Coalition should treat Waddell’s assassination as a matter of priority

Dear Editor,

January 30, 2017 will mark the eleventh year since the assassination of my brother and comrade, Ronald Waddell, who was shot multiple times by gunmen after he entered his car in front of his residence at Sea Glimpse, Subryanville, opposite the sea wall. I want to use this opportunity to reflect on the life and work of Waddell, who in my opinion, was a multi-talented person. In the period when he bestrode the earth Waddell was a journalist, a popular television talk show host, a politician, a Rastafarian, a cultural activist and a fighter for African Liberation both at home and abroad.

At the time of his death darkness had already descended on the community where he lived. Persons on and around the seawall area were going about their business when suddenly, mayhem reigned. There were several reports from eyewitnesses who spoke about hearing rapid gunfire and seeing, illuminated on the skyline, tracer bullets, as the sound of the deadly gunfire rang out. In the aftermath, it was discovered that the victim of that vicious attack was Ronald Waddell and by then, the gunmen had made good their escape in a waiting motor car. Throughout these 11 years the law enforcement authorities in Guyana appear to be either impotent or reluctant (or both), to investigate the circumstances around this most heinous assassination and in the process, bring to justice, not only those who carried out the execution, but also the intellectual authors who planned the crime.

When the news broke that Waddell was killed and the manner in which the execution was carried out, people were united in their belief that the killing was political. The regime released a statement condemning the killing as unfortunate and promised to bring to justice, those responsible. The statement was far from convincing. The fact that Waddell was an uncompromising critic of the regime and an advocate for the empowerment and liberation of Africans could not be denied. He seized on every opportunity to make his positions known and he fearlessly spoke out against the PPP government’s oppressive policies, which marginalized the African poor and powerless. There was a deliberate policy by the regime and their allies to ostracize and deem him a racist. Waddell was also subjected to public verbal attacks by officials of the government.

The extent of Roger Khan’s involvement in his execution was revealed in a US court in 2010, during the trial of Khan‘s American attorney, Robert Simmels, who was charged with witness tampering. In Simmels’ criminal trial Selwyn Vaughn, a self-confessed former member of Khan’s phantom/death squad, who gave sworn testimony as a prosecution witness, said that elements of Roger Khan’s death squad, acting under instructions from Khan, carried out the execution of Waddell. Vaughn further testified that he was the lookout man in the operation. He told the court that after the execution, drug kingpin, Roger Khan, immediately called an official and informed him that the operation had been carried out.

It is now 19 months since a change in government in Guyana and surprisingly, there is no indication that the incumbent coalition government intends to treat the matter of Waddell’s assassination as one of high priority. Throughout the country and particularly in the African community, there is growing uneasiness that the execution of Waddell and the killing of the many citizens extra-judicially during the PPP’s rule, have been put on the back burner. For many Guyanese this is a troubling development given the commitment by the APNU+AFC coalition in opposition to pursue and bring to justice those responsible for these blatant acts of murder. It is understandable that while the PPP was in office the law enforcement agencies never carried out any serious investigations to find Waddell’s killers. But in the new dispensation ushered in by the results of the 2015 elections the fact that there is no statement emanating from the powers that be that these killings will now be treated with the seriousness they deserve is at best, extremely worrying.

Over the years many persons within the African community have, on the occasions of great disaster, personal and national, been consoling themselves and each other with the saying “God works in mysterious ways”. In making these statements they have been implying that God, in periods of great distress, will deliver justice when the authorities fail to act. Notwithstanding the value of faith, I have over the years told myself that those of us who expect God to intervene as they want, have to take to the streets and demand justice for Ronald Waddell, Courtney Crum Ewing and the many mainly African men killed extra-judicially when the PPP was in office.

It is my conviction that it is our ongoing patriotic duty to continue to demand justice for our martyrs.

Yours faithfully, Tacuma Ogunseye