Update: Guyana President Breaks Silence on 14 Year Old Boy Tortured by Guyanese Police

By Ryan C. Kossler

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

 

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Guyana’s president Bharrat Jagdeo spoke out on Thursday about the torture of a fourteen year old boy by Guyanese police, breaking his long silence over the issue.  In a media press conference at the Office of the President, Jagdeo said that the police officer’s actions were a “terrible stain on the country’s police force,” and that “such a callous incident, if committed against anyone, must be unequivocally condemned.” 

 

The boy was detained and tortured in late October by Guyanese police in relation to a murder investigation.  The boy was one of three men arrested for the murder of Ramenauth Bisram, a local government official who died of multiple stab wounds on October 26.

 

The police officers involved arrested the boy on October 27 and attempted to beat a confession out of him.  When the boy refused to sign a confession, the police officers doused his genitals with flammable liquid and set him on fire.  The boy was held without proper medical care or access to legal representation until October 31, despite several attempts by his lawyer and family to see him.

 

President Jagdeo has given police officials two weeks to investigate the allegation of police brutality.  He said that a report issued at the end of the investigation would be made public, and that those who directly participated in the torture would face the consequences.  So far, two police officers have been arrested in connection with the incident.

 

All charges have been dropped against the boy and he has since been released from custody.  Another suspect, Deonarine Rafick, arrested in connection to the same incident, however, still remains in prison.

 

President Jagdeo has urged citizens to not to view every policeman and soldier in the same light as those who were involved in the boy’s torture.  He said about the police of Guyana that “hundreds of them every day, they are the frontline against criminals, these are the people we call on when something happens and many of them in spite of very difficult situations; remunerations not great, sometimes the conditions of service are not great but they go out there and put their lives many days on the line for all of us and the recent incident where they were targeted would show that.  So we can’t allow the actions of a few to cause us to forget the hundreds out there who do their work professionally and with decency.”

 

Although President Jagdeo has publicly condemned this action of police brutality, he and his security forces have been accused many times in the past of violating Guyanese citizens’ human rights.  Citizens have claimed that Jagdeo and his security forces avoid all civil liberties in order to get what they want.    

 

For more information, please see:

 

Carib World News – Guyana President Speaks Up On Teen Torture – 6 November 2009

 

Amnesty International – Acts of torture by Guyanese police must be punished - 4 November 2009

 

Digital Journal – Guyana police accused of setting boy’s genitals on fire - 1 November 2009

 

Reuters – Guyana police accused of burning boy’s genitals - 31 October 2009

Comments

[Devi]

if that boy was my son, so help me god it would have been a different story. those policemen are BEAST, they should get life for what they have done to that kid