Justice for Walter Rodney: People of Conscience Concerned about Human Rights

IS THERE NO JUSTICE FOR MURDER, EVEN AFTER 36 YEARS? COMMISSION REPORT ISSUED ON ASSASSINATION OF DR. WALTER RODNEY. HOWEVER, THE GUYANA GOVERNMENT HAS REFUSED TO MAKE THE REPORT PUBLIC OR ACT ON THE COI RECOMMENDATIONS.

Justice for Walter Rodney!

Justice for His family, His brother and for People everywhere who are concerned about Human Rights and basic human dignity.

The Commission of Inquiry’s (COI) Report (Feb. 2016) found that the Guyana Government was directly involved in Walter Rodney’s assassination on June 13, 1980.

However, the Guyana Government has refused to make the report public or act on the COI findings.

Tell the Guyana Government – 36 years later – Enough is Enough! Demand justice NOW!

Sign the petition and pass it on to others in your community.

As always, thank you for your enduring support of Dr. Walter Rodney’s legacy.

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Read more on the background to Walter Rodney’s assassination, the Commission of Inquiry’s (COI) Report on how the Prime Minister, the Guyana Defence Force and the Guyana Police Force played direct roles in his death.

Walter Rodney was killed in Georgetown, Guyana, on Friday June 13th 1980 by a bomb that was hidden in a walkie-talkie. He was 38 years old. Rodney left behind his wife (Patricia) and their three children (Shaka, Kanini and Asha).

Dr. Walter Rodney (1942-1980), a Guyanese-born historian, educator, Pan Africanist, scholar and political activist, was well known all over the world.  He is recognized as one of the Caribbean’s most brilliant minds and his seminal work, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, established a new paradigm for understanding the enduring impact and legacy of colonialism.

A co-leader of the Working People’s Alliance one of the main opposition parties, he emerged as a popular leader among the resistance movement against the Burnham government.   Walter Rodney was targeted as a danger to Prime Minister Burnham his People’s National Congress (PNC) administration to retain power.

On June 13, 1980, a car bomb exploded killing Walter Rodney. The Government of Guyana contended that Walter Rodney was responsible for his own death – the claim was that he planned to use the bomb concealed in the walkie-talkie to blow up the prison, but that it accidentally exploded. The Rodney family and Walter Rodney’s brother Donald Rodney, who survived the explosion, vehemently denied the government’s claim.  People and organizations around the world protested the assassination.  Over 30,000 Guyanese and international supporters attended his funeral in what was described as an “astonishing display of racial solidarity and defiance”.

After decades of demands for investigation and justice by the Rodney Family and others, an official public Presidential Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the death of Walter Rodney was finally authorized in 2014 by then President Donald Ramotar of Guyana. The COI was tasked to find out the truth about the death of Walter Rodney. The two-year process “unearthed a wealth of evidence” that is detailed in the COI Report, dated February 8, 2016.

The COI Report concluded that the assassin Gregory Smith was an agent of the State. Unbeknownst to Walter Rodney, Smith placed the bomb in the walkie-talkie and remotely triggered it, resulting in his death.  It further concluded that Smith acted under the direction of the highest echelons of the PNC government.  The Report specifically identified officials who played major roles in the conspiracy to kill Walter Rodney: then Prime Minister Burnham himself; Mr. Laurie Lewis, then Head of Police Special Branch, Head of Immigration (incl. Passport Office) and later Commissioner of Police; Major General Norman McClean, then Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force; and Mr. Cecil “Skip” Roberts, then Deputy Commissioner of Police and Crime Chief.

On February 8, 2016, the COI Report was submitted to President David Granger. Given that the Commission is authorized under the Commission of Inquiries Act, and considering President Granger’s previous academic writings on the paramountcy (party over state) of the PNC, one would have expected him to immediately accept and make public the COI Report.  Instead, President Granger and the Guyana government have criticized immediate past President Donald Ramotar who authorized the COI, disparaged witnesses and the laudable Commissioners, challenged the process, and have not officially made the COI Report public.  Highly egregious is the Guyana Government’s celebration of Burnham within its 50th Anniversary celebrations, with President Granger touting Burnham as a leader with an “exemplary record” and “recall[ing] his efforts to restore social cohesion; to promote political inclusion and to nurture national unity.”  This is a revisionist account of Guyana’s History.

Enough is enough! Why the continued cover-up of the staggering facts and findings in the COI Report?

The COI Report concluded that Walter Rodney’s death was an act of violence for political purposes – an act of state terrorism.  In taking the life of Walter Rodney, the Government of Guyana violated its own constitution, which states that “No person shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in execution of the sentence of a court in respect of an offense under the laws of Guyana of which he has been convicted.”

TELL THE GOVERNMENT OF GUYANA THAT IT MUST:

• Officially release the COI Report.
• Proceed with implementing its recommendations.
• Change the ‘manner of death’ on the death certificate of Walter Rodney from “death by misadventure” to “murder”.
• Change the profession on the death certificate of Walter Rodney from “unemployed” to “Historian/Professor”.
• Overturn the conviction of Donald Rodney and expunge any related criminal history.

Sign the petition and pass it on to others in your community.

As always, thank you for your enduring support of Dr. Walter Rodney’s legacy.

Read the full COI Report:http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/wrcoi/1/.