Georgetown, GINA, June 25, 2008

President Bharrat Jagdeo today told the media during a press conference at the Office of the President that the surveillance tape which he referred to while in New York and which he said Government is in possession of that shows some of the criminals in Buxton consorting with persons in the political arena is not new and the administration had possession of the tape for some time now.
The President disclosed that in actuality, it was the same tapes that were used to extract photos of some of the wanted men. He noted too that Government had already known of some of these criminals prior to the Lusignan massacre.
“This is not the first time I have spoken about the surveillance tapes so I wonder why it has suddenly become news. When I met with the civil society after these incidents I mentioned the tape when I met with the group out of Buxton, the pastors and the others and I said clearly the tapes were used to identify some of the criminals,” he explained.
Responding to queries by the media as to why the tapes were not released, the President said that this could not be done as they would disclose the location from which the video footage was taken.
“Some were taken from houses so clearly the angle would show the house from which it was taken and that would put a lot of people at risk and some were taken by informants who were sitting next to the people who had hidden cameras on them, so if we make that public you will betray who the informants were and the houses from which the surveillance was taken but clearly when the faces were extracted form the video footage and they were available to the security forces, they were looking at them even before Lusignan,” he related to the media.
He added that the security forces were already hunting for the criminals before the first massacre and recalled that he made it clear at that time and now again that the tapes cannot be released as many persons would be exposed.
Asked by one media representative about whether anyone in the political arena identified on the tapes would be arrested, the Head of State said, “Very likely, that’s all I’m going to say, very likely.”