Opposition parties demand accountability for ferry tragedy and urge independent probe

What this source establishes

News Source Guyana reports the 22 July joint opposition press conference of WIN, AFC, FGM and VPAC, three days before the Commission of Inquiry was announced, at which the parties framed the legal objection that later hardened into a demand for a separate IMO-standard marine casualty investigation. Amanza Walton asked which legal process had been invoked, under what legal authority, who had been appointed to conduct the mandatory marine safety investigation, and how it would be functionally independent. The report also records Dawn Hastings-Williams linking the disaster to the Mahdia dorm fire, and Odessa Primus criticising psychosocial support for survivors.

Figures cited in this source

references Mahdia dorm fire which claimed 20 children; no MV Barima toll figure

Key claims

• WIN, the Alliance For Change (AFC), Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) and VPAC held a joint press conference calling for accountability and an independent investigation.
• The parties want the government to call in reputable international investigators to probe every aspect of the vessel operations.
• FGM Leader Amanza Walton said the President should have asked the Minister and those in charge of MARAD to proceed on leave to make way for an investigation.
• Walton said there needs to be several investigations but none must be led by the Government.
• Walton said: 'Before the end of today, it is important that the Government of Guyana tell the people of Guyana precisely what legal process it has invoked, under what legal authority it is proceeding, who has been appointed to conduct the mandatory marine safety investigation and how that investigation will be functionally independent of those whose action themselves may fall under investigation.'
• Walton said: 'we do not trust the government, I certainly do not have any confidence in the government investigating itself'.
• WIN MP Dawn Hastings-Williams said the tragedy has opened fresh wounds for the indigenous community still reeling from the Mahdia dorm fire three years ago, which claimed the lives of 20 children.
• Hastings-Williams said passengers were seen 'spreading cardboards and bedsheets on floor, which is unacceptable in this modern time'.
• WIN General Secretary and MP Odessa Primus said the psychosocial support being offered is not adequate and criticised survivors being sent home the day after the tragedy as 'reckless'.
• The parties are united in calling for Works Minister Juan Edghill to resign, saying ministerial responsibility stops with him.
• With the National Toshaos Conference ongoing in Georgetown, the parties called on Indigenous leaders to demand justice and the resignation of the Minister.

Quotations

• “Before the end of today, it is important that the Government of Guyana tell the people of Guyana precisely what legal process it has invoked, under what legal authority it is proceeding, who has been appointed to conduct the mandatory marine safety investigation and how that investigation will be functionally independent of those whose action themselves may fall under investigation.”— Amanza Walton, Forward Guyana Movement leader
• “we do not trust the government, I certainly do not have any confidence in the government investigating itself”— Amanza Walton, Forward Guyana Movement leader
• “Not too many years after the Mahdia dorm fire which claim the lives of more than 20 of our Indigenous children, this disaster has reopened painful wounds for indigenous communities across Guyana”— Dawn Hastings-Williams, WIN MP
• “You are sending a person home who has just gone through perhaps the most traumatic experience they would ever have in their life, to me that is reckless”— Odessa Primus, WIN General Secretary and MP

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