Guyana probing police shooting of opposition protesters

Clement Rohee

Guyana's Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee on Thursday ordered an investigation into the police shooting of opposition protesters, saying he did not law enforcement officers to fire the rubber bullets at supporters of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).

“The decision was made by the unit commander on the ground at the time,” he said. He added that it was done "without consulting the Divisional Commander or the Commissioner of Police.”

The protestors were demanding that the Guyana Elections Commission release the Statement of Polls for the November 28 general election that returned the People’s Progressive Party/Civic to office.

Rohee said he is “deeply concerned” about the incident and has since met with the leadership of the police force to initiate investigations.

He added that his ministry “has always sought to restrain itself from interfering in operational matters executed by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and has always done its level best to restrict itself to policy, programmatic and budgetary issues in respect to its role vis-à-vis the GPF.”

He insisted that the decision to fire on protestors should have been made at a higher level and called on the Commissioner to “immediately put in place other best practices with respect of crowd control and the necessary corrective administrative and command control measures to avoid a repetition of that unfortunate event.”

The APNU has demanded an independent commission of inquiry and wants the punishment of officers who breached police force regulations.