The Secretary-General and staff of the Caribbean Community have been deeply concerned by the difficult times which our Member States have recently been enduring. No issue has concerned us more than the rising crime wave which threatens to envelop the Region. And in this regard, no situation has disturbed us more than that in Guyana, the Headquarters of the Community, and the Member State wherein we and our families have made our home, however temporarily.
The sudden and persistent violent loss of life which marks a dramatic departure from the Guyana we had come to know, and now risks becoming part of the social culture, is one which is having tremendous negative effect on the Guyanese Community, including the staff of our Organisation, some of whom have been directly affected.
Few events have contributed more to this situation in recent times than last Saturday’s killing of the young University of Guyana student, Yohance Douglas, to whose family, friends, fellow students and the staff of the University of Guyana, we, the Secretary-General and staff of the Secretariat of the Caribbean Community, extend our deepest sympathy.
We, many of us Guyanese, share the concern of all Guyana at the continuous violent loss of life by so many Guyanese, and hope that this recent regrettable case of the loss of life of this young man, would further alert all Guyana to the fact that this process must be arrested without delay, if Guyana is to have a tomorrow. We look forward to the promised Report on this most recent incident, and hope that all parties would do everything within their power, to put an end to this disastrous course of events, not only for the sake of Guyana, but indeed for our entire Caribbean Community.
We hold strongly to this hope as part of a Community which, in its Charter of Civil Society has committed itself to respecting the “right to life, liberty and security of the person”.
