To the Letters Editor,

Dear Sir,

I wish to reply to the articles you recently published about the December 31st 1968 Rupununi rebellion - in my capacity as founder/Leader of the Barbados based Pan-Tribal Confederacy of Indigenous Tribal Nations; the only multi-racial worldwide indigenous organization in existence, representing over half-a million native peoples.

In my maternal ancestry are Guyanese Arawaks, Akawaios and Makushis, my wife is Arawak and 3 of our 4 children were born on Arawak territory in Guyana (our first daughter who died at 3 days old is still buried there). My Grandmother is Guyanese, my mother Barbadian, my father Trinidadian.

The truth is that there were indeed atrocities committed by both sides - but 90% were perpetrated by GDF soldiers who were sent to the Rupununi in January 1970 to 'crush the rebellion'. It was wrong for some of the rebels to have killed some residents of Lethem just because they were 'coastlanders', and it was wrong for GDF soldiers to have burnt homes, slaughtered cattle, beaten boys and men, raped girls and women, and killed 70-100 (mostly Makushis) just because they were members of the tribe that supplied the most recruits for the rebel side. This made the GDF perpetrators no better than the European colonial era slave masters who punished all the slaves whenever a few resisted their oppressors with force of arms (a right enshined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

In my opinion the late President Forbes Linden Burnham is the one who bears the most guilt in the victimization of the Makushis of north and central Rupununi - he was the President, Head of the Armed Forces and Minister of Amerindian Affairs, the officers in charge could not/dare not do anything without orders from President Burnham.

We need a South-Africa style truth and reconciliation committee, no need to drag aging culprits out of retirement and give them jail terms; I am more interested in the truth coming out once and for all and the blatant lies and covering up to cease. I would demand only that they apologize on record to the victims of their actions 35 years ago, and let us all move forward as united children of Guyana in the 21st century.

I am sadenned to see that none of the Guyana based indigenous organizations or the Amerindian Affairs Minister have anything to say about this most heinous violation of Amerindian rights in Guyana's history, I hope they are still not living in fear of the GDF, if certain people would spend less time attacking me personally and push these serious issues (forget the petty ones like the airport re-naming march years ago) there would be less talk and more action. The Confederacy has no working budget of donated funds, I pay for everything out of my own over-extended pockets fed by the nine small businesses I own - how many others do the same?

Lastly, non-Amerindian Guyanese need to remember that the Amerindians were the first inhabitants of this Hemisphere so do not think that you have "just as much rights as them", do not be hippocrates, when white skinned peoples who have lived in Africa or India for several generations say they have "just as much rights as them (Africans or Indians)" you emotianally and categorically reject their statements; so be honest enough to see that likewise you too are in the same situation as them - the Amerindians are the landlords and you are the tenants and it will always be so. This in no-way means that anyone should "go back to where their ancestors came from", this is the talk of fools; we are all here together for a reason and we have to learn to live together in peace and harmony or Guyana will never rise to be the great nation she is meant to be.

Yours sincerely,

Damon Gerard Corrie - President
Pan-Tribal Confederacy of Indigenous Tribal Nations

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