ranks to harass law abiding citizens.

The ‘C’ Division Commander condemned any act of corruption on the part of his officers. He reminded Sophia that no officer is to demand money, gifts of inducements from any citizen, while urging them to report any such incidents.

Along with Cadet Officer Antonio Fredricks and Inspector Easton Harte of the community’s police station, Commander Bassant and Superintendent Mansell assured Sophia to, “Trust us with your children and we will make things happen.”

Monday April 22, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Kaieteur News

Monday April 22, 2013

Syrian opposition warns Hezbollah to stay out BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian opposition called on Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters from the country immediately, as activists said regime troops supported by pro-government gunmen linked to the Lebanese Shiite militant group battled rebels yesterday for control of a string of villages near the Lebanon-Syria border.

The Syrian National Coalition — the main Western-backed opposition group — warned that Hezbollah involvement in Syria’s civil war could lead to greater risks in the area, and urged the Lebanese government to “adopt the necessary measures to stop the aggression of Hezbollah” and to control the border to “prevent further risks and to protect civilians in the area.”

The statement, posted on the Coalition’s Facebook page, coincides with a surge in fighting around the contested town of Qusair in Syria’s Homs province near the frontier with Lebanon.

Over the past two weeks, the Syrian military, supported by pro-regime militia backed by Hezbollah, has pushed to regain control of the border

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, center, and Syrian opposition leader Moaz al-Khatib pose for photos after a “Friends of Syria” group meeting at the Adile Sultan Palace yesterday. (AP Photo) area — a strategic region because it links Damascus with the Mediterranean coastal enclave that is the heartland of President Bashar Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

It also points to the sectarian nature of the Syrian conflict, which pits a

government dominated by the president’s Alawite minority against a primarily Sunni Muslim rebellion, as well as fears that the civil war could drag in neighboring states.

The pro-regime gunmen are members of the Popular Committees, which were set up last year in Syria with

Hezbollah’s backing to protect Syrian villages inhabited by Lebanese Shiites, although rebels accuse the fighters of attacking opposition villages in the area and fighting alongside government forces.

While Hezbollah confirms backing the Popular Committees, it denies taking part in Syria’s civil war.

The fighting along the border region has flared in recent weeks, and on Saturday government forces captured the villages of Radwaniyeh and Tel al-Nabi Mando. Yesterday, regime forces shelled the villages of Abu Houri, Saqarigh, Nahriyeh and Ein al-Tanour in the Qusair region, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human

Rights activist group. It said at least four rebels were killed in the fighting.

Syrian state television said the army was trying to “uproot all the terrorists from the area.” The government, which denies it is facing a popular uprising, describes the revolt as a foreign-backed plot and calls those trying to topple it “terrorists.”

Lebanon’s state-run news agency reported two shells fired from Syria landed yesterday in the town of Hermel near the frontier with Syria, causing material damage but no casualties. A day earlier, two mortar rounds landed in the town for the first time, marking an escalation in violence along the already tense border.

Syria’s 2-year-old conflict has repeatedly spilled over into neighboring states, while the violence at home has forced more than 1 million Syrians to escape their homeland to seek safety abroad. Most of the refugees have fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey, where they have put an immense burden on already cash-strapped governments to cope with huge influx.

In Jordan, police arrested eight Syrians on suspicion of inciting riots at the sprawling Zaatari refugee camp, according to a Jordanian security official who requested anonymity in line with regulations.

About 100 Syrian refugees threw stones at Jordanian police on Friday for preventing some of them from sneaking out of their desert camp. Ten police

officers were injured, including two who remain in critical condition.

The security official said a military prosecutor was set to question the eight suspects later Sunday. If convicted, they face up to three years in jail.

The Zaatari camp houses 150,000 Syrian refugees, while another 350,000 Syrians have found shelter in Jordanian communities. Conditions in the overcrowded camp have worsened since it opened last July, and there have been several riots.

In Damascus, a senior Iranian lawmaker on Sunday expressed support for Assad, and said that what he called the U.S.-led battle to oust the Syrian leader had failed.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of Iran’s parliamentary committee on national interest and foreign policy, said Tehran is “happy that the U.S., with its abilities and regional allies, has failed despite its efforts” to topple Assad.

“Today, they are the losers in the game, no doubt,” Boroujerdi told Iranian state TV ahead of talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid alMoallem. Iran is Syria’s chief regional ally.

Al-Moallem repeated the government line that Syria is the victim of a foreign conspiracy hatched by the United States in cooperation with Syria’s neighbors.

Damascus has previously rebuked Saudi Arabia and Qatar for financing arms purchases to the rebels, and Turkey and Jordan for allowing arms shipments.

Afghan girls’ school feared hit by poison gas TALUQAN, Afghanistan (Reuters) - As many as 74 schoolgirls in Afghanistan’s far north fell sick after smelling gas and were being examined for possible poisoning, local officials said yesterday.

While instances of poisoning are sometimes later found to be false alarms, there have been numerous substantiated cases of mass poisonings of schoolgirls by elements of Afghanistan’s ultra-conservative society that are opposed to female education.

Local officials said the girls became ill after smelling gas at their school, Bibi Maryam, in Takhar province’s capital, Taluqan. The city is about 250 kilometers north of the country’s capital, Kabul.

The Takhar governor ’s spokesman, Sulaiman Moradi, blamed “enemies of the government and the country” for the mass illness and said the aim was to stop girls from going to school.

The girls were taken to the provincial hospital and most were released after being treated, though several remained in a critical condition yesterday evening, the head of the hospital, Dr Jamil Frotan, said.

“We have already sent samples of their blood to the Ministry of Public Health and it

will soon become clear what the reason for their illness was,” Frotan said.

The apparent poisoning came three days after more than a dozen students fell ill in another girls’ high school in Taluqan. No-one has claimed responsibility for either incident.

Between May and June last year there were four poisoning attacks on a girls’ school in Takhar, prompting local officials to order principals to stay in school until late and staff to search the grounds for suspicious objects and to test the water for contaminants.

Takhar has been a hotbed of militancy and criminal activity since 2009, with groups such as the Taliban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan active.

Since the 2001 ousting of the Taliban, which banned education for women and girls, females have returned to schools, especially in Kabul. But periodic attacks against female students, their teachers and their school buildings, continue.

Afghan women have won back basic rights in education, voting and employment since 2001, but fears are growing that such gains could be traded away as Western forces prepare to leave and the Afghan government seeks peace talks with the Taliban.

Monday April 22, 2013

Kaieteur News

Boston Marathon bombing suspect remains in hospital, unable to speak BOSTON (Reuters) The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings remained in serious condition in the hospital yesterday, unable to speak due to injuries to his neck and tongue sustained while on the run from police, officials said.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation still was unable to interview Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told CBS television, and authorities may never be able to speak with him, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said.

The suspect was in Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center while U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, the federal prosecutor for the Boston area, was working on filing criminal charges, Davis said.

Tsarnaev was shot in the throat and had tongue damage, said a source close to the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“We don’t know if we’ll ever be able to question the individual,” Menino told ABC’s “This Week” program.

He did not elaborate.

Tsarnaev will be defended by the Federal Public Defender Office, which had yet to issue any public statements on the case.

Investigators were seeking a motive for the Boston Marathon bombings and whether others were involved besides the ethnic Chechen brothers they suspect carried out the attacks.

The other identified suspect, older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during a firefight with police on Friday, in the middle of the dramatic 26 hours between when the FBI released pictures of the two suspects and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s capture in the Boston suburbs.

Two bombs made in pressure cookers and packed with ball bearings and nails exploded at the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing three people and injuring 176 and setting of a tense week in the United States that culminated in a massive manhunt on Friday with the greater Boston area on lockdown.

The two brothers may have been readying for a second attack at the time of the shootout, Davis told CBS. Early indications were the brothers acted alone, Davis and other officials said.

When police were able to move in after the hail of bullets stopped, they found unexploded devices littering

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev the street and one in the carjacked SUV that the brothers had been driving.

The devices contained the same type of shrapnel used in the marathon bombs.

“There is no doubt that they were made by these two guys,” Davis said.

Police finally found the suspect cowering in a boat in a backyard in Watertown, hours after police went door to door searching for him after he escaped on foot. A man went to check on his boat after the tarp had come loose.

“He saw the suspect, retreated, and called police and we were there instantaneously,” Davis said.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev traveled to Moscow in January 2012 and spent six months in the region, a law enforcement source said.

He spent at least a month last summer helping his father renovate his first-floor apartment next door to a dentistry in Makhachkala, a city in the Dagestan region on the Caspian Sea. It was unclear if he could have had contact with militant Islamist groups in southern Russia’s restive Caucasus region.

A group leading an Islamist insurgency against Russia said on Sunday it was not at war with the United States, distancing i t s e l f f r o m l a s t w e e k ’s Boston bombing.

A statement from militants operating in Dagestan, where the brothers spent time as children, said

the leading insurgency group Caucasus Emirate, led by Russia’s most wanted man Doku Umarov, was not attacking the United States.

“We are fighting with Russia, which is responsible not only for the occupation of the Caucasus but for monstrous crimes against Muslims,” the statement said.

The insurgency is rooted in two separatist wars that Russian troops waged against Chechen separatists following the fall of the Soviet Union.

The role of the FBI is also being questioned after the agency said it had interviewed Tamerlan in 2011 after Russian security services raised concerns he followed radical Islam. The FBI said it did not find any “terrorism activity” at that time.

The suspect’s mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, who now lives in Russia, told a Russian television station Tamerlan had been under FBI surveillance for years.

The bombings prompted contact between the United States and Russia, and the Kremlin said on Saturday the presidents of both countries agreed by telephone to increase cooperation on counter-terrorism.

Ruslan Tsarni, who said he was an uncle of the brothers, told CNN on Saturday he first noticed a change in Tamerlan’s religious views in 2009. He suggested the radicalization of his nephew happened while he was in the United States “in the streets of C a m b r i d g e (Massachusetts).”

The family emigrated to the United States about a decade ago. The brothers spent their early years in a small community of Chechens in the central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan, a mainly Muslim nation of 5.5 million.

The family moved in 2001 to Dagestan, a southern Russian province that lies at the heart of a violent Islamist insurgency and where their parents now live.

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Arms deal with Middle East allies signal to Iran - Hagel TEL AVIV (Reuters) Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said yesterday a $10 billion arms deal planned with Arab and Israeli allies sent a “very clear signal” to Iran that military options remain on the table over its nuclear program.

“The bottom line is that Iran is a threat, a real threat,” Hagel, who arrived in Israel yesterday on his first visit there as defense secretary, told reporters on his plane.

“The Iranians must be prevented from developing that capacity to build a nuclear weapon and deliver it,” he said. Hagel was due to meet Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon today and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tomorrow, with little progress reported at talks this month between Iran and world powers.

The first stop on Hagel’s week-long Middle East trip came two days after the Pentagon said it was finalizing a deal to strengthen the militaries of Israel and two of Iran’s key rivals - Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The deal includes the sale

Chuck Hagel of KC-135 aerial refueling tankers, anti-air defense missiles and tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey troop transport planes to Israel as well as the sale of 25 F-16 Fighting Falcon jets to the UAE. The UAE and Saudi Arabia would also be allowed to purchase weapons with socalled “stand-off” capabilities enabling them to engage an enemy with precision at a distance.

Asked if the arms deal sent a message that the military option was on the

table if Tehran moved to build a nuclear weapon, Hagel said: “I don’t think there’s any question that that’s another very clear signal to Iran.”

But he added the military option had been “very clear to Iran for some time” and said the arms deal was a continuation of U.S. policy to maintain Israel’s so-called “qualitative military edge” in the region, a general reference to the supply of advanced U.S.-made weaponry and technology to the Jewish state.

Iran denies Western allegations it is seeking to build nuclear arms, saying its efforts aim at electricity generation.

Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear power, has repeatedly voiced impatience with diplomatic efforts to curb Iran’s enrichment of uranium, saying they should be coupled with a credible military threat.

Both Israel and the United States have said all options remain on the table for dealing with any nuclear threat.

Page 20

Kaieteur News

Rescuers struggle to reach China quake zone as toll climbs LUSHAN, China (Reuters) - Rescuers struggled to reach a remote, rural corner of southwestern China yesterday as the toll of the dead and missing from the country’s worst earthquake in three years climbed to 208 with almost 1,000 serious injuries.

The 6.6 magnitude quake struck in Lushan county, near the city of Ya’an in the southwestern province of Sichuan, close to where a devastating 7.9 quake hit in May 2008, killing 70,000. Most of the deaths were concentrated in Lushan, a short drive up the valley from Ya’an, but rescuers’ progress was hampered by the narrowness of the road and landslides, as well as government controls restricting access to avoid traffic jams.

“The Lushan county center is getting back to normal, but the need is still considerable in terms of shelter and materials,” said Kevin Xia of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

“Supplies have had difficulty getting into the region because of the traffic jams. Most of our supplies are still on the way.”

In Ya’an, relief workers from across China expressed frustration with gaining access to Lushan and the villages beyond, up in the mountains.

“We’re in a hurry. There are people that need help and we have supplies in the back (of the car),” said one man from the Shandong Province Earthquake Emergency Response Team, who declined to give his name.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs put the number of dead at 184 and missing at 24, with more than 11,800 injured.

Hundreds of armed police were blocked from using roads that were wrecked by landslides and marched in single file with shovels en route to Baoxing, one of the hardest hit areas. Xinhua news agency said 18,000 troops were in the area.

The Foreign Ministry thanked foreign governments for offers of help, but said the country was able to cope.

In Lushan, doctors and nurses tended to people in the open or under tents in the grounds of the main hospital, surrounded by shattered glass, plaster and concrete. Water and electricity were cut off by the quake, but the spring weather is warm. “I was scared.

I’ve never seen an earthquake this big before,” said farmer Chen Tianxiong, 37, lying on a stretcher between tents, his family looking on.

In another tent, Zhou Lin sat tending to his wife and three-day-old son who were evacuated from a Lushan hospital soon after the quake struck on Saturday.

“I was worried the child or his mother would be hurt. The buildings were all shaking.

I was extremely scared. But now I don’t feel afraid any more,” said Zhou, looking at his child who was wrapped in a blanket on a makeshift bed. remier Li Keqiang flew into the disaster zone by helicopter to comfort the injured and displaced, chatting to rescuers and clambering over rubble.

“Treat and heal your wounds with peace of mind,” Xinhua quoted Li as telling patients at a hospital. “The government will take care of all the costs for those severely wounded.”

Monday April 22, 2013

Pentagon chief stresses Israel’s right to hit Iran JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel held out hope yesterday for a nonmilitary way to ending the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, but he also emphasized Washington’s willingness to let Israel decide whether and when it might strike Tehran in self-defense.

Hagel, on his first visit to Israel as Pentagon chief, seemed intent on burying the image that Republican critics painted of him as insufficiently supportive of the Jewish state. That portrayal was central to a failed campaign to derail Hagel’s Senate confirmation in February.

In an interview with reporters on his flight from Washington, Hagel said the United States and Israel see “exactly the same” threat from Iran, which he described as a toxic combination of nuclear ambition and support for terrorism.

But he acknowledged differences on when it may reach the point of requiring U.S. or Israeli military action.

Hagel stressed repeatedly that Israel has a sovereign right to decide for itself whether it must attack Iran. He made no mention of the possibility that an Israeli attack would draw the U.S. into the conflict and lead to a wider regional war.

“Israel will make the decision that Israel must make to protect itself, to defend itself,” Hagel said as he began a weeklong tour of the Middle East.

Also Sunday, U.S.

Benjamin Netanyahu Secretary of State John Kerry was in Istanbul, where he urged Turkey to speed up and cement an Americanbrokered rapprochement with Israel. On a trip to Israel last month, President Barack Obama secured a pledge from Turkish and Israeli leaders to normalize ties that broke down after a 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.

Hagel said international penalties are taking a heavy toll on Iran, though he said no one can be sure that economic coercion will compel Iran to change course. Referring to sanctions and diplomacy, Hagel said, “these other tracks do have some time to continue to try to influence the outcome in Iran.”

Hagel acknowledged that while Israel and the U.S. share a commitment to ensuring that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon, there “may well be some differences” between the two allies on the

question of when Iran’s leaders might decide to go for a bomb.”When you back down into the specifics of the timing of when and if Iran decides to pursue a nuclear weapon, there may well be some differences,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tends to see more urgency, reflecting in part the fact that certain Iranian technological advances toward a nuclear weapon could put the program beyond the ability of the Israeli military to destroy it with airstrikes. U.S. forces have greater reach.

Hagel’s first order of business upon arrival in Jerusalem was a guided tour of the Yad Vashem Holocaust history museum.

He participated in a ceremony at the Hall of Remembrance and wrote an inscription in the guest book at a memorial for the 1.5 million Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust.

“There is no more poignant, more touching, more effective way to tell the story than this reality, as painful as it is, but it is a reality,” he said after completing his visit. “It did happen, and we must prepare our future generations ... for a clear understanding that we must never allow this to happen again.”

In his remarks while en route to Israel, Hagel repeatedly emphasized Israel’s right of self-defense and stressed that military force — by implication, Israeli or American — remains an option of last resort.

Sudanese police mutiny as security deteriorates in Darfur (Reuters) - A group of Sudanese policemen have staged a mutiny in Darfur, according to state news agency SUNA yesterday, in a fresh sign of the deteriorating security situation in the vast western region.

A “limited” number of officers broke away from their Central Reserve Police unit in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, after stealing four Land Cruisers, weapons and provisions, SUNA said, quoting the interior ministry. The renegade policemen then fired into the air before leaving the city, SUNA said, adding that there were no casualties and that the army was chasing the men.

It gave no more details of the incident, which will come as an embarrassment to the government, which has been trying to convince donors that conflict in Darfur is largely over and wants help to rebuild the region.

Violence in Darfur has subsided from its peak in 2003 and 2004, but a surge in fighting has forced more than 130,000 people to flee their homes since the start of this year, according to the United Nations.

War broke out in Darfur in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the central government, accusing Khartoum of neglecting the remote region and marginalising its ethnic minorities.

Despite the presence of the world’s largest peacekeeping mission, UNAMID, fighting between Sudan’s army and rebels has continued since then, alongside banditry and tribal clashes.

Events in Darfur are difficult to verify because Sudan severely restricts access to journalists. Reuters last got a Darfur travel permit was in 2012.

Separately, the U.S. Charge’s Affaires in Sudan, Joseph Stafford, said Washington had noted with “alarm” that Sudan had denied access to UNAMID in eastern Darfur to assist displaced people.

The International Criminal Court has indicted President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and other Sudanese officials for masterminding war crimes in Darfur. Sudan has dismissed the charges as political campaign against the African country.

Monday April 22, 2013

Kaieteur News

Turks and Caicos Ex-Premier, Ministers to stand trial for corruption, money laundering GRAND TURK, Turk and Caicos Islands - CMC – The head investigator in a British Government’s probe of corruption in the Turks and Caicos Islands says former Premier Michael Misick will stand trial.

Helen Garlick of the Turks and Caicos Special Investigation and Prosecution Team, said Misick will join 10 others, including four of his cabinet ministers, in defending allegations that they illegally sold government lands for profit and cut other sweetheart deals to enrich themselves during their tenure in office.

The trials could commence as early as September pending further appeals to the British Privy Council, said Garlick in a statement.

She had previously said the team only wanted Misick to return to the British Overseas Dependent Territory for questioning in a criminal investigation of government corruption. But Garlick has acknowledged

Michael Misick that British investigators, who are receiving help from the US Department of Justice, have combed through about 100,000 pages of evidence, uncovering suspicious land deals, unpaid government bills and possible fraud, bribery and money laundering by former leaders.

Misick is currently in Brazil, where he was arrested last week after the South American country rejected his claim for political asylum.

He is now subject to extradition proceedings by the British.

The Turks and Caicos Islands is one of two overseas territories where the British are actively probing corruption. The other is in the Cayman Islands, where former Premier McKeeva Bush was formally charged last month with corruption.

Misick was first elected as chief minister in 2003 but resigned in 2009 during his second term amid the corruption allegations.

He gained international notoriety when he married US actress LisaRaye McCoy in a lavish hilltop ceremony. But McCoy later testified against her estranged husband during a 2008 British government commission of enquiry.

The corruption probe is entering its fourth year. A law firm hired to recover the land recently reported to the governor that it had recovered about 2,500 acres of land valued at about US$100 million.

Opposition leader calls for removal of VAT on medication CASTRIES, St Lucia — Leader of the opposition in Saint Lucia, Stephenson King, out of a stated concern for the deteriorating health of the nation, has written to Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony regarding the longstanding issue of value added tax (VAT) on medication.

In a letter dated April 12, 2013, King brought to the attention of the prime minister the number of citizens who complain on an almost weekly basis about their inability to purchase their medication in a timely manner due to the additional burden brought on by the tax.

King stated that Saint Lucians are experiencing a period of “double-suffering” by first experiencing the pain of their various ailments and then, second, experiencing the difficulty and stress that comes with being unable to meet the exorbitant costs of their medicines.

The leader of the opposition in his letter called on Anthony, in his capacity as prime minister and minister for finance, to consider the plight of the people of Saint Lucia and remove value added tax on medication in the new financial year. King

assured Anthony that any proposal to repeal the VAT on medication in the upcoming Budget presentation will receive the full support of the opposition.

King said he believes that the general public now realizes that medication has gotten more expensive not because of a situation of new stock versus old stock, but is due rather to the fact that the value added tax was a replacement for the consumption tax, which ranged from 0 to 10% prior to the 15% VAT implementation.

In addition, import duties on medication also increased by 5% and in some cases as much as 10%, due to the implementation of the Harmonized System (2007) preceding the VAT implementation of 1st October, 2012.

To put it simply, King said, citizens are experiencing an increase in the cost of their medication because of a combination of these two factors: (i) The taxes that VAT was set to replace were actually lower than the VAT itself, in some instances as much as 5% lower; and (ii) The increase in the import duties on medication

Stephenson King just prior to the implementation of VAT naturally resulted in an increase. “Dr Anthony must show the nation that his administration is a government that cares, a government that wants a healthy workforce in order to remain attractive in the eyes of investors, a government that is looking out for the ‘Malay-way’,” King concluded.

A mini health check is the first step to donating blood

Page 21

Haiti to host ACS summit Port of Spain, Trinidad CMC – Several Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states will be represented at the 5th Summit of the Heads of State and/or Government of The Association of Caribbean States (ACS), to be held in Haiti this week.

Sustainable tourism, trade, air and maritime transport and disaster risk reduction are some of the issues to be discussed at the Summit, themed: “Revitalizing the Vision of the Association of Caribbean States for a Stronger and More United Greater Caribbean.”

The ACS maintains that the Summit intends to not only facilitate discussion, but aims to approve the Declaration of Haiti, a document on institutional transformation of the future of the ACS, as well as the Plan of Action, which seeks to strengthen the concerted and collaborative strategy for cooperation in the thrust for

development of the Member and Associate Member States of the region.

At the official launch of the Summit on April 3rd, Haitian President Michel Martelly and Foreign Affairs Minister, Pierre Richard Casimir, said they are looking forward to hosting the conference which bears certain historic significance for Haiti, as it is the country’s first time hosting an international Summit.

This Summit will be held in Pétion-Ville, April 23rd to 26th.

Some observer countries scheduled attend are South Korea, Finland, Argentina, Spain and Serbia.

Secretary Generals from other regional organizations such as the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) will be in attendance as well as representatives from the Central American Integration System (SICA) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the

Michel Martelly Caribbean (ECLAC).

Since its establishment, the ACS has organised four Summits of Heads of State and Government, which took place in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, in August 1995; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in April 1999; Margarita Island, Venezuela, in December 2001; and Panama City, Republic of Panama, in July 2005.

Page 22

Kaieteur News

Lessons from Boston Cops want more CCTVs Jamaica Gleaner - Calls for increased use of closedcircuit televisions (CCTV) in public spaces locally are growing louder following the use of this technology in Boston, United States (US), last week to track suspects in the ‘marathon bombing’.

With more than 940 serious crimes, including 310 murders, reported across the island since January, Deputy Commissioner of Police Glenmore Hinds is convinced that the figure would be significantly increased if more CCTVs are installed in public spaces.

“It would have a multiplying effect and serve as a deterrent to criminals and also help us with our investigations,” argued Hinds.

He was responding to questions about the lessons for Jamaican law enforcement agencies from their US counterparts who probed the Boston bombing.

Hours after the bloody drama, US investigators used a vast quantity of amateur photos and videos, as well as extensive footage from surveillance cameras, to

identify the two suspects implicated in the twin blasts which left three persons dead and more than 170 wounded.

“For a number of years, the Jamaica Constabulary Force has been asking for CCTV to be installed in public spaces. It would help us to review events,” stressed Hinds.

Access to footage He argued that the cameras could be installed by private entities, with the police having access to the footage.

The senior officer argued that if the CCTVs are installed by individuals or private entities, this could provide a level of transparency as to how the police conduct their investigations.

Hinds indicated that the police have had some successes in areas such as May Pen, Clarendon, and Mandeville in Manchester, where a number of these cameras have already been installed by private entities.

That is a position shared

by National Security Minister Peter Bunting.

“CCTV is obviously a very valuable tool for

investigators, as well as a deterrent for criminal activities,” Bunting told The Sunday Gleaner.

Pointing to the Boston bombing, Bunting noted that much of the CCTV images and still photographs used by investigators came from private and business cameras and not principally from public infrastructure.

“Even in Jamaica where the police and the National Works Agency have limited CCTV coverage, many cases have been solved with the assistance of footage from local business,” said Bunting, who is encouraging more organisations and individuals to invest in these cameras.

In the meantime, a highranking member of the police Criminal Investigation Branch told The Sunday Gleaner that the police could have solved more cases, if cameras were installed in some places and if the footage investigators were allowed to access was of better quality.

“We have seen footage with persons being robbed, or killed, but the quality is poor; we cannot see anything much,” said the cop.

Monday April 22, 2013

US says no spy swapping with Cuba The Miami Herald Secretary of State John Kerry has declared the U.S. government will not swap five Cuban spies held in the United States for American Alan Gross, serving a 15-year prison term in Havana, but is pushing to win his release as a “humanitarian gesture.”

“They were and have been attempting to trade Alan Gross for the five spies that are in prison here in the U.S., and we’ve refused to do that because there’s no equivalency,” Kerry testified Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Alan Gross is wrongly imprisoned, and we’re not going to trade as if it’s spy for spy,” Kerry added in response to a question from Rep. Albio Sires, a Cuban-American Democrat from New Jersey.

But the U.S. government is “trying to find whether there is a humanitarian capacity or not” in Cuba to free Gross, a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Kerry did not detail those efforts but noted he himself had tried to help Gross before he became secretary of state in February, and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, visited Cuba recently, met with Gross, “and talked to the government.”

Gross’ imprisonment in Havana since Dec. 3, 2009 has become the key stumbling block in efforts to improve U.S.-Cuba relations. Relatives have complained that Gross’ health is failing.

The 63-year-old Maryland man was sentenced to 15

years in prison for delivering communications equipment — paid for by USAID’s prodemocracy programs, which Cuba has outlawed, saying they are part of a “subversive” attempt to topple the government. The equipment, which was to be delivered to Cuba’s small Jewish community, would have given recipients access to the Internet without passing through government censors.

The five Cubans were convicted in a federal trial in Miami in 2001. One was sentenced to two life terms for his role in the deaths of four Miami men during the 1996 shoot-down by Cuban MiGs of two small civilian airplanes. Three are serving sentences of 18 to 30 years, and the fifth man, René González, was released in 2011 but is still serving three years of parole somewhere in Florida.

Kerry did not explain his comment to the committee that he himself had made efforts to free Gross, but he might have been referring to a secret meeting in 2010 with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez at the home of Havana’s ambassador to the United Nations.

The meeting took place with State Department approval at a time when Kerry, who has traditionally favored closer engagement with Havana, was a Democratic senator from Massachusetts and chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.

Kerry’s meeting and other U.S. government efforts to win Gross’ release were first

Alan Gross reported early this year in a lengthy article in the respected Foreign Affairs magazine. His office did not challenge the report.

In a separate matter, the secretary of state told the House committee that he has worked through unofficial channels to try to find out more about retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, a South Florida resident who disappeared six years ago while on a trip to Iran.

“On Levinson, I have actually engaged in some back-channel diplomacy in an effort to try to see if we can get something done there,” Kerry said, giving no further details.

Levinson’s family in Coral Springs received a video in November 2010 showing a gaunt and bearded Levinson.

The FBI has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the location and recovery of Levinson, who opened a privateinvestigations firm after his retirement.

Opposition says media restriction in parliament a blatant attack on press freedom Jamaica Gleaner Opposition Spokesman on Information, Senator Arthur Williams has raised concern about what he has described as a blatant attack on media freedom in Jamaica by the Government.

Pointing to restrictions imposed on the press at Parliament last week as they tried to interview Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, Senator Williams says there is a developing trend by the administration to prevent

journalists from doing their jobs. He says this should not be allowed to continue and says Simpson Miller should intervene.

The Senator says a free and unencumbered media is important to the development of democracy and that if the media is restricted, then it will impact negatively on access to the information citizens need to make decisions.

Williams says he is also concerned about complaints from several media houses that some members of the Government, particularly the prime minister, are unwilling to give interviews and appear on programmes that deal with issues of national concern.

Monday April 22, 2013

Kaieteur News

DTV CHANNEL 8 08:25hrs. Sign On 08:30hrs. This Morning 09:00hrs. Live! With Kelly and Michael 10:00hrs. Roseanne 11:00hrs. The View 12:00hrs. World News 12:30hrs. The Young and the Restless 13:30hrs. The Bold and the Beautiful 14:00hrs. The Talk 15:00hrs. Without a Trace 16:00hrs. Criminal Minds 17:00hrs. Charmed

18:00hrs. World News 18:30hrs. Nightly News 19:00hrs. Greetings and Announcements 20:00hrs. Channel 8 News 20:30hrs.

Rules of Engagement 21:00hrs. 2 Broke Girls 21:30hrs. Movie: MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis 23:00hrs. Sign Off MTV CHANNEL 14/ CABLE 65 05:30hrs Dharan Kai AwazThe Voice of Dharma

06:00hrs Islamic Perspective 06:30hrs The Diary 07:00hrs DAY BREAK (live) 08:00hrs Dabi’s Musical Hour 08:30hrs Avon Video & DVD music hour 09:00hrs Current affairs 09:15hrs Top Notch Music Break 09:30hrs Caribbean Temptation music break 10:00hrs Amanda’s music break 10:30hrs Clairan’s Ent. Music Break

Monday April 22, 2013 ARIES (March 21 - April 19): You can certainly use your charm to get what you want today, but wouldn't you rather go for a more challenging option? This is a good time to put yourself to the test. Instead of smiling, flirting or even sassing your way through things today, get serious and meet people directly. ******************* TAURUS (April 20 - May 20): Growth is a good thing, but you should take a break from pushing yourself right now. Today will not be best spent challenging yourself or starting any difficult (if revelatory) conversations. ****************** GEMINI (May 21 - June 20): Have you ever have one of those dreams where you are trying to run as fast as you can, but somehow can't do much more than slowly inch your way along? Today might feel a bit like that -- frustrating, limiting, and yet somehow interesting. ******************** CANCER (June 21 - July 22): While things in your professional life are coming together quite nicely right now, not everything will be going as smoothly in your home life.

This will definitely not be an easy day in terms of keeping that promise you made. ********************* LEO (July 23 - Aug. 22): Working in tandem with a new associate or friend will yield some entertaining rewards, so don't be shy about starting a new group project today! Roll up your sleeves and get ready to get going as soon as you hear about something that sounds interesting. ******************* VIRGO (Aug. 23 - Sept.

22): Keep on keeping on -you are closer than ever to getting what you want, and if you just keep going you will soon (very soon) see a sign that things are about to

change the way you want them to. ********************* LIBRA (Sept. 23 - Oct. 22): When you encounter a new or confusing person today, be thorough with your questions -- the more meticulous you are with what you want to know, the more perceptive you have the capacity to be. ********************* SCORPIO (Oct. 23 Nov. 21): Today, you should try to mix things up a little.

Don't behave the way that other people expect you to -- and see what happens when you act out of character. ******************** SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 Dec. 21): What's on your mind right now? Good or bad, it's time to talk all about it. You are loved by all of your friends, so why not find one today who has time to listen? .********************* CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 Jan. 19): People are giving you feedback that is genuine, although it might be hard for you to believe right now -these people are not just praising you for their health, they really mean it! Have faith in yourself and understand that you're capable of amazing things. ******************** AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 Feb. 18): You'll be most interested by intellectual pursuits today, so feel free to put off plans for frivolous activities if you can. Instead of shopping at the mall, pick up a book and settle into a comfy chair. ********************* PISCE S ( F e b . 1 9 March 20): Positive results may slow in coming in your life right now, but other people are getting behind you more and more. Your personal cheerleader squad is growing, so your spirits will be shiny and bright.

Page 23

11:00hrs Salvation Message with Pastor Kelvin 11:15hrs The View 12:00hrs Village Talk: 12:30hrs The Young and The Restless 13:30hrs Days of our lives 14:00hrs General Hospital 15:00hrs Katie Couric Show 16:00hrs The Bold and the Beautiful 16:30hrs Cartoons 17:00hrs Birthdays & other Greetings 17:15hrs Death Announcements/ In Memoriam 17:30hrs Sitcom 18:00hrs Aracari Resort Hour 19:00hrs CNN News 19:30hrs News Update 20:30hrs Getting it Right 21:30hrs Sports Watch with Jadon Samuels 22:30hrs Sitcom 23:00hrs News Update 23:30hrs English Movie: Pitch Black Sign Off NCN CHANNEL 11 05:00h – Inspiration 05:30h – Newtown Gospel 06:00h – NCN News (rb) 06:30h – BBC 07:00h _ Guyana Today 08:00h - Weekly Digest 08:30h _ Pulse Beat

09:00h – Stop the Suffering 10:15h _ Chennai Super Kings vs Royals 13:30h _ Feature 14:00h _ Newsbreak 14:05h _ Dharma Vani **** 15:05h _ Feature 16:00h _NCN Newsbreak 16:05h _Cartoons 17:00h _ Anderson 18:00h – NCN News Magazine – Live 18:30h –Step by Step

19:00h _ Al Jazeera 19:30h _ Shape 20:00h – 3d/daily millions/play de dream/lotto draw 20:05h _ NCN Newsbreak 20:10h _ Kala Milan/ Parliament 20:40h – Feature 21:05h – Feature 22:05h – NCN Late Edition News 22:35h – Caribbean Newsline 23:00h _ Movie

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Kaieteur News

Monday April 22, 2013

Monday April 22, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 25

Eyewitness identifies men who beat Cuyuni miner to death

By Michael Jordan A 20-year-old miner yesterday recounted seeing John Darwin Mc Pherson take his last breath after being abducted, bound, beaten and repeatedly drenched by a group of men at Oku Backdam, Cuyuni, two Wednesdays ago.

Daniel Henry, the alleged eyewitness, told Kaieteur News that he identified the men to police while they were all in custody at the Bartica Police Station. However, the suspects were all released on $100,000 station bail without charges. Mc Pherson’s mother said she has filed a complaint at the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), while vowing to do all in her power to ensure that her son’s killers do not escape justice.

Yesterday, a police official confirmed that the suspects were no longer in custody, but stated that police are still investigating Mc Pherson’s death and are attempting to locate three other men.

According to the official, investigators are trying to ascertain who exactly inflicted the fatal injuries and are also awaiting a report from the pathologist.

A death certificate viewed

by Kaieteur News gave Mc Pherson’s cause of death as asphyxiation and also stated that he had compression injuries to the neck.

Reports indicate that 25year-old Mc Pherson was beaten at the orders of a dredge owner who had accused the Plum Park, Sophia resident of being the mastermind behind an attempt to steal gold from his camp.

Kaieteur News was told that the dredge owner who ordered Mc Pherson’s abduction had caught a miner from Mc Pherson’s camp on his claim two Wednesdays ago. The crewmen allegedly relieved the intruder of a firearm, and after being beaten and interrogated, the miner reportedly identified Mc Pherson and two others as his accomplices.

At the time, Mc Pherson was working at another dredge owner’s camp located some 15 minutes away.

Mc Pherson’s employer described him as a good worker while expressing doubt that the man who has worked with him for two years, was part of any criminal activity.

“He was a good boy. I doubt that he had anything to do with it.” The employer also said that the dredge

DEAD: John Darwin Mc Pherson

ALLEGED EYEWITNESS: Daniel Henry

owner informed him that nothing was stolen, although the owner of the claim had alleged that someone had tampered with a piece of mesh covering a container where raw gold is collected.

Daniel Henry, the alleged eyewitness, said that about 14 men, including the dredge owner, accompanied by his General Manager arrived in a truck at their camp.

Kaieteur News was told the intruders then bounded Mc Person and Henry, hand and foot, and took them back to their camp, where they still held captive the miner who had entered their camp.

Henry said that after learning

that Mc Pherson had worked with his employer for the longest period, the dredge owner concluded that Mc Pherson had planned the robbery.

“They ask me how long I work with (name given) and I say six weeks and Darwin say he work with (name of dredge owner) for about two years and they say Darwin is the mastermind. Darwin bring me and the other boy.”

According to Henry, they were then subjected to some three hours of torture. “They start beating us…we say that we don’t know anything and they still beating us. They beat us with hose, wood,

cutlass, rope and iron,” added Henry, who said that his legs were badly swollen and one of his fingers appears to have been broken.

The miner alleged that their captors then strapped them to two All-Terrain Vehicles while indicating that they would hand them over to the police. By then, Mc Pherson was reportedly close to death, but even then, one of the men continued to strike the bound and barely conscious man, while telling him to “ketch yuhself.”

According to the eyewitness, Mc Pherson “couldn’t make it anymore,” and the men eventually stopped at Oku, Cuyuni, where they began to dip water from rapids in the location and repeatedly throw water in the dying man’s face.

“They start throwing water on him and saying ‘ketch yuhself, water is life.’”

Henry said that it was during this ordeal that he saw his colleague take his last breath.

“The bossman and the GM and the cook come off the bikes and they say ‘we done deh in it, wha we gun do with the next two?’”

Henry said that the men eventually headed to an area known as Brian Road. Police

ranks then arrived at the area and took all the men, including Henry into custody at the Bartica Police Station.

The miner said that he identified two of the men who had beaten him and his colleagues and the ranks also detained two other men from the camp. He identified the culprits as the camp cook and another individual with a slightly deformed right arm.

Nevertheless, the suspects were all released on $100,000 bail each. Henry said that he was also released without charges, and Kaieteur News understands that the miner who was allegedly found on the dredge owner’s camp with a firearm was also released.

McPherson’s mother, Barbara James, told Kaieteur News that an attorney accompanied her to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, where she gave a statement.

“I am going as far as it takes. I need justice for my son. My son is not a thief. My son’s death will not be another figure,” Ms. James said yesterday.

And McPherson’s employer also expressed surprise that the men who allegedly killed his worker Continued on page 27

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Kaieteur News

Monday April 22, 2013

Monday April 22, 2013

Kaieteur News

Four teens rescued from sexual exploitation in interior Four teenagers were rescued from the vicious jaws of sexual slavery thanks to the Guyana Women Miners’ Organization (GWMO) following an altercation with the perpetrators yesterday.

The girls, aged 14, 15, 17, and 18 years old were being held in a shop, popularly called ‘Kaimoo’ by porkknockers in Tiger Creek, Puruni, Region Seven.

Dirty, sweaty, tired and crying, the teens spent last night on a bench in the Bartica Police Station as if they were the wrongdoers, said Simona Broomes, President of GWMO. According to Broomes, the representative of the Human Service Ministry in Bartica was unable to provide any assistance immediately

to the young girls. She is distraught that not even a hotel room with security was offered.

Broomes said that rescuing the girls was not an easy task and members of the GWMO had to put up a fight.

Without police security, members of GWMO had to depend on their lone personal security to help fight off the perpetrators who followed them to Itaballi.

Broomes said that she was shocked to see that the Mines Officer in the area and the perpetrators are friends. She said that at the Mines Officer’s dwelling place, a physical altercation occurred.

More information on this matter to be made available in Tuesday’s edition.

Hururu residents protest RUSAL’s move to halt logging on leased land Several irate Hururu residents yesterday blocked a main roadway to protest an imminent move by RUSAL to stop them from logging on Amerindian lands that the Hururu Council has leased to the Russian aluminum company.

The Hururu/Kwakwani roadway in the Upper Demerara-Berbice, runs through lands leading to over 2000 acres of forestry at Kurubuka that the Toshao and Councilors have leased since around 2005 to RUSAL for some $1.3M per month for bauxite mining.

The Hururu road has also been leased to RUSAL for $1.1M per month.

Kaieteur News was told that as part of the agreement between the Hururu Council and RUSAL, residents will have to discontinue cutting logs in the leased area.

RUSAL is said to be preparing to commence work in the area, which means that the agreement will now be

enforced.

But now several residents, including Deputy Toshao Victor Walker, are expressing reservations about the deal, which they say will severely affect the livelihood of loggers in the area.

“Once the mining starts, the logging ceases,” Deputy Toshao Victor Walker told Kaieteur News yesterday.

“This is our livelihood.

This would cause starvation in our community. We have children who are going to school. We have other expenses. We are looking for full compensation for the land that they want to utilize from us and right now the land where they want to work is where we do our logging.”

Rather than the $2.3M per month, Walker is recommending that RUSAL pay the Council $12M a month for the land and the roadway. He also pointed out that the Russian company collects $1M to $1.2M a

month from Hururu residents for electricity.

The Deputy Toshao said that the issue was to have been discussed at an April 17 meeting with officials from the Amerindian Affairs Ministry.

However, he alleged that when he arrived at the meeting he was prevented from raising the issue, allegedly due to his late arrival.

Winsbert Benjamin, Hururu’s Toshao, conceded to Kaieteur News that loggers will be affected by their inability to use the Hururu road. He said that the Council had hoped to meet with RUSAL officials to work out a compromise.

The new project comprises the development of two open pit mines at Kurubuka 22 (Kurubuka East and Kurubuka West). The Kurubuka 22 deposit is located immediately adjacent to the Berbice River and approximately 14.5 KM from the former Aroaima’s crushing and drying facilities.

Eyewitness identifies men who...

From page 25 had been released. The dredge owner said that he was at the Bartica Police Station when Henry positively identified the suspects. “I was there when they took statements and he told them what happened.”

He also alleged that the dredge owner who had allegedly ordered Henry to be brutalized had contacted him and said “one of your men collapse and dead and see what you can do.”

Mc Pherson’s boss, who was in Georgetown when his worker was killed, also expressed concern that the dredge owner, whom he described as being “like a neighbour” (the camps are a relatively short distance away) should have taken such drastic action, particularly since he claimed that nothing was stolen.

“They should have

informed me. We are like neighbours; if they want anything (for their camp) they would come to me, and likewise I would do the same.”

The dredge owner disclosed that McPherson sustained a broken hand last

December and had to spend the Christmas holidays in the city.

“By the hand was not well, I paid him to just grease the machine. If I knew he was not a good man, I would not have taken him back into the backdam?”

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Kaieteur News

Monday April 22, 2013

Monday April 22, 2013

Kaieteur News

Letter to the Sports Editor

Demerara Cricket Board strongly condemns GCA & ECCB recklessness DEAR SPORTS EDITOR, Once again, the DCB is being asked to correct these continuous reckless and disrespectful charges being made by these 2 insolent Area Associations and have now decided to refer this matter to its disciplinary committee for further action.

The DCB had submitted to all media houses copies of the court orders that were made by the Honourable James Bovell-Drakes in 2011 and is aghast at these blatant lies and untruths that continue to be published wholesale by some sections of the media without any effort to verify the facts from these Court Orders.

The individuals from these 2 outfits have managed to mislead the Government of Guyana, the public to a certain extent and the media for several years with these unsubstantiated allegations but intelligent persons who care and bother themselves to read the actual Orders would surely not be manipulated by these individuals.

In December 2011, Mr. Harper had brought a contempt of court motion against the same Raj Singh led administration and withdrew his motion. It is mindboggling that some people are so easily misled by this dwindling group.

The DCB maintains that there is no legal impediment to its existence as it continues to execute its mandate of administering cricket in the County of Demerara.

The DCB respects the wishes of its sponsors and cricketers and will make every effort to ensure that cricket is played continuously in our County despite these negative actions by this

misguided group.

The DCB just concluded the Under-15 & Under-19 inter association competitions, without the cooperation of these 2 delinquent Associations, whilst ensuring that young cricketers from all areas of Demerara, inclusive of Georgetown and East Coast Demerara, were selected to represent their respective areas. We make no apologies for these actions! West Demerara won the Under-19 competition whilst Georgetown won the Under15 Inter Association competition.

This clearly represents development in traditional rural areas as both competitions were very keenly contested. We are also especially pleased to announce that the Demerara team just won the Limacol sponsored GCB Inter County Under-15 tournament playing unbeaten throughout the competition. Congrats to our youths! In addition, the President’s XI comprising several Demerara players performed very creditably, almost whipping the supposed “powerhouse” for cricket in Guyana, Berbice.

The DCB wishes to state very clearly that they have a duly constituted Executive Committee that was legally elected at a duly constituted AGM without any legal restrictions and will continue to function in the development of cricket in the County of Demerara.

The DCB remains committed to the promotion and development of youths and cricket in Demerara. The distraction of so-called “shareholders” will not deter our efforts.

Raj Singh DCB President

KHALILS SWEEP....

From back page category, while Shuffler-Ten Pow took third.

Joseph benefited from a walkover from Raphael DeGroot to take third place in the men’s draw. Allan Downes was clinical in the fifth game to edge Adam Alves in the men’s plate final (12/10, 6/11, 11/7, 4/11, 11/8), while Benjamin Mekdeci stunned Nicholas Narain in three games to win the Men’s Classis Plate.

Men’s draw First place: Jason Ray Khalil Second place: Regan Pollard Third place: Nyron

Joseph Fourth Place Raphael DeGroot Women’s round robin First place: Ashley Khalil Second place: Ashley DeGroot Third place: Kathy Shuffler-Ten Pow Fourth Place: Alysa Xavier Men’s Classic Plate First place: Benjamin Mekdeci Second place: Nicholas Narain Men’s Plate First place: Allan Downes Second place: Adam Alves Third place: Alec Melville

Page 29

Clive Atwell turns in great display to clinch...

From back page tone for one of the most entertaining bouts seen locally for some time.

Hernandez waded into Atwell at the start of the second round pushing the Guyanese back with sharp right jabs and left crosses. His body attack was indeed commendable and he easily clinched the honours in this round.

Atwell entered the third stanza in a purposeful mood and rocked Hernandez with several right crosses. Not to be outdone, Hernandez traded blows with his shorter foe and the round climaxed to a delightful conclusion with Atwell working on the inside and Hernandez giving as much as he received.

Hernandez was especially brutal in the 4th round when he lashed out and pushed Atwell backwards. He struck several times to Atwell’s head and interspersed the attack with severe body blows.

Atwell danced out of range and retaliated with a few good punches up to the bell in a round that c l e a rly belonged to Hernandez. It was around then that the first set of scores was read; Trinidadian judge, McKenzie Granger had the bout even 39-39, while Eon Jardine had Atwell ahead 39-38. Venezuelan Nicolas Hidalgo had Hernandez in front, 40-37.

Buoyed by the encouraging start to the bout, Hernandez continued with a venomous attack to Atwell’s body. Atwell emulated the Venezuelan with some crisp body blows. Hernandez then delivered a wicked right hook to Atwell’s body but the

Guyanese blocked and served up a wicked left hook of his own shortly before the end of the round.

Hernandez started the 6th round dancing and jabbing with an occasional straight left. The boxers then engaged in a nice exchange at close range when a clash of heads separated them.

Referee Samuel Burgos of Miami ruled that Atwell was at fault and consequently deducted a point from his score. Undaunted, Atwell upped the ante and before the round had concluded, had sent Hernandez reeling from a 2 fisted body and head attack.

Atwell seemed determined to recoup the lost point and steamrolled Hernandez from the start of the 7th round.

After one such attack the referee halted the bout and called in the ringside physician to examine a wound over Hernandez’ left eye. Upon resumption, both pugilists went after each other in a vicious exchange that only ended upon the bell.

Hernandez’ cut man went to work during the one minute respite after the 7th round and sent his boxer back into the fray almost unscathed. It seemed also as though Hernandez had had a second wind; despite sporting a small mouse under his right eye, he continued to show remarkable aggression lashing out with wicked body and head shots.

Both gladiators refused to backpedal as the 8th round commenced. By now Hernandez’ face was transformed to a mess with a

small cut over his left eye while he sported a ‘mouse’ below the very eye. The round proved to be Atwell’s best as he breached the Venezuelan’s defence with several sharp salvoes.

Atwell’s hard work was beginning to reap dividends and at the end of the 8th round, two judges, Granger and Jardine, had him ahead 78-76 and 79-74 respectively, while Hidalgo had Hernandez in the lead 77-76.

Atwell turned up the heat at the start of the 9th round and Hernandez’ face continued to show the effects of the punishment he had sustained; his left eye continued to swell and had now retained a blue tinge yet he gamely kept on. The round, however, clearly belonged to Atwell who seemed to be getting stronger as the fight progressed.

Round ten was a replica of the 9th, Atwell continued to score at will while the Venezuelan hung in, scoring occasionally. A vicious right cross slammed into Hernandez’ head but failed to stop him and he ended the round in remarkable fashion.

By now, Atwell was in full flow and entered the 11th round with venom; a 4 punch combination slammed into Hernandez’ body and head but the Venezuelan demonstrated remarkable resilience, dishing out leathers of his own. The crowd joined in and began to chant for Atwell. Buoyed by their enthusiasm, Atwell lashed out and when the bell sounded, was firmly in control of the contest.

Hernandez appeared to be

fatigued at the start of the final round, while a super fit Atwell attacked as though it was the first round. He opted to dance around while Hernandez’ legs appeared tired and his shuffling steps had dwindled to a plod. Atwell served up a heaped helping of right crosses and hooks and when the bell sounded appeared as though he could have easily gone three more. Jardine and Granger maintained a consistency with scores of 119-110 and 118-112. Only this time Atwell, who had trailed for most of the bout on Hidalgo’s card, finally managed to convince the judge who duly scored the bout 116-113 in favour of Atwell.

Earlier, Austin had survived several testing moments against Dorway to register a close verdict.

Bernard DeSantos saw the fight as a draw at 112-112, while Trevor Arno and Rawle Aaron voted in favour of Austin 114-113 and 112-110 respectively.

Mullings won his fight after judges McKenzie Granger, Clairmont DeSouza and Francis Abraham scored in his favour, 118-110, 117-111 and 116-112 respectively.

The night got off to a good start when amateur boxer, Quincy Boyce defeated Keron Smith and Candaci Benjamin got the better of Keisha Arokium.

The organizers had promised a firestorm and indeed long after the final bell, the heat could be felt and smoke wafted across the arena. It was the fitting result of a card that delivered as was promised.

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Kaieteur News

Monday April 22, 2013

London Marathon 2013: Priscah Jeptoo and Tsegaye Kebede win BBC Sport - Kenya’s Priscah Jeptoo took advantage of a dramatic fall by Olympic champion Tiki Gelana to win the London Marathon.

After Gelana was involved in a collision with Canadian wheelchair racer Josh Cassidy, Jeptoo won in two hours, 20 minutes and 15 seconds.

In the men’s race, Ethiopian Tsegaye Kebede overhauled 2011 champion Emmanuel Mutai in the closing stages for his second win in 2:06:04.

A 30-second silence was held in tribute to victims of the Boston bombings. In addition, competitors were encouraged to wear black ribbons. Those terrorist attacks at the end of the world’s oldest marathon had taken place only six days before the 33rd staging of the London race. As a result, extra police officers - 40% more than last year - were deployed to ensure safety.

Yet, any question that events in Boston might drive fans away was dismissed as supporters lined the streets of the capital on a sunny Sunday morning.

Indeed, conditions were so ideal for running that it was suggested that a world record may have been broken in one of the elite races.

And record pace was being kept in the men’s race up to about the halfway mark, where Great Britain’s

Tsegaye Kebede crosses the finish line to win the London Marathon on Sunday - his second win in the race, following success in 2010. (Getty Images) double Olympic champion Mo Farah withdrew as planned.

From there, and with the record being a more unlikely prospect, Mutai built what looked to be a winning lead. But, with around 1km remaining, Kebede, who was

controversially omitted from the Ethiopia team for the 2012 Olympics, breezed past unchallenged to repeat his London success of 2010.

Ethiopian Ayele Abshero finished third, with Olympic champion Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda sixth.

Earlier, the women’s elite and men’s wheelchair races converged at a water station, ending the challenges of both Gelana and Cassidy. Gelana, part of the leading pack at the 15km mark, cut across the path of Cassidy as she attempted to collect a drink. The Ethiopian fell and her leg appeared to go under Cassidy’s chair. She rejoined the race, but faded in clear discomfort.

With Gelana out of contention, Jeptoo, the 2012 Olympic silver medallist, pulled clear to take victory ahead of compatriot Edna Kiplagat and Japan’s Yoko Shibui.

“Today I’m very, very happy, I couldn’t believe I could be the winner,” Jeptoo told BBC Sport. “It is a very tough race because everybody who comes here is really prepared.”

Great Britain’s Susan Partridge came ninth in a time of 2:30:46, enough for a place at the World Championships in August. In the wheelchair event, the crash ended Cassidy’s participation in a race that was won by Australia’s Kurt Fearnley . He emerged from the pack in a sprint finish that left the tiring British six-time winner David Weir trailing in fifth.

American Tatyana McFadden emerged victorious in the women’s wheelchair race, with Britain’s Shelly Woods fifth.

Priscah Jeptoo runs down the Mall on her way to winning the women’s race.

(Getty Images)