Al Jazeera English - News - Protests Erupt Over Guyana Deaths

UPDATED ON:
MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2008
23:54 MECCA TIME, 20:54 GMT

NEWS AMERICAS





Protests erupt over Guyana deaths

Residents have demanded that the authorities crack
down on a suspected criminal gang [AFP]

Police in Guyana have fired tear gas at protesters demanding police action over the killing of 11 people by a suspected criminal gang.

Villagers built barricades and set tyres on fire to blockade a main road east of the capital, Georgetown, and several children were sent to hospital after breathing in tear gas fumes during Monday's protest.

Villagers say they want the authorities to crack down on a gang allegedly headed by the country's most wanted man, Rondell Rawlins, whom the authorities blamed for the attack.

Guyana has deployed hundreds of soldiers and police in the villages to search surrounding forests for the gang.

Officials say Rawlins launched the attack, in the village of Lusignan, because he alleges that the authorities have abducted his pregnant girlfriend, a charge the authorities deny.

The killings in Lusignan occurred several hours after an armed assault late on Friday night on the heavily fortified headquarters of Guyana's police force.

Police have offered $150,000 for information leading to Rawlins's capture.

Call for arms

Villagers have also petitioned Bharrat Jagdeo, Guyana's president, to bulldoze several kilometres of woodlands near the villages affected so the heavily armed men would not have a place to hide.

Jagdeo, who visited the affected villages on Monday, called on the US and other nations to provide more aid for Guyana's poorly equipped security forces.

"Even if we put police and soldiers in every village, we'd only be able
to cover 10 per cent of them - the other 90 per cent would be very vulnerable,'' he said.

Residents in turn have demanded arms to form community patrols.

"It is better to die trying to protect the village in the streets than to
die hiding beneath your bed," Sharmila Ramcharran, a mother of five, said.

The attack and resulting protests have raised concerns of violence between the country's ethnic African and Indian Guyanese.

Tensions between the Indian majority and Afro-Guyanese boiled over into rioting after elections in 1992, 1997 and 2001.

Source: Agencies

Related:
	Guyana villagers shot dead (26 Jan 2008)

Tools:
	Email article
	Print article
	Send your feedback