Guyana Observer News

WPA concerned over move to set up intelligence agency

Thursday, 11 February 2010

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The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) says it is concerned about the government’s decision to establish a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and it also warns against any attempt to force the Guyana Defence Force in a new direction in violation of the constitution. The WPA in a news release yesterday noted that according to Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon the CIA here will coordinate all of the information gathered by intelligence officers of the several arms of the Joint Security Services.

This development, according to the opposition party, “when set alongside the reported, unchallenged statements which are attributed to President (Bharrat) Jagdeo at the GDF’s two-day conference “Re-engineering to Enhance National Defence and Security” has created considerable unease among citizens in Guyana.”

The WPA also noted that President Jagdeo in his address at that forum had said that “The traditional focus of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) will have to be shifted to ensure the better use of the country’s resources.”

And he is also reported to have said that “traditionally the GDF has been structured to maintain peace at the borders and the territorial integrity of the country,” adding that “the country does not anticipate going to war with any of its neighbours and it has not been to war for most of its history.”

The President was also quoted as having said, “But you have this huge pool of talented people in the military and we can’t have them wait on a war with our neighbours.”

In the WPA’s view, the question that must be asked is this: “With the Jagdeo government de-emphasizing the traditional role of the GDF and the State’s decision to force that institution in a new direction, will the soon to be established Guyana CIA be concentrating its efforts on spying on citizens of Guyana, including the political opponents of the government, under the guise of increasing its security efforts?”

The WPA contended that Jagdeo’s statements while not the first of its kind made by him or by the PPP since 1992, “signal the need for increased vigilance by citizens against the known excessive behaviour of members of the Joint Secu-rity Services who have unleashed unprecedented levels of violence and crime against Guyanese, notwithstanding their race, age, gender, religion and political affiliation; and the known efforts of the government to victimize those they dislike.”

In that light, the WPA says that citizens should be reminded that it is this same PPP government which dismantled the GDF’s functioning intelligence service during the period of the upsurge in criminal activity.

In the meantime, the party also wants “to make it clear that while it appreciates the need for a coordinated approach to intelligence gathering, and there is certainly a need for a more professional approach to this matter, it will not stand idly by when intelligence gathering is used to violate the fundamental rights of citizens.”

And the track record of neither the political directorate nor Guyana’s security forces is inspiring in this regard, the party remarked.

Moreover, the WPA “again warned that the constitutional role of the GDF is defined in the Laws of Guyana, Chapter 15:01 (and) any attempt to force the GDF in a new direction in violation of the constitution is to be condemned.”

There have been too many occasions when the GDF has gone beyond its traditional role at the behest of those who hold political power and this nonsense must stop, the WPA concluded.

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