GEORGETOWN, Guyana - President Bharrat Jagdeo has expressed concern that the United States is not readily responding to requests from Guyana for assistance in apprehending people involved in criminal activities here.

Jagdeo said that the security forces were going after those criminals who were operating with high-powered weapons and had links with other criminals in the United States.

He said that following the fire that damaged the buildings of the Ministry of Health earlier this year, investigations had revealed that one of the perpetrators before and after initiating the fire, made calls to a telephone number in the United States.

He said that same number surfaced in the past when criminal activities hit the Buxton area.

But Jagdeo said he has been appealing to Washington for assistance with little success and reiterated that appeal when he met with United States officials earlier this month.

"Can you imagine if someone in Guyana had made a call to the US to someone just before he burned a federal building in the United States of America, what kind of pressure we would be under here in Guyana to find the person and deliver them?

"In fact you would have a swarm of FBI agents coming here. If we are on this partnership to fight terrorism and we talk about a symmetrical sharing of information, why can't we months after this fire get some help?" Jagdeo said on Thursday.

He called on civil society, including the Private Sector Commission, the Guyana Human Rights Association as well as opposition political parties to condemn the spate of criminal activities, just as they had been condemning the recent torture of a 14-year-old detainee in relation to a murder investigation.

While all the charges have been dropped against the youth, he remains in hospital.

Jagdeo has given the police two weeks to conduct a "full investigation" of the case. (CMC)