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Ar GUYANA | Opposition Flays PPP/C Gov't over Rickford Burke's wanted bulletin
GUYANA | Opposition Flays PPP/C Gov't over Rickford Burke's wanted bulletin
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, October 1, 2022 - The opposition A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition says the The PPP (People’s Progressive Party) Ali/ Jagdeo administration is attempting to silence New York-based Guyanese political activist Rickford Burke with trumped up allegations of extortion.</p
“The PPP (People’s Progressive Party) , therefore, is waging a campaign to silence him through acts of harassment, intimidation, and character assassination,” the APNU+AFC said in a statement.
The APNU+AFC called on the United States to examine whether the Guyana government was about to flout international law by possibly seeking Mr Burke’s return. “Clearly, this current action by the PPP and the GPF involves transcending Guyana’s borders and being involved in repression of a Guyanese in another jurisdiction.
The following is the full text of the Coalition's statement:
Coalition Condemns Government's Harassment of Rickford Burke
The APNU+AFC has taken note of the malicious Wanted Bulletin issued on September 29th by the Guyana Police Force for Mr. Rickford Burke. Mr. Burke, a US-based Guyanese political activist, is President of the US based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID). He is well-known as a relentless campaigner against racial discrimination, high-level corruption, human rights and general lawlessness on the part of the PPP government. The PPP, therefore, is waging a campaign to silence him through acts of harassment, intimidation, and character assassination.
This current Wanted Bulletin concerns an incident in which Mr. Burke’s role, from our review of the evidence provided, is one of conciliator and conflict resolver. Instead, the PPP, in a desperate act of revenge against Mr. Burke, has used the incident to frame him by criminalizing his well-meaning intentions and actions.
We note that Mr. Burke intends to file legal action and has vowed to continue to expose wrongdoings by senior police officers and Ministers of the government.
The PPP continues to underestimate the will and fortitude of the Guyanese people at home and abroad to rescue their beloved country from its executive lawlessness, victimization, suppression, and corruption. Guyanese want a country in which the government serves the people, not unnerves the people; in which the government provides, not divides; in which the government respects and not rejects freedoms and human rights.
Clearly, this current action by the PPP and the GPF involves transcending Guyana’s borders and being involved in repression of a Guyanese in another jurisdiction. It deserves to be investigated as a crime of transnational repression and the abuse of the Cybercrime laws to suppress free speech and political dissent. We, therefore, call on the US government to investigate this violation of the law and human rights.
The coalition’s position immediately drew a reaction from the government, intimating that there was sufficient evidence to go after Mr Burke extra-territorially.
“The Government of Guyana restates its commitment to use all the lawful powers and facilities available to the State to address crime and criminality both within and beyond its borders. Burke is no exception,” the Ministry of Home Affairs said.
Government said Mr Burke is well known for his racist rantings and race hate writings using social media and other platforms, in his persistent attempts to incite racial and ethnic hostilities among the citizens of Guyana.
Rather than stand on the side of law and order and with the victims of this criminal extortionist plot, the government said APNU/AFC, true to form, chose the side of criminality.
Mr Burke has not been charged or convicted of any crime that police want to question him about.
This is the second Guyana Police Force wanted bulletin to have been issued for Burke. The first was issued in December 2021 when he was cited for the excitement of hostility or ill-will on the grounds of race in violation of the Racial Hostility Act; sedition, use of a computer system to intimidate in violation of the Cyber Crime Act; seditious libel, inciting the provocation of the breach of peace, and inciting public terror.
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