-- Luncheon
By Neil Marks
A SENIOR government official yesterday said a sustained, long term intervention to keep the East Coast Demerara village of Buxton secure and free of fear is being planned, given that a 400-strong contingent of Army and Police failed to find criminals and illegal weapons and ammunition since news of the Joint Services anti-crime operation was evidently leaked.
Head
of the Presidential Secretariat and Secretary to the
Cabinet, Dr Roger Luncheon, said it is fairly obvious
that “once timely advised” at the onset of the
exercise dubbed `Operation Stiletto’, the criminals
removed to other places not yet known.
“Most
Guyanese recognise that nothing short of a fixed
continuous presence is going to ensure consistency in
the removal/absence of criminal elements in the
village,” Luncheon told reporters at his weekly
post-Cabinet media briefing.
The
soldiers and policemen pulled together for `Operation
Stiletto’, swooped on Buxton on October 24 and set
up camp for a major onslaught on criminal elements and
weapons they possessed.
But
they moved out of the village Tuesday, without any
weapons find or the arrest of dangerous criminals save
for one who was wanted on a murder charge.
However,
though the Joint Services does not have a fixed
presence in Buxton, regular day and night patrols are
continuing and with quick response back up units on
standby in case of any eventualities.
Luncheon
said the Joint Services are working together to put
together a long term series of interventions to make
Buxton a community free of fear.
With
the criminals in Buxton being “very mobile” and
able to run with their light arms when tipped off, he
said it is becoming more and more evident that a
consistent law enforcement intervention is necessary
so as to respond to acts of criminality when these
occur and to establish Buxton as a village where
“the normal activities of living can go on.”
The
camp for ‘Operation Stiletto’ at the Friendship
Community Centre Ground has been dismantled, but Joint
Services spokesman, Assistant Superintendent of Police
John Sauers said patrols by the Army and Police would
not only be by night, but by day as well, and this
will be continuous.
The people of Buxton, whom Minister of Home Affairs Gail Teixeira said have lived under siege in the three years the criminals occupied the village after the February 23, 2002 Georgetown prison break when five dangerous men escaped, need not panic, a security official said, noting that soldiers and police “in numbers” are on standby.
Friday, November 04, 2005