GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC—Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo says a long-awaited Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into Guyana’s early 2000s crime wave will be announced soon.
He confirmed that President Irfaan Ali will soon announce the establishment of the CoI, which will investigate claims of extrajudicial killings and other crimes during the turbulent period.
His comments come in response to statements made by the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) during International Day of Democracy celebrations last week. The opposition parties had expressed concerns over alleged extrajudicial killings of hundreds of young Guyanese men of African descent, linking the incidents to the previous PPP/C government. However, Jagdeo criticized these claims as hypocritical and filled with race-baiting rhetoric.
He highlighted that the government is moving forward with the CoI to address the truth behind these allegations, which have resurfaced in recent years with claims of up to 2,000 killings – most of the victims said to be Afro-Guyanese.
“They continue to perpetuate the lies…it is an old racist thing,” Jagdeo said, Georgetown, adding that the terms of reference for the inquiry are being finalized.
“We will get to the bottom of this,” he added.
Jagdeo noted that although former President David Granger promised in 2018 to launch a CoI into the 2002 to 2009 “troubled period” – which his administration at the time claimed saw 1,431 murders – that was never fulfilled.
The decision to move forward with the CoI aligns with a United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC) recommendation. In its March 2024 review of Guyana’s report on the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the HRC urged the government to prioritize the investigation of alleged extrajudicial killings during the 2002-2006 crime wave.
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