Opposition vows to get justice for police killings

By Bhisham Mohamed

Amid loud wailing and hymns, 21-year-old Dameon Belgrave, the Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara youth, cut down by police gunfire just over a week ago was on Sunday given a hero’s farewell as hundreds turned up to say their last goodbyes. Belgrave was killed by police on October 5 in the vicinity of the White Castle Fish Shop, at Hadfield and John streets, Georgetown after they opened fire on a group of young men who they were pursuing.

At the home of the deceased on Sunday, close relatives and friends gathered to pay their last respects. His mother, Donna Belgrave sat in a chair next to her son’s casket, wiping his face with a white handkerchief and sobbing.
As mourners neared the casket, they poured their support to the family in their time of bereavement. Just after 13: 00h, the remains of the former HIV/ AIDS peer educator was taken to the Pouderoyen tarmac for a grand send-off. The calm evident as his casket was moved under a tent on the tarmac by a group of friends, gave way to outbursts of grief and anger from several of the mourners.
After a while, the homecoming service, chaired by Pastor Moore, got underway with worship songs and hymns being sung by all present. There were special renditions and poems by various people who expressed their admiration for Belgrave.
Also in attendance were members of the Alliance For Change (AFC) and the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) who were vocal during the tributes segment.
First to speak was APNU Vice Chairman Basil Williams, who reiterated that Belgrave’s death will not be taken lightly by his party. He said many young people are being murdered by an inexperienced police force, and it was time to stand up for injustice.
“Death comes in a twinkling of an eye; how could you explain that something which started at Sophia and ends up at Hadfield Street and claims Dameon’s life… young people must understand that nothing is written which says that you are going to live forever, so you have to start doing what you have to do in this life early… you don’t know what the world has in store for us”, this was his message to young people as he lamented that Belgrave did not get a chance to live his life to the fullest.
“We promise you that we will never stop working to protect our young people in this country… You are yet another community to suffer the death of another young person at the hands of rogue elements of the Guyana Police Force.
“We pledge to you that we will ensure that there are no other deaths of a young one and certainly these deaths must not go uncompensated… they must not go unrecompensed because we are a mass-based party and we will galvanise our members all over this country to ensure that we continue to move, chide, rebuke, and continue to impose upon this government the importance of doing its duty to the people of this country and that is to protect them with well-trained policemen,” Williams added.
AFC Chairman Nigel Hughes also expressed condolences to the Belgrave family. “I know that there is nothing that any of us can say to you that can ease your pain… absolutely nothing… I will not pretend that there is anything that can be done to ease your pain… What I will say is that you can take solace in the fact that Dameon is with his ancestors and we know that the struggle that they have gone through before us and the struggle that we are going through now – that we will see victory” were his sentiments to the mother of deceased.
Hughes noted that the darkest hour is just before dawn, and said “we in the darkest hours in Guyana”, promising the gathering that as a citizen, he will not let Dameon’s death be in vain.