Hillary Rodham Clinton

micevan1l6

By Gary EleazarFollowing Guyana’s continued protesting of the Trafficking in Persons report released by the US over the years, the Guyana Government in 2009 wrote to the United States Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, calling on her to cause a review of the country’s status.This was confirmed by Human Services and Social Security Minister, Priya Manickchand, who said that by writing to the US Secretary of State, Guyana was hoping for a diplomatic resolution to the issue of the inaccurate reports that have been issued about Guyana on the issue of trafficking in persons.She explained that ever since the initial report in 2004, the United States has been making mistakes and basing their conclusions and recommendations on inaccurate base information about the scale of the problem of trafficking in persons in Guyana.Manickchand said that if the US were of the “mistaken and inaccurate view that we have large numbers of victims, then their recommendations to us would be wholly misplaced and impractical, for example, that we have large numbers of prosecutions and convictions and trafficking specific shelters and other such ridiculous recommendations that do not speak to the reality as it obtains in Guyana.”She said that the US is expecting Guyana to prosecute hundreds of people for trafficking in persons but questioned how Guyana would do that if perpetrators do not exist in those numbers.Minister Manickchand said that as a result of Guyana’s letter to Clinton, a US representative visited the country for about three days and spent most of the time on the coast. It appears that “the inaccurate base (source) information” remains unchanged.She expressed Guyana’s desire to have this issue resolved and said that she expected that the US would do what is necessary to resolve the issue and treat Guyana fairly.This newspaper has been invited to a digital video conference (DVC) on Tuesday, where it is expected that the media in Guyana will be briefed by Ambassador Luis C de Baca, Ambassador at-large, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in May 2009 to the office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.Ambassador De Baca joined Secretary of State Clinton on the podium to launch the 2010 TIP Report.Minister Manickchand has said that while she is aware of the scheduled DVC, the government would not be participating in “any PR event about the issue of an inaccurate report about which the Government has been protesting for the last six years on the grounds that its contents were harmful to and hurting the Guyanese people.Manickchand said that the Government and people of Guyana are entitled to an apology, a withdrawal of the report and a resolution of this issue once and for all”For the last four years, Guyana has been appearing in the report and on the Tier 2 Watch List as well.