Monday, April 24, 2006

by Denis Chabrol

Guyana (AFP), GEORGETOWN: Guyanese police on Saturday did not rule out a political motive in the killing of the country's Agriculture Minister, Satyadeow Sawh, and two of his siblings -- all Canadian citizens -- and planned to heighten security for some political figures.

"While we see the appearances of a robbery, we would not rule out any other consideration," said Police Commissioner Winston Felix when asked to react to claims by top government officials and the governing Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) that Sawh's killing was an assassination.

Robert Persaud, spokesman for President Bharrat Jagdeo, said the killing "smacks of an assassination", but he refused to blame any person or organisation.

The Police Commissioner said the killing of Sawh, 50, came one day after he and other top officers were planning to increase security for government and opposition figures ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections postponed from August 4 to any time after August 30.

With the police and army so far unable to crush heavily armed gangs that have emerged more than four years ago, the police commissioner is pushing ahead with plans to improve security for politicians in and out of government ahead of polling day.

"The extent to which security concerns are being raised is more than justified because this incident, we now have to focus heavily on the security in the persons in category of ministers," Felix told a news conference.

Also killed are Sawh's sister, Rajpatri Sawh, 62, Phulmattie Persaud, 54, both of Toronto, Canada, and security guard 38-year old Curtis Robinson. Sustaining gunshot wounds were Sawh's brother 53-year old Omprakash Sawh and two other security guards Albert Mangru, 63, and Augu Khan, 53.

The minister's wife, Sattie Sawh, said she hid from the gunmen during the 10-minute ordeal and her two sons were not at home during the incident.

"I honestly don't know why they killed them because they demanded cash and jewellery and yet still they turned around and they shoot them," she told reporters, while family members, relatives, friends and government officials mingled, consoling each other.

The killing of the Guyanese agriculture minister and his two siblings is the latest in an ongoing spate of gun crime that has rocked this former British colony.

This rare killing of a government minister comes three months after the gunning down of Ronald Waddell, who was a television talk-show host as well as a militant Black activist and fierce critic of the mainly East Indian-supported administration.

Sawh's death comes at a time when the government and the political opposition are preparing to start negotiations what constitutional arrangements should be put in place for governing Guyana before parliament is due to automatically dissolve on May 4.

The government does not have a two-third's majority to automatically extend the life of the 67-seat parliament.

  Most popular articles: viewed, printed and e-mailed

  Printable version