Government offices were burnt down Friday amid fresh clashes in south-eastern Guyana over rising electricity rates and claims that officers killed demonstrators, officials said. Soldiers were deployed to assist police in removing huge logs and other obstructions from roads and bridges that have been halting vital food, fuel, medical and other shipments to residential and gold mining communities in Guyana's Amazon jungle.
The Chinese-owned bauxite company Bosai Minerals has not operated in Linden for several weeks and has had to cease supplying bauxite to its customers. The Guyana Defence Force said police fired tear gas to disperse about 30 protesters who had set fire to a key river bridge. Fire-fighters quickly extinguished the blaze. But protesters, who had massed in large numbers, eventually set fire to two buildings housing a branch of the tax collection agency and several other government offices.
Opposition lawmakers are demanding the prosecution of those responsible for the deaths of three residents in the impoverished town of Linden during clashes between police and protesters on July 18 after a 400 percent increase in power costs. An official investigation into the killings is due. They have also called for launching privately-owned television stations, establishing an economic development program for Linden and fairly allocating state lands. Opposition leader David Granger of the leftist People's National Congress Reform party urged restraint, while also accusing security forces of undue aggression.
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