Hotline# 613-1811/633-3788 Línea directa 608-2096,608 -2097
Phone: 592-225-4731/ 227-8353/ 227-3454 Facebook
Homestretch Avenue, D’ Urban Park, Georgetown. Guyana. S. A
Help & Shelter is inexpressibly saddened and appalled at and condemns unequivocally the massacre in Bartica of more innocent people: Edwin Gilkes, Dexter Adrian, Irving Ferreira, Zaheer Zakir, Shane Fredericks, Ron Osborne, Deonarine Singh, Ronald Gomes, Ashraf Khan, Abdool Yasin, Errol Thomas and Baldeo Singh.
We extend our deepest sympathy to the families, relatives, friends and colleagues of those who were cruelly gunned down and call - as we did following the Lusignan massacre less than a month ago - for those responsible to be brought to justice.
As a nation, we are at a point in our history where unless we can collectively put aside our political and ethnic differences and unite as a people to overcome the terror stalking our land, we will all become its victims in one way or another.
As an organisation whose goal is to work to build respect for the rights of women, children youth and men to live lives free of violence and the threat of violence, we recognise the need to listen to and examine all attempts to work towards finding solutions that will ensure the security and safety of all Guyanese. No one has – or should think they have - a monopoly over the right to find solutions to the problems facing the nation. We know that alienation and exclusion breed criminality and anti-social behaviour. The politics of exclusion that have flourished for so long in Guyana have led us nowhere but to this tragic state of affairs.
We urge the need to abide by the rule of law in the apprehension of those responsible for these – and all - killings.
Help & Shelter stands ready to provide help and assistance to the families and relatives of those killed and the communities of Bartica and Lusignan, and would welcome any initiative that includes the use of our knowledge and skills to this end.
19 February 2008