Civic organisation to oversee gun amnesty programme

Khemraj RamjattanGeorgetown:  Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan has revealed that a civic organisation will most likely be given responsibilities to oversee the programme.

Ramjattan disclosed that the operational aspect of the amnesty programme is currently being worked out.  He explained that they have realised that persons may not be too inclined to hand over firearms to the Police, as such, they will have an independent organisation to oversee the programme.

“We want an independent civic organisation, perhaps a church, that is going to take charge and so I am hearing from the Commissioner of Police that he is going to come out by Friday with an operational manual as to where it should be delivered, what are the arrangements to be made, who should accept delivery and things like that. After this, there will be a public awareness so that members of the public will know where to hand in their arms and ammunition,” the Public Security Minister stated.

Meanwhile, President Granger has reiterated the importance of removing illegal firearms from the streets of Guyana. He noted that there is a large amount of illegal weapons, as such; they need to find the source of these firearms and stop them from whichever countries they are coming from.

“The important thing is to seize more illegal firearms, more important than that is to stop firearms from coming into the country. No point in having an amnesty and the weapons continue to come,” he pointed out.