“Equal rights and justice…”
The words of Jamaican legend Peter Tosh ring louder now than ever in the heart of Guyana.
It has been a week since the lifeless body of 11-year-old Adrianna Younge was pulled from the pool of a hotel where she was enjoying some holiday fun, now she is silenced in death. And still, there is no justice. No answers. No official post-mortem report. No accountability. Just a swelling silence, papered over by rehearsed calls for “peace” and abusive arrests by a hapless police force, under fire and distrusted by the very citizens it exists to serve and protect.
From across the diplomatic spectrum, American, British, and Canadian envoys have urged restraint, calm, and civility. But none, not one, has used their voice or influence to cry out for justice. Not one has asked the most important question of all: How did this child really die, and who will be held responsible?
Peter Tosh’s lyrics remind us that peace without justice is a pacifier for the oppressed. It is a hollow balm poured over raw wounds. The people of Guyana, and especially Adrianna’s family, are being asked to “settle down,” to “be respectful,” to “wait.” But wait for what, exactly? For yet another case to fade into the abyss of unanswered questions? For the next child to go missing, mistreated, and misrepresented?
Three pathologists were flown in. Preliminary results were spoken by a grieving father, echoed by a lawyer, amplified by media, and even cited by the President himself. Yet still, there is no official document in the public’s hands. No signed report. No formal clarity. And without it, the truth remains buried deeper than Adrianna herself.
Diplomats and leaders who call for peace must first help us pursue justice. They must recognize that to mourn quietly without truth is to dishonor the dead. That a nation already straining under the weight of inequality and corruption cannot afford another scar where there should be healing.
Justice is not political. It is moral. It is human. It is owed.
The silence of our government is painful, but the silence of the international community—those who so often posture as guardians of democracy and human rights, is deafening. If ever there was a time to use their platform to call for transparency, accountability, and decency, it is now.
Adrianna Younge is not just a statistic. She is not a moment. She is a mirror, showing us what we become when we accept peace without justice, calm without truth, silence without answers.
“Everyone is crying out for peace, yes… but none is crying out for justice.”
Let that not be said of us. Not today. Not ever again.