The Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) on Tuesday (June 13, 2017) recognised the death anniversary of “one of Guyana’s greatest sons and patriots,” Dr Walter Rodney, who was brutally killed in 1980.
The Opposition Party noted that Dr. Rodney “led the WPA, a political movement and championed the cause of the poor and oppressed upon a platform of ethnic, racial, class and religious unity.”
The party also likened Dr. Rodney to its own leader and founder, Dr. Cheddi Jagan.
However, it called out the APNU+AFC Coalition for its efforts to discredit the findings of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into Dr. Rodney’s death, which was established under the PPP’s Administration.
“The report of that inquiry provides irrefutable proof of the political, economic and social conditions which prevailed in Guyana during the PNC dictatorship. In particular, it highlighted how the PNC, as a political party, contaminated the entire state apparatus and used the might of state power to silence the voices of political opponents and critics. It is alarming how these very tendencies and the fear and intimidation, which accompanied them have returned so swiftly over the last two years,” the PPP pointed out.
Dr. Rodney was killed on June 13, 1980, while sitting in his brother’s Mazda Capella car, PBB 2349, on John Street, near the Georgetown Prison.
According to the 155 pages report of the CoI, “given the manner in which the country was run coupled with the threats issued by Prime Minister Burnham to the members of the WPA and the evidence of Mr Robert Allan Gates, we conclude tat Prime Minister Burnham knew of the plan and was part of the conspiracy to assassinate Dr. Walter Rodney.”
The report was handed over to the Government in 2016, following an end to the works of the Commission.
