| Focus more on victims of criminality, says Minister RoheeGuyana could see several major projects being started before year end, in the interest of better policing and crime-solving.Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee, in an invited comment,cheap nfl jerseys, said that through the Government of Guyana/ IDB Citizens security programme the projects slated to start before year end include the commencement of construction of Guyana’s own forensic laboratory and a new police training centre.Lashing out at the many misinterpretations and misunderstandings being peddled about government’s proposals for police reform, the Minister said the security service action plan is not the ‘be and end all’ for Guyana.“It was part of the security process. There is also the ongoing citizen security programme and government’s contribution that is impacting on police and security reform,” Minister Rohee pointed out.Government is taking measures to rehabilitate the Brickdam lockups by early 2010 and Minister Clement Rohee said there is need for a more balanced approach to addressing victims of criminality versus perpetrators of such acts.A top police official said recently, “Lockups, are holding areas of detention pending investigations and no detainee should be there for more than 72 hours.” He also said that jail is for remanded personnel and persons sentenced.However, amidst reports of the insanitary conditions at the Brickdam lockups, Minister Rohee said human rights is human rights.However, there is need for the concerns of the victims of criminality to be focused on as opposed to concerns about the welfare of the perpetrators.Police ranks have openly expressed dread at being assigned to man the lockups. The stench of urea and human faeces that emanates from within is unbearable.Complaints of the smell are no different from exclamations by visitors to the Brickdam Police Station, as the stench permeates the air from the lockups situated close to the entrance.The general consensus from some ranks, is that they do not feel that the environment is healthy, even for them to work in.With special emphasis on the reported unsanitary and inhumane conditions of the Brickdam lockups, he said too much focus is being placed on prisoners not being pampered.At the recent Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police conference, police concerns were expressed by a top Caricom official about the state of holding facilities, especially in Guyana, and recently the United States Government took steps to stop the violation of the rights of criminal detainees at Guantanamo Bay.On the local shores, Minister Rohee said, “A police station lockup is not a hotel” and warned that “if you don’t want to go in a police lockups, stay out of trouble or you will suffer the consequences.”He questioned: “what about the victims? Human rights does not mean giving rights to one person involved in a matter to the disadvantage of the other…let it be a balanced view.”Noting that often time persons in the lockups have committed crimes of murder, shootings or placed a gun to someone’s head, he asked the critics to place themselves in the shoes of the victims and their families before formulating conclusions.When asked about conditions at other lockups in Guyana, the minister said he has no knowledge of other lockups having any major problems.He, however noted, that several police stations have been remodelled and will be commissioned in a few weeks to treat with issues such as victims of domestic violence.Meanwhile, the Minister, comparing the incidence of crime this year, so far to the corresponding period last year, said it is still early in the year, but noted that “we are not worse off.”He commended the police for the major breakthrough in certain crimes. They eliminated wanted man, Courtney James and arrested suspects in the murder of the Security guard Simone Coleridge. (Mondale Smith) |
