Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday has said that yesterday's murder of Guyana's Agricultural Minister Satyadeo Sawh proves that violence has entered Caribbean politics. "I think the politics of the Caribbean is degenerating to the level of violence from which there will probably be no return," Panday told the Sunday Express.
By Ruth Osman and Ricky SinghSawh, 50, along with his brother, Rajpat Rai Sawh and his sister, Phulmattie Persaud, were shot and killed early yesterday morning at his East Coast residence. His security guard was also killed.
The minister's wife managed to escape the shooting spree by the invaded killers but details remained sketchy up to last night.
The family had just come home from a private function in Georgetown, and Sawh was relaxing in a hammock on his verandah when seven armed men dressed in camouflage, jumped into the compound and opened fire.
A statement, by the Guyana Government Information Agency (GINA), said that the tragic incident seems to have been "a well-planned and executed assassination carried out by a large, heavily armed gang."
It also expressed fear that the attack was "part of a sinister plan to impact the outcome of the upcoming regional and general elections."
An emergency Cabinet meeting was called yesterday to discuss the implications of the tragedy. President Bharrat Jagdeo, at that meeting, announced that he had instructed the Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force Brigadier Edward Collins and Police Commissioner Winston Felix to do all that was necessary to find Sawh's murderers.
Cabinet will consider seeking external assistance to support law enforcement efforts, the statement said.
The opposition in Guyana, the People's National Congress (PNC), condemned what it described as the "dastardly act" and promised to work with the government to implement policies and programmes aimed at reducing violence in the society.
Sawh, a Canadian citizen, returned to Guyana in 1992 to join the People's Progressive Party (PPP). When the party came into power that year, he was named a Cabinet minister. He had also served as Ambassador to Venezuela.
Guyana remained in a state of shock and fear following the sensational shooting deaths of the senior cabinet minister.
Sawh's murder, is unprecedented in the history of parliamentary politics in the English-speaking Caribbean-outside of the 1983 coup in Greanda with the executions of the Prime Minister and members of his cabinet.
But for Guyana it would be its second such mind-blowing tragedy, as it follows that of the mysterious death from gunshot in October 1979 of Education Minister Vincent Teekah in the government of the late President Forbes Burnham.
Armed police with tracker dogs were engaged in a massive manhunt last night for a group of some seven men dressed in black who shot their way into the minister's home about eight miles east of the capital Georgetown around 12.45 yesterday morning.
They killed his security security guard Curtis Robinson, 38; brother Rajpat Sawh, 62; and sister Phulmattie Persaud, 54, as they blasted their way into the house.
Conflicting reports were of a planned execution hit or with robbery being a primary motive.
Commissioner Felix reported that the gunmen who "stormed the home" demanded cash and jewelry were given G$23,000 (about US$100) by Omprakash Sawh, a 53-year-old brother of minister Sawh.
A further demand for more cash was made but no information was provided whether it was forthcoming amid the bloody chaos.
Both Home Affairs Minister Gail Teixera and the ruling People's Progressive Party of which Sawh was a leading Central Committee member, have described his death as "brutal assassination".
President Jagdeo was scheduled to make a nation-wide broadcast on the killings last night.
Earlier in the day, Opposition Leader Robert Corbin, who heads the main opposition People's National Congress Reform (PNCR), told an emergency press conference of his party's "shock and disbelief" of the murders that had taken place.
In addition to the slaughtered minister and members of his family-some of whom were visiting from Canada, two other security guards from neighbouring homes as well as another brother of the slain minister, were wounded and rushed to hospital.
