GUYANA
CONFIDENTIAL
Report by British High Commission, Georgetown
General Observations
1. When she became independent in 1966, Guyana inherited from the British a democratic form of government which pervaded all aspects of normal everyday life and included a relatively free and unbiased judicial system and a freedom to comment in the press and elsewhere without fear of vindictive retaliation outside the law. In ten years she has slipped from these high standards. To all intents and purposes Guyana is now a one party state, and the PNC government by a system of rigged elections has contrived a 75% majority in the National Assembly which has enabled it to alter the constitution at will. In no way can Guyana's record be compared with those of repressive regimes in South America and in Communist and some Third World countries; but in making our assessment, we feel that her lapse within a relatively short time span from a comparative states of grace ought to be borne in mind.
Right No.
This
(i) We cannot obtain figures of the number of
persons imprisoned awaiting trial but we would guess it to be less than 50 out of a total population of some 780,000. is due not to Government malpractice but more to the inadequacy of the courts to deal with pressure of cases and to the inefficiency of the authorities in preparing them. However this inefficiency is at times used by the Government to delay trials which have political import- ance. But there are no political prisoners in Guyana.
(ii) Torture is not used, although there are
isolated incidents of unauthorised brutality by individual officers in the security and prison forces. Magistrates are still empowered to authorise the use of the "cat" as a method of punishment.
(iii) Slavery does not exist.
Rating suggested by Post
1
O
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CONFIDENTIAL
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