PPP/Civic, PNC trade accusations on breach of accord


Stabroek News
May 3, 1998


The People's National Congress (PNC) and the People's Progressive Party (PPP)/Civic have been trading accusations of breaches of the Herdmanston Accord.

They have accused each other of making statements which are both accusatory and inflammatory. The PNC has accused President Janet Jagan of the PPP/Civic of repeatedly suggesting that its leader, Desmond Hoyte and the PNC "are planning political violence in Guyana."

Also that "she sought to impugn Mr Hoyte's integrity and accused Mr Hoyte of inciting racial violence in Guyana."

It cited a Caribbean News Agency (CANA) report from Chile where President Jagan attended the Summit of the Americas, which reported her as saying that "political violence was likely in Guyana" and that she had asked leaders at the summit "to be on standby" because she feared that "Mr Hoyte might not accept the decision of the audit."

It noted also a report in the state-owned Chronicle, in which President Jagan was reported as "urging leaders at the meeting in the Bahamas between CARICOM leaders and Canadian Prime Minister, Jean Luc Chretien, to keep a close watch on the situation in Guyana."

President Jagan is also accused by the PNC of stating in a radio interview on the "Breakfast Show", during her trip to Jamaica of saying "that on January 12, over 100 East Indians were physically attacked, beaten up and their goods were stolen."

The PNC said that according to a Jamaica Gleaner report carried by CANA, President Jagan told a gathering of the Guyanese nationals in Jamaica with whom she met, that "criminal elements in the capital were behind the January 12, violence."

It noted that "by her utterances, Mrs Jagan continues to show scant regard for the CARICOM [Herdmanston] Accord to which she is a signatory." "The People National Congress believes that she persists in so doing with a view to provoking certain responses from the People's National Congress which would lead to the scuttling [of] the CARICOM Accord."

It cautioned that the current propaganda campaign at home and overseas is, at best, "ill-conceived and stupid and it is adversely affecting our country." In turn the PPP/Civic has accused the PNC of making accusatory and inflammatory statements in breach of the Accord, and cited as an example the opinions expressed by two PNC activists, Niaz Subhan and James McAllister, on a television talk show "Cross Talk" aired on April 4.

In a letter to the station's managing director, Dr Noel Blackman, PPP/Civic general secretary, Donald Ramotar, claimed that the two activists accused the PPP/Civic of being in breach of the accord with an advertisement which appeared in the Caribbean Contact, a publication in the US.

The advertisement appealed to Guyanese and others to send protests to the Guyana Government and the PPP for what was claimed to be genocide against Indo-Guyanese. Ramotar said that the two activists had "repeatedly claimed that the advertisement has been placed by Dr Odeen Ishmael, Guyana's Ambassador to the United States of America, on behalf of the PPP.

They also stated that the PPP had created a parallel police force and had formed a secret Red Army, and imputed that the PPP was planning to confront the army and police in Guyana." Ramotar called the statements vicious lies, which are calculated to "stir resentment against the PPP, to create further racial disunity and mistrust and to foment rebellion in Guyana, the consequences of which could be beyond our imagination."

"The PPP wishes to inform you that it has nothing to do with the advertisement and disassociates itself from the content and purpose," Ramotar's letter said.