Commendable move by Minister of Home Affairs
Editorial
AS A STATE media house, we would not like to fall into the mind-set of blindly and gratuitously praising policy decisions of senior Government functionaries, since as recent history has shown in Guyana, such slavish commendations can prove counterproductive. However, we would be remiss if we did not applaud Home Affairs Minister Mr Ronald Gajraj on his decisive and swift action last Friday in addressing a situation at the Brickdam lock-ups. The situation of which we speak has its genesis in a story told to the relatives of a man, who was incarcerated for his part in a criminal matter. The man was held at the Brickdam lock-ups in the month of October, and during the few days he was confined there he witnessed the most distressing sexual degradation performed on a nine-year-old lad. The man's relatives told a CHRONICLE reporter about the plight of the lad, and so moved was the reporter that she persuaded a colleague to join her in investigating the matter. The boy, it is believed, had been held by Police for allegedly stealing a horse. Whether he was a street child, or was abandoned by his parents or guardian, it is unclear. What is clear, though, is the fact that no one seemed to have enough interest in him to seek legal advice for getting him out of the Brickdam lock-ups. The CHRONICLE staffers spent most of Thursday walking from Police Station to Police Station seeking information on the child. Despite a series of denials by some Police personnel, the reporters managed to glean that the situation was true and that the boy was indeed held with adult offenders at Brickdam. What was more disturbing was the comment by one woman who dwells in the vicinity of the Brickdam Police Station that sometimes young boys could be heard screaming and pleading for help when they were being sodomised by the adult criminals. We learnt to our satisfaction on Friday, that on reading the report in the CHRONICLE, Minister Gajraj was so incensed that he decided to pay a visit to the Brickdam Police Station, which is located obliquely opposite the Ministry of Home Affairs on Brickdam. The Minister later spoke with this newspaper and expressed his shock and dismay at the condition of the lock-ups. As a result of his visit, Mr Gajraj made two important decisions. The first was that beginning Friday, juvenile offenders will be held at the Kitty Police Station. Secondly, he ordered that the Brickdam lock-ups be cleaned and disinfected immediately. And in an instruction reminiscent of Hercules and the Augean Stables, Minister Gajraj said that the Georgetown Fire Service and the City Hall should assist in this mammoth clean-up task. The Minister announced, too, that the lad had been released from the lock-ups the day before his visit. We must sincerely commend the Home Affairs Minister for the insight and compassion he displayed upon reading of the plight of the abused lad and we are hoping that his instructions will translate into more humane treatment of offenders. We are not advocating that criminal offenders be pampered, but we do recognise that when a youth is held for a relatively minor offence, and is forced because of poverty, to endure unspeakable human degradation in the lock-ups, he is likely to become a ruthless criminal whenever he is released.
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