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11/30/03: The country's murder toll for
2003 exceeds 190, about 55 more than the corresponding period in
2002. WAVE signs petition to raise age of consent (6/04) WPA urges public outcry on emergence of crime (11/03) Theorizing
with Freddie Kissoon (Guyana Chronicle Features 6/03) Survey shows Guyanese women shun politics (5/20/03) Women's vigil puts on political pressure (4/27/03) Women start 24 hour vigil outside office of the President (4/23/03) Wave Becomes Political (4/23/03) Letters to Newspapers (4/30/03)
THE PROTECTION OF THE CHILD – STATEMENT from ORGANISATIONS
As citizens of Guyana and as parents and guardians, we all need to raise our voices and redouble our efforts to achieve the legal and supportive mechanisms for the protection of children, proposals for which have been gathering dust in the hands of the legislators. Specifically:
Red Thread WPA urges public outcry
against re-emergence of violent crime
"Not only is the murder rate at an all-time high," the WPA notes, "but also the unprecedented wave of executions accompanied by the gross disfigurement of several victims is now part of everyday life." In that light, the party asks: "Where are the voices of protest against these abominations? How can the cold-blooded execution of young men continue with no public outcry from those who claim to be the moral conscience of society?" According to the WPA, "police inaction in the face of this
nightmare will only embolden those engaged in this deadly work and
further encourage the belief that the perpetrators feel secure because
of their political and security connections." On the Murder of Six Men
Women shun national politics in favour of less confrontational
fora -survey Women's
Vigil Puts on Political Pressure Red Thread calls on Jagdeo for special sitting of
Parliament on crime problem Meanwhile, the 24-hour vigil which started on April
17 outside the Office of the President has continued for over eight
days without let up, the release said. The vigil was started in direct response to the kidnapping
and slaughter of teenage schoolboy Joshua Bell, the slaying of 17-year-old
Su Zhi Wei in Agricola and the attempted kidnapping of children
in Coldingen and Strathspey on the East Coast Demerara, the release
noted. It posed the question: "How much lower can a nation
sink when it will stand by and watch its children killed and do
nothing?" All members of the public, the release added, are encouraged to attend the vigil and register their dissatisfaction with what is referred to as the present inaction with regards to the violence. Outside the President’s Office, Georgetown, Wednesday, April 23, 2003 Since the morning of Thursday, April 17, 2003, Red Thread, supported by other citizens, has been holding a non-stop, 24-hour a day vigil outside the Presidential Office on Vlissengen Road, Georgetown. As women we know that it is mothers who have invested our lives in our children, and who hurt most when they are harmed in any way. As women, we know that mothers are usually the ones who lead the fight for justice for their families and communities. Red Thread is part of the Global Women’s Strike, a global network which campaigns for governments to invest in caring not killing. We launched our vigil with the full support of women and men in the GWS in over 70 countries. As in war in Iraq or elsewhere, it is women and children who are the first victims of violence. We were pushed to begin this vigil by the kidnapping, torture, and murder of 16 year old Joshua (Roy) Bell, and by the authorities’ do-nothingness in the face of this atrocity. We, like the rest of the world, understand very well how power works in international relations. We saw that when a US diplomat was kidnapped at about the same time as Joshua Bell both government and the main opposition party sprang into action. We are outraged at the contrast between how the authorities dealt with the kidnapping of the US diplomat and the kidnapping of Joshua Bell. Not by accident, in the first case the victim was released and in the second, the victim was tortured and then murdered, in spite of the ransom paid by his family. All human life is priceless, not least when it is Guyanese! In the upsurge of violence in our country, the first child we know of who was killed was Mervyn Barran of Enterprise. In between that murder and the murder of Joshua Bell, there have been incidents of kidnapping and attempted kidnapping of other children, including, recently, a child in Coldingen and one in Strathspey. The most recent murder was that of 17 year-old Su Zhi Wei of Agricola on April 22, 2003. Before that, there was the slaying of Yohance Douglas. Other children have been wounded and damaged, perhaps for life, by witnessing assaults on and the murders of their parents. And countless others who have not been directly touched live in fear, especially after the murder of Joshua Bell. When one of our children doing the ordinary things that teenagers do can be kidnapped in a busy area of the capital city, what mother will feel her child is safe, anywhere? Mr. President, what Guyanese child is safe anywhere? As an immediate step towards addressing this national crisis, we call on the President to have a special, single-issue sitting of the National Assembly urgently convened to hear an official statement from the Minister of Home Affairs on the situation of violent crime in Guyana with special reference to the killing of Joshua Bell and more generally, to the safety of Guyana’s children, and we call on the People’s National Congress/Reform to set aside its boycott of the National Assembly and engage in this special sitting. In the meantime, we will continue to work with other concerned Guyanese who are pursuing initiatives to restore public safety, and in particular, the safety of our children. In that spirit, we invite other citizens to join the vigil.
On March 22, 2003, the women of WAVE met to discuss the way forward for the organisation. The Saturday afternoon workshop proved a useful opportunity for members to discuss and re-visit concerns and update members on the valuable work that the committees have been doing. From the beginning, one issue at that has been the focus of much lively debate is whether the group should take “political” action. On this occasion, when the issue arose there was very little debate - the overwhelming consensus was that the time has come for WAVE to explore political solutions. So while the group will remain non-partisan and inclusive and will continue to work with as broad-based a constituency as possible a Political Committee was formed. The committee has met twice since and decided to focus on three areas for the next two months: 1. Building Networks - WAVE must first organize itself as a group that cannot be ignored. The group will organize women across race, across age, across political party and across the country. For the next two months the political committee will focus on building “waves” across the country with a special emphasis on including Indo-Guyanese and Amerindian women. Meetings have been organized in Regions 2, 3, 8, 5 and 10 so far. Initial discussions with Regional organizers have been positive. 2. Data collection - In addition to mobilizing women around Guyana, The political committee has approached the Social Partners and the Guyana Human Rights Association with a view to gathering information about work dealing with violence that has already been completed. This will be used as the basis for developing a position and a series of recommendations from WAVE. 3. Action Plan - The political committee will touch base with other
groups such as Social Partners, GHRA, University of Guyana Student
Society, the Private Sector etc to discuss possible areas of collaboration.
We hope that other groups will agree to present a united front on
issues of mutual concern. Members of the committee were part of
a delegation that attended an army briefing and discussion session
with the Chief of Staff and several senior officers of the Guyana
Defense Force. On March 8th, Guyanese women gathered at Red Thread's headquarters at 9am and marched to Merriman's mall as part of the Global Women's Day for Peace. Read a speech given by WAVE member, Andaiye. More soca artists give WAVE support: Bunji Garlin, Militant and Maximus Dan.
WAVE supported and continues to support University students who are organizing to end the violence in Guyana following the death of their fellow student Yohance Douglas at the hands of the Guyana Police Force. See our links page for websites dedicated to Yohance and other pictures of the Women's March.
4/30/03 Letter to Stabroek News & Guyana Chronicle AN OPEN LETTER TO THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
2/4/03 Letter to the Stabroek News
In our circumstances, it is a big thing. I hope we can treat it with the reverence it deserves and save it from unfair or narrow-minded comment. They have not started an argument. I hope that no one will start an argument with them. They have said simply, “ Stop the violence!” They have made the most direct and most important call for the
most important need as only women can. 2/1/03 Some observations on the Friday January 31st rally in Guyana from one of the WAVE organisers
We have a list of 72 persons who volunteered their names addresses and skills to the cause. We will break up into special interest teams/groups (finance, PR, counselling etc.) and determine our course. We have persons on "Close up" (Govt TV program) this afternoon and on "Plain Talk" with Christopher Ram this weekend. We have now been on all of the major talk shows except Clem David and Coming Home to Roger. We will try to cover those next week. To our overseas supporters, Thank you and keep passing the word
on. Stop the killing. Now. Beverly Harper Letter to the Guyana Chronicle (email khan@guyana.net.gy to send your letters in): A Courageous Movement Dear Editor, KUDOS to the women of and in Guyana who have started a movement to stop the wave of violence in Guyana. I write this letter with the hope that it makes it to your paper so that Guyanese, both at home and abroad who read online, can find out how to show support. We have set up a temporary website (http://www.stanford.edu/~matrotz/WAVE/) through which all people can sign on so that their names are placed in subsequent ads in the Guyanese newspapers.
More than 200 people have signed on to show their support and the number is growing. The responses that we have received since the site was launched on Monday are positive and indicate that many Guyanese living abroad, quite like myself, follow what's happening in Guyana closely and would like to see an end to the violence as much as those living through its horror on a daily basis. Really and truly a courageous movement has started at home and
hopefully the Internet can help to expand its reach. Wednesday January 29th, 2003 Press Release IT IS NO LONGER A CHOICE BETWEEN VIOLENCE AND NON-VIOLENCE! "It is no longer a choice…between
violence and non-violence. It is either non-violence or non-existence.”
On Tuesday, January 28, more than 130 women
of all races, classes and ages met at the Tower Hotel and decided
to work to build a non-party movement of Guyanese women. We affirmed
that what unites us is that as care givers, we refuse to accept
abstract notions of justice which destroy children. We welcome the
support of men who are in solidarity with our determination to organize
autonomously against violence. Our work will be of different kinds. We want to work on the causes of violence and the effects of violence. We will use the media and public demonstrations to fight against the growing numbness to violence, including our own. We will be present and active not only in Georgetown, but everywhere. We will be in touch with families who are victims of violence of all kinds, and will try to respond to their requests for support, both emotional and practical. Whatever capacity we lack now, we will build. We will organize ourselves into teams and towards this end, each woman at the meeting said what area she wanted to work in: raising money and other resources; organizing demonstrations; coordinating the petition; coordinating overseas support; organizing counseling and concrete practical help; for families who want this kind of support; communications and public relations; finance and budgeting. Each team will meet individually, in person and/or by email and come up with proposals to be put to our next meeting on Tuesday, February 4th. The meeting also welcomed the several kinds of support that our action has already begun to attract, in particular, the statement signed by 80 artistes and academics overseas, including, Alison Hinds, Rikki Jai, Red Rat, Dave Martins, Sparrow, John Agard, Alissa Trotz, Terence Roopnaraine, Desrey Fox, Pauline Melville. Finally, we decided that this Friday –
January 31, 2003 at 12 midday, we will return to the Cenotaph in
even larger numbers and in even greater diversity to raise our cry,
“Stop all the Killings Now!” Wear white – the
international symbol for peace – if your work permits, but
more importantly, whatever colour you wear, come and let us stand
together as women for peace. Tuesday January 28th, 2003 Soca/Chutney singer from Trinidad and Tobago DRUPATEE and Soca singer RUPEE from Barbados sign on. Women must take a stand. Stabroek News letter Dear Editor, I want to congratulate the organizers of Friday's "Women in White" peaceful protest against the violence and killing in Guyana and encourage and support them in maintaining its momentum. The turnout was good for a first-time event; it was well organized and orderly, but more importantly, it provided an opportunity for the women, some of whom have lost husbands, sons, or children as a result of the senseless killing of recent months, all of whom have suffered in some way, an opportunity to stand together in public, to say, No, stop the killing now. We women cannot simply hand the country over to the bandits by remaining passive, silent, paralyzed by fear. We must have the courage to take a stand and we need each other to do this effectively. If every woman who took part in Friday's witness would return next week and bring two or three others with her, we could soon have such a massive protest that those in a position to make a difference would be forced to listen. I am a Sister of Mercy from
the States, but have made Guyana my home for nearly three years
now. I have come to love Guyana and its people. It distresses me
to see this beautiful country and its wonderful people being so
wantonly destroyed. I am grateful to have had an opportunity to
stand shoulder to shoulder with my Guyanese sisters and shout No!
No to violence, no to guns, no to killing. Any Questions or comments pertaining to the maintenance of this site can be sent to maya@jouvay.com. Any questions or comments pertaining to the women's campaign should be sent to womenstoptheviolence@yahoo.com.
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