Amnesty International Report 1995 - Guyana

There were reports of torture and ill-treatment of suspects by police. One person died in police custody under suspicious circumstances. Five prisoners were sentenced to death after retrials and some 15 people remained under sentence of death for murder. No executions took place. There were reports of torture and ill-treatment of suspects by police. Four people alleged that they were kicked and beaten by police searching for weapons and marijuana in July in Cane Grove, Mahaica province. One of the four, Zabeeda Hussain, alleged that she suffered a miscarriage after police beat her with a belt and punched her in the stomach. She was held for six days in police custody before being taken to court to be charged and released on bail. A medical report on the day of her release recorded bruising below both eyes, bruises and multiple abrasions to her chest and back, and complaints of abdominal pain and uterine bleeding. Shivnarine Dalchand died following his arrest on 19 August during a police raid in search of marijuana cultivators in Cane Grove. Relatives alleged that he and his brother were beaten before being taken away by police. During the next two days Shivnarine Dalchand was seen in custody, accompanying police during searches of other houses in the area. A witness alleged that Shivnarine Dalchand was again beaten by police and that he had told him he had been ill-treated while in custody. Four days after his arrest, police reported that Shivnarine Dalchand had drowned after jumping from a police boat into a canal. According to police statements, an autopsy conducted on 23 August showed no evidence that Shivnarine Dalchand had been beaten; however, other sources alleged that the autopsy report noted a number of external and internal injuries. No inquest had been held by the end of the year, nor had the autopsy report been made public. Five people were sentenced to death after retrials, which were held after their first death sentences were overturned on appeal. There were no executions. In September the Ministry of Home Affairs responded in a 17-page document to Amnesty International's past inquiries about eight cases involving alleged ill-treatment or disputed fatal shootings of suspects by police. The cases included the alleged ill-treatment of two teenagers at Vigilance police station in 1991, which the government said could not be substantiated after an investigation; the alleged torture of Hardatt Ramdass in 1992, where an investigation confirmed only some of the injuries claimed; allegations that the wife of a criminal suspect had been raped in 1992 which the government said inquiries had shown to be unfounded; the alleged beating of 10 youths in Mahaica in October 1993, which was still sub judice; and the cases of Rickey Samaroo and Joseph Persaud, whom the government said had been shot dead after they had attacked the police during a robbery in September 1993, and whose inquest was pending (see Amnesty International Reports 1992 to 1994). No reference was made, however, to the lawsuit against the police in the case of Michael Teekah who had died in police custody in 1988 and in which Joseph Persaud had been due to give key testimony at the time he was shot. Amnesty International had called for an independent inquiry into the circumstances of the death (see Amnesty International Report 1994). Amnesty International wrote to the Guyanese authorities in December calling for a full, independent inquiry to be held into the allegations of ill-treatment of Cane Grove residents in July and August and the death of Shivnarine Dalchand.