Win­ston Smith, may­or and town coun­cil­lor for Lin­den, Guyana, is pre­dict­ing a na­tion­al eco­nom­ic shut­down if the Gov­ern­ment does not meet with pro­test­ers to dis­cuss the is­sues af­fect­ing them, such as the hike in the elec­tric­i­ty rate and un­em­ploy­ment, which have sparked weeks of un­rest. In a tele­phone in­ter­view with the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day, Smith said, "If the Gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues not to lis­ten, it will have a domi­no ef­fect on the na­tion­al econ­o­my."

The res­i­dents of the baux­ite min­ing town, which lies up­riv­er on the De­mer­ara Riv­er, have been protest­ing since Ju­ly 18 over the pro­posed hike in elec­tric rates. The protests on Ju­ly 18 re­sult­ed in the death of three peo­ple. Yes­ter­day at 3 am an­oth­er stand-off with the joint ser­vices re­sult­ed in tear gas be­ing dis­persed in­to a crowd of 30, in­clud­ing chil­dren. This ac­tion trig­gered a ri­ot with sev­en build­ings be­ing gut­ted and sev­er­al peo­ple in­jured.

Smith said the Gov­ern­ment need­ed to in­volve the peo­ple of Lin­den in stake­hold­er con­sul­ta­tions to re­solve the prob­lems. He said more than 70 per cent of the peo­ple in Lin­den, Guyana's sec­ond largest town, are un­em­ployed and the res­i­dents con­stant­ly see the wealth of the coun­try pass­ing through the town which they are un­able to ac­cess.

"As a ma­jor gate­way from one area to an­oth­er, if the res­i­dents of Lin­den de­cide not to al­low any­thing through, there could be ma­jor eco­nom­ic reper­cus­sions for the Guyanese econ­o­my," he said. The Gov­ern­ment, Smith said, needs to recog­nise the peo­ple of Lin­den as a part of the coun­try de­spite their po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion. He be­lieves any pos­i­tive out­comes that may have been gained through stake­hold­er con­sul­ta­tions have now been lost be­cause of the ac­tions of the joint ser­vices.

Smith said six peo­ple have been hos­pi­talised as a con­se­quence of Fri­day's protests. One woman, he said, was knocked un­con­scious by the tear gas, which he said blew in­to some homes. But a me­dia re­lease is­sued by the joint ser­vices of Guyana and pub­lished by the Stabroek News on­line yes­ter­day car­ried a de­nial by the Joint Ser­vices Co-or­di­nat­ing Coun­cil that they were in­volved in an op­er­a­tion to clear bar­ri­ers in the ear­ly morn­ing hours yes­ter­day at the west­ern end of the Wis­mar Bridge.

"In fact at ap­prox 0220 hours on Fri­day (Au­gust 10) pro­test­ers raised an alarm that the joint ser­vices were on their way to clear bar­ri­ers. That was not the case at all. As a re­sult, pro­test­ers and sup­port­ers num­ber­ing 30, in­clud­ing women, stormed past the Joint Ser­vices Stand­ing Pa­trol on the west­ern end of the bridge and lit the bridge afire at the cen­tre.

"The Joint Ser­vices Stand­ing Pa­trol sum­moned the po­lice and the fire ser­vice. The po­lice cleared the pro­test­ers us­ing tear smoke and the fire ser­vice put out the fire. "By the time the fire was out, more res­i­dents came out of their homes and the sit­u­a­tion de­te­ri­o­rat­ed. "The joint ser­vices did not es­ca­late the sit­u­a­tion at Lin­den," the state­ment said.