The UN applauded Guyana's national security chief for...

The UN applauded Guyana's national security chief for offering to step down and clearing the way for an independent inquiry into allegations of a state-sponsored death squad. The UN statement called Interior Minister Ronald Gajraj's offer "a step in the right direction," and said the government should use the opportunity to launch an "impartial, independent and transparent inquiry." Government investigators, under Gajraj's ministry, were investigating the allegations of a squad thought responsible for more than 40 executions of suspected criminals in 2003. Opposition leaders who thought Gajraj was directing the squad, called on President Bharrat Jagdeo to appoint independent investigators. Gajraj acknowledged having contact with police officers charged with one of the shootings but denied having any knowledge of a death squad. He said he would temporarily leave office if Jagdeo set up a commission examining claims of his involvement in the squad. The People's National Congress members had in the past months boycotted parliament and led weekly street protests, some outside Gajraj's home in Georgetown, the capital of this South American country of 700,000. The party had alleged the squad was used to crack down on a rising wave of violent crime marked by more than 160 killings in 2002, and 210 in 2003. Previously, Guyana averaged about 50 killings a year. Police blamed criminal gangs and escaped convicts for the upsurge in violence.