Attorney-at-law Darren Wade has renewed a call he first made six years ago for the establishment of a national Peace and Reconciliation Commission, arguing that Guyana cannot achieve genuine national healing while commemorating only selected tragedies from its politically turbulent past.

In a statement posted on social media, Wade said the country must confront the full scope of the political and ethnic violence that scarred the 1960s rather than elevate one incident above others.

His comments come amid renewed public discussion over the May 1964 violence at Wismar, a period of unrest that resulted in the deaths, displacement and dispossession of many residents, predominantly of Indian descent. The events occurred during one of the most volatile periods in Guyana’s history, when political rivalry between the country’s major parties was accompanied by widespread ethnic violence, bombings, killings and retaliatory attacks in several communities.