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FM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN
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RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 0319
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 0966
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 GEORGETOWN 000532 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PINS SNAR KCRM GY
SUBJECT: "SHAMBLES": EDITORIAL ON GUYANA'S PRECARIOUS 
SITUATION 
 
The following editorial in the Stabroek News June 5 
edition describes well the precarious state of affairs 
that prevails in Guyana across the security, political, 
and economic spheres (despite a few inaccuracies about 
USG's involvement).  The Stabroek News is Guyana's most 
respected daily newspaper. 
 
BEGIN TEXT. 
 
Shambles 
Monday, June 5th 2006 
 
It is hard to find a period in our recent history when 
everything that mattered seemed to be in a complete 
shambles. The security situation is a total disaster. A 
sitting minister has been murdered and weeks later not a 
suspect has been arrested and neither the police nor the 
government seems to have an inkling about what to do. 
When the government appears as paralysed and impotent as 
it does right now it is time for every citizen to begin 
to worry about his/her safety. The situation is the same 
with eight people murdered at Agricola/Eccles and the 
disappearance of 30 AK-47s from the army's HQ. Now, in 
recent days, the crime-besieged villages of Enterprise 
and Annandale have again suffered from murderous attacks 
by gunmen who have operated with impunity. There has been 
no response from the security services even though their 
much vaunted camping operation at the back of Buxton was 
supposed to yield an end to such attacks and the capture 
of the elusive gunmen. 
 
On the economic front, the closure for two months of Omai 
Bauxite Inc because of stiff competition from Chinese ore 
is a telling sign of the jeopardy that primary commodity 
producers like Guyana face from the emerging market 
giants like China and Brazil. There will be no mercy or 
compassion only heartless and impersonal WTO rules. And 
if that wasn't enough trauma on top of the loss of sugar 
revenues beginning this year, the government has shot 
itself in the foot by defaulting on US$20M worth of 
bauxite bonds issued by the administration of President 
Cheddi Jagan in 1994. It is a mind-boggling move that has 
already done incalculable damage to the creditworthiness 
of the government and even if the government reversed 
itself and paid up today, the serious investor will still 
have major doubts about whether it could be trusted. 
 
Then there is the elections impasse. The Surujbally 
commission has managed to conjure a crisis of epic 
proportions because of its inept management of the 
verification/residency issue. If each member of that 
Commission had paid serious attention to their mandate 
and had conducted good faith negotiations on the matter 
they might have realized two or three years ago that the 
best solution would have been to approach the courts for 
an urgent interpretation of the provisions governing the 
qualification of an elector. Presumably this would have 
satisfied all sides. The Commission has managed to leave 
this vital issue hanging just a few months before the 
scheduled poll with the result that aside from the deep 
automatic polarization that occurs at elections further 
tension is being generated at the level of the commission 
and from the constant salvoes booming from the parties at 
each other. 
 
The tapes 
 
Into this volatile and dangerous brew has been added the 
controversy over the tapes allegedly of the Police 
Commissioner Winston Felix speaking to several persons. 
The government has now initiated proceedings that could 
result in the removal of the commissioner from office. 
There is clearly a groundswell of public opinion that if 
what was said on the tape was uttered by the police 
commissioner then he has a lot of explaining to do and 
that his credibility has been seriously hurt. Moving 
against him on that basis is therefore unexceptionable. 
 
What is exceedingly troubling is that the campaign 
against the police commissioner appears to have been 
choreographed by those close to businessman Roger Khan, 
for whom an arrest warrant has been issued by the police 
and who has since been indicted by the US authorities on 
a drug charge. To have your top cop weakened and 
emasculated when he really needed to be in full charge of 
his force and to be on top of crime is not the most 
propitious circumstance for the country at this point. 
 
GEORGETOWN 00000532  002 OF 003 
 
 
But that is what Mr Khan et al have succeeded in 
accomplishing and the government had better be careful in 
this dangerous period. 
 
The timeline of the key events leading up to the move 
against Mr Felix is instructive. On March 1 this year the 
US State Department issued its annual report on the drugs 
trade and money laundering in which it named Mr Khan as a 
known drug trafficker. It appears that sometime after 
this, in a bid to extricate himself from this dilemma, Mr 
Khan engaged the US authorities and had a meeting with 
them. His version of the meet was that he was discussing 
an alleged conspiracy against the government and the lack 
of intent on the part of the police in tackling the 
Buxton criminals. The US says he was met to discuss 
impending drug proceedings against him. Several of the 
infamous tapes with the alleged Felix voice were played 
by Mr Khan at this meeting. It also appears that around 
this time some of the tapes were also dispatched to 
senior government officials and Mr Felix and others in 
the security services became aware of them. 
 
On March 19 this year, the first series of raids against 
several of Mr Khan's establishments were conducted under 
the rubric of recovering the missing AK-47s. Up to that 
point there had been no robust campaign by the joint 
services to find these weapons even though they had been 
reported as missing since February 27, three weeks 
earlier. Surely the most appropriate time to have 
conducted this operation would have been immediately upon 
discovering that the weapons had vanished. It would seem 
that the joint services had discovered that Mr Khan was 
playing hardball and by circulating tapes with possibly 
compromising statements by joint services officials he 
presented a clear and present danger to them. Self- 
preservation had apparently kicked in for Mr Khan and key 
officials in the joint services. The day after the first 
raids against Mr Khan, the first tape supposedly between 
Mr Felix and Mr Basil Williams was circulated to the 
media. In the days to come, the country was treated to 
raid after raid which were characterized as the search 
for the weapons but which may have been influenced by 
other factors. It was only on Saturday that an AK-47 was 
found and this has been claimed as one from the missing 
batch though presumably more authentication would have to 
be done. Even if this is one of the weapons, the joint 
services campaign has not impressed in its mapping and 
execution of the recovery operation and the reality would 
be that 29 rifles and five hand guns are still 
circulating. Moreover, rifles similar to those that went 
missing have been used in recent attacks and crime 
remains as out of control as it has been - the minister's 
murder (April 22) occurring during the period of intense 
joint services activity. 
 
Days after the raids began the police issued a wanted 
bulletin for Mr Khan which he immediately challenged and 
went underground and then the US got into the act by 
unsealing an indictment against Mr Khan in early May. 
More tapes followed and as a result of the furore 
generated by these Mr Felix now faces the threat of 
removal from office. 
 
In the circumstances, the average Guyanese who is seeking 
only better security could be excused for feeling that he 
or she is a mere pawn in a high stakes battle involving a 
businessman indicted for drugs, security officials 
seeking to preserve their status and the US promoting its 
own interests. Crime fighting in this manoeuvring is 
merely incidental. It should be noted that Mr Khan has 
only begun to speak of his alleged crime-fighting in 
2002/3 now that he faces arrest and extradition. By 
implication he puts himself on the side of the government 
and presumably may have recordings and information that 
may link him with officialdom. Is that what comes next? 
 
How connected and clued the government is to all of this 
is still unclear. It must know however that it bears 
primary responsibility for fighting crime and thus far it 
has failed disastrously. With a weakened police 
commissioner, rampant crime, underworld machinations and 
election venom, the only reasonable antidote for the 
country is professional help for the security forces from 
outside. There is no time for shilly-shallying and hand- 
wringing. On their poor performance alone, Mr Felix, his 
predecessors and several other top functionaries in the 
security services could have been removed a long time 
 
GEORGETOWN 00000532  003 OF 003 
 
 
ago. What it has failed to do since 1992 in terms of 
professionalizing the force and orienting it to properly 
fight crime the PPP/C government must do in the next few 
months probably with the help of the private sector and 
friendly countries such as Canada. It must also ensure 
that it isn't compromised by the underworld and those who 
play fast and loose with law and order. No time can be 
lost even if more tapes are played; especially if more 
tapes are played. 
 
END TEXT. 
 
BULLEN