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10TH AUGUST 2006
MEDIA RELEASE
“THE PEOPLE OF GUYANA HAVE HAD ENOUGH”

The Private Sector Commission wishes to express their continuing dismay and horror at the incessant, unchecked assassination of innocent citizens by a gang of vicious criminals with a clearly terrorist agenda freely allowed to kill at will, wherever and whenever they please, without serious challenge from the authority of the state.

The Private Sector Commission extends their heartfelt sympathy to the family and relatives of those employees of Kaieteur News and others who have been so brutally murdered. The PSC wishes to also extend their deep sympathy and support to the management and staff of Kaieteur News.

The private sector calls upon our Joint Security Forces to grasp the fact that the people of Guyana have had enough.

The Private Sector can only emphasize the fact that these terrorist are being allowed to operate with impunity from open backlands and cane fields at night for many months and still remain virtually unchallenged by our combined security forces.

The Private Sector is, however, convinced that the Guyana Defence Force, if properly commanded, has the training, the weaponry and the capacity to find and apprehend this gang of terrorist. We are asking why the Special Forces Battalion of the Defence Force, who are especially equipped and prepared to deal with this insurgency and insurrection against the State, have not been deployed in the backlands to combat this threat.

The Private Sector also asks, why is the GDF Air Wing being still used for commercial transportation when it should instead be providing aerial operational support to the Joint Services in the field.

The President must accept that, as Commander-in -Chief of the armed forces, he is constitutionally bound to hold the command of the Guyana Defence Force accountable for failing to effectively and conclusively confront a comparatively small gang of armed terrorists bent on destabilizing the country and expected to take the necessary remedial action.