14 Year Old Boy Tortured by Guyanese Police

By Ryan C. Kossler

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

 

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – A fourteen year old boy was detained and tortured Saturday by Guyanese police in relation to a murder investigation.  The boy was one of three men arrested for the murder of Ramenauth Bisram, a local government official who died of multiple stab wounds on October 26.

 

The police officers involved arrested the boy on October 27 and attempted to beat a confession out of him.  When the boy refused to sign a confession, the police officers doused his genitals with flammable liquid and set him on fire.  The boy was held without proper medical care or access to legal representation until October 31, despite several attempts by his lawyer and family to see him.

 

Amnesty International has pressured the Guyanese authorities to charge the police officers involved in the incident.  Kerrie Howard, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Americas Programme, said “these appalling acts of brutality by members of the Guyana Police Force must not go unpunished.”  Howard further said “there must be a full investigation into how officers were allowed to blatantly flout Guyanese and international laws by refusing access to family, lawyers, and medical treatment for several days.  The Guyana Human Rights Association also issued a statement to the media regarding the incident.

 

Along with the boy, two other men were arrested and tortured in connection with Bisram’s murder.  Deonarine Rafick was beaten with a piece of wood on his back, legs, buttocks, face, and scalp, by police officers who forced him to sign a confession.  Police officers also burned the inside of Rafick’s mouth with cigarettes.  Rafick remains in custody, without medical attention, and his lawyers have only recently been granted access to him.

 

A third suspect, Nouravie Wilfred has had the charges against him dropped, however, he was held incommunicado for seven days, in violation of Guyanese law.  Under Guyanese law, a suspect may only be held for 72 hours before being brought before a court.

 

This incident is not the first of such character to take place in Guyana.  Guyana’s president Bharrat Jagdeo and his security forces have been accused many times in the past of violating Guyanese citizens’ human rights.  In March, security forces placed a suspect on an ants’ nest in order to obtain information about cocaine trafficking.  Citizens have claimed that Jagdeo and his security forces avoid all civil liberties in order to get what they want.    

 

For more information, please see:

 

Amnesty International – Acts of torture by Guyanese police must be punished - 4 November 2009

 

Digital Journal – Guyana police accused of setting boy’s genitals on fire - 1 November 2009

 

Reuters – Guyana police accused of burning boy’s genitals - 31 October 2009