Submitted by Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID)
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK: Guyana’s President, Bharrat Jagdeo, in his address to the 30th Meeting of Caricom Heads of Government, which began in Guyana yesterday, appealed for the rights of Guyanese to respected by Barbadian Immigration authorities. But Jagdeo himself is not getting a pass from the New York based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID). The Institute is demanding that Jagdeo heeds his own words.
CGID President, Rickford Burke, said Friday that although he agrees in principle with the Guyanese leader, Jagdeo has no honor on the subject of human rights and must be heed his own counsel. Burke added that “Barbados is not the chief abuser of the human rights of Guyanese – the Jagdeo government is. The lack of respect the Guyana government demonstrates for its own citizens and its mediocre, despotic governance, invite the mistreatment of Guyanese in the region,” Burke observed.”
On May 5, 2009 Barbados Prime Minister, David Thompson, implemented a controversial new immigration policy of deporting undocumented Caricom nationals who entered Barbados after December 2005. Since then, immigration officials have conducted early morning raids on the homes of suspected undocumented Caricom nationals, and have “deported” or “removed” them from Barbados. Guyanese constitute the largest immigrant block in Barbados. Over eighty percent of the Barbados deportees have been Guyanese.
President Jagdeo told the conference that “While countries have a sovereign right to determine their own immigration policies, the maltreatment of CARICOM citizens is repugnant to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas as well as to basic human decency.” Jagdeo also said that “If nationals are treated in such a manner by their own people then the region cannot expect a third country to receive its citizens in any better way.”
Responding to Jagdeo’s comments, Burke asserted that “while defending the human rights of Guyanese is a fiduciary function of the presidency of Guyana, President Jagdeo has no credibility to make this case, as United Nations has established, and the Guyanese people know, that his government is the biggest violator of Guyanese human rights.”
Burke accused President Jagdeo of heading a repressive ethnocracy that uses discrimination and ethnic supremacy as instruments of governance. “The Jagdeo administration has an oppressive noose around the necks of Afro-Guyanese, which they systematically tighten, as if to subjugate that population into another form of servitude and political wilderness. He said that under Mr. Jagdeo’s predominantly Indian ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) government, Guyana has become a “hellhole” of ethnic and racial discrimination, torture and human rights violations.
Burke backed up his allegations by citing sections 34, 35, 65 and 70 of the February 23, 2009 Report of the United Nations independent expert on minority Issues, Ms. Gay McDougall, which was presented to the United Nations General Assembly.
Section 34-35 of the report states that: “The independent expert encountered claims of widespread and institutionalized discrimination against members of the Afro-Guyanese community and indigenous peoples. Some described the “victimization” of poor Afro-Guyanese and an informal system of rights and privileges in society to which they lack access.”
Section 65 says “Concerns were expressed by Afro-Guyanese and others regarding numerous killings of young Afro-Guyanese men from 2002 to the present day, and the existence of what has been described as a “phantom death squad”. A wide array of people within the community put the number of deaths at between 200 and 400. The reports note execution style killings, disappearances and failure to adequately record or investigate the murders. The perception is of a collusion of Government and law enforcement with known criminals to facilitate the targeting and killing of young African males known.”
70 states that, “NGOs and community members raised concerns regarding serious rights violations against Afro-Guyanese including arbitrary detention without trial, torture, deaths and mistreatment in custody, and killings of innocent civilians during operations by the joint services… It is claimed that, taken as a whole, these evidence a wider pattern and practice of gross rights violations against Afro-Guyanese and a failure of due process.”
Burke said amidst such gross atrocities by the Jagdeo administration and complaints about torture and human rights violations, Caricom leaders claim that they do not wish to interfere in the internal affairs of Guyana. He however said that while he agrees with their condemnation of some Barbados immigration practices, including alleged human rights violations, he find the double standard worrisome. “Clearly, they are interfering in Barbadian domestic policy, and rightly so. But what has been happening in Guyana is far more egregious. Their silence on Guyana is therefore hypocritical and repugnant to Caricom and its Charter of Civil Society,” he added.
Burke reiterated that Barbados’ sovereignty and domestic laws must be respected and that it should be expected that violators may be brought to justice. He however contended that “Raiding the homes of individuals, violating their human rights and deporting or removing them, without due process, exclusively for overstaying their time, is indeed repugnant to the spirit of Caricom and the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.”
Burke, who announced that he has written the Barbadian Prime Minister on the matter, urged Thompson to treat Guyanese fleeing Guyana humanely, as discrimination is pervasive and political and economic conditions perilous. He noted that international law prohibits deporting an individual back to a country of origin where that individual could be subjected to torture or political persecution.
He argued that apart from the deplorable raids, arbitrary deportations or removals and the alleged mistreatment of Caricom nationals, the fact that those being deported or removed from Barbados allegedly are not accorded fundamental due process to assure conformity to international law, should be unacceptable to the Caricom citizenry; including Barbadians, whom he said have a long tradition in the region of upholding civil and human rights.
The CGID head again stated that immigration policy throughout the region needs to be reformed and rationalized but that unilateral, singular and uncoordinated action by one government, is counterproductive to a harmonized regional policy approach that is compatible with deeper integration. He urged leaders meeting in Georgetown to develop a Caricom approach to migration across the region.
Burke also criticized some Jagdeo supporters and others whom he said “have interjected race into the discussion.” “There is no evidence that the Barbadian policy was tinged by ethnic considerations. I stand with the Prime Minister of Barbados in rejecting this ugly tactic, which does nothing but create deeper divisions and color the real issues being debated,” the CGID President stressed.
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