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Amnesty International Report 2000 - Guyana

Head of state: Bharrat Jagdeo (replaced Janet Jagan in August)
Head of government: Samuel Hinds
Capital: Georgetown
Population: 0.8 million
Official language: English
Death penalty: retentionist

A reservation to the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), preventing death-row prisoners from petitioning the Human Rights Committee, came into force in April. There were violent clashes between police and strikers in May and June.

Death penalty

In December 1998 the government denounced the (first) Optional Protocol to the ICCPR and re-acceded with a reservation precluding the UN Human Rights Committee from considering petitions filed by people under sentence of death concerning violation of their right not to be arbitrarily deprived of life. This came into effect in April. AI called on the government to remove this reservation and to respect the rights of all people in Guyana, including those under sentence of death.

• Abdool Saleem Yasseen and Noel Thomas were scheduled to be executed in September. Both men were granted stays of execution to allow the national courts to consider further legal applications. The government issued execution warrants despite a ruling by the Human Rights Committee that the men's rights under the ICCPR had been violated and a recommendation that both should be released. AI reminded the government that it would be a serious breach of international law to execute the men in these circumstances and urged that their death sentences be commuted. In December, following a ruling by Guyana's highest appeal court, Abdool Saleem Yasseen and Noel Thomas received further stays of execution in order that their petitions, originally brought in September, could be heard and determined.

Violence during strike

In May the Guyana Public Service Union declared a strike demanding a pay increase. The strike lasted for 55 days (ending in June), during which time there was social unrest and violent clashes between the authorities and the strikers. There were reports that the government was about to impose a state of emergency when an agreement was reached.

• On 18 May, at least 17 people were injured in Georgetown when police fired pellets and tear gas to disperse a crowd of demonstrators. In July the government established an inquiry to examine this incident and other incidents of violence that occurred during the strike.

Police shootings

There were a number of reports of fatal and non-fatal shootings by the police in disputed circumstances.

Victor Bourne inquest

Victor Bourne was shot and killed by police officers in the bedroom of his house in June 1998. Police stated that they shot him in self-defence. However, witnesses alleged that the police officers executed Victor Bourne in his sleep and then turned on witnesses and beat them. An inquest was held but its findings had not been made public by the end of 1999.

Ill-treatment in police lock-ups

There were reports of ill-treatment in police lock-ups, and of conditions that amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. In Brickdam police lock-up, for example, there were no proper sanitary facilities. In December, a nine-year-old child was released from Brickdam lock-up upon the intervention by the Minister for Home Affairs, following allegations that the child had been sodomized over a period of two months by other adult inmates. The Minister for Home Affairs subsequently ordered that no children should be detained with adults at Brickdam police lock-up, and ordered that they be transferred to a separate police station.