With the recent arrests of Oliver Hinkson and Dorian Massay, one has to wonder if this is part of the ongoing investigation of the brutal murders that have been going on in Guyana or if it is a gag order on the two. Oliver Hinkson as you may recall is quite a colorful character with quite a checkered past. Mr. Hinkson is a former army officer who attended Sandhurst military college in the UK, a place where many of the elete soldiers of the world attend. During the Burnham administration, at least one military officer would attend the college. Such a person had to be smart and dedicated as a soldier. Most of the men who later became the top officers in the Army were themselves Sandhurst graduates. Oliver Hinkson on his return soon fell out with the army's top brass and eventually was to be tried for issues he had with them. This may or may not have led to him being involved with criminal activity. Sometime in the early 80s, during a trial he escaped from custody in a daring escape that was well coordinated as he had accomplices. He had disappeared from Guyana for a while and eventually was given the chance to return.
Roger Luncheon's statement that the criminals today are getting training from ex-soldiers is not without merit. In at least the Bartica massacre, we're finding that the killers were dressed in camoflage and had other military gear. We're hearing of them pitching military style tents. The seeming ease with which they move from place to place lends us to quite easily gather that they are trained either directly by the military or by those who are from the military. According to Roger Luncheon, this is where Oliver Hinkson and Dorian Massay come in in that being former military officers, they have the capability of providing this training. The action taken: arrest them both or at least harrass them both.
All of this makes sense on paper. Being a high ranking government official, one would think Roger Luncheon and the rest of the PPP would know what's going on. The problem is that this is the PPP we're talking about. Folks that had people like Ronald Gajraj as a leading figure in crime fighting which resulted in the police being side stepped and major drug dealers such as Roger Khan being utilized in bringing criminals to "justice", essentially their deaths.
The problem is Oliver Hinkson spoke of the government taking a stand of mediation where they would have a conversation with the so-called "bandits" and look into whether there exists a problem and what it is. Hinkson spoke of men "so devoid of hope and incensed that they are prepared to go to the bushes and wage a war of the flea", sounding similar to other calls for some kind of dialog where instead of supposing, they would come to understand that there are people in Guyana who have the feeling of being marginalized. Until this is dealt with completely and not aloofly we'll always have the problems we're seeing.
The arrests lately of these two individuals would be a clear indication of the government's intentions. If later on we see no more of these attacks, then they did the right thing. If not, then the decision to fight fire with fire was already made. Looking at the demographics of those involved in this fight, one can clearly see where this is going.
In the meantime as in everything else, nothing is solved and nonesense such as charging a semi-retarded 19 year old with the murders carried out with precision execution seemed destined to continue. One's only hope is that even Oliver Hinkson too is wrong since if this group of disillusioned ex-soldiers gells into a larger cohesive group, the instability of the country would remain and we would see more murders. By now one would've thought that the leaders of Guyana would be thinking that no one is safe until everyone is safe. Evidently this is not the case. Doing the Vietnam thing the US did in sending all the big bombs and sophisticated fighting equipment will result in the same thing. The retreat of the most powerful fighting force in the world losing a battle of wills to seemingly insignificant people.
One can only hope.
Iain
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