GEORGETOWN, Guyana—The South American country of Guyana has
ordered an in-depth investigation into the 1980 assassination of
Walter Rodney, a local historian and black activist who was
involved in the Black Power movement in the U.S. and the
Caribbean.  The Working People's Alliance, a Guyanese political
party that Rodney founded in the 1970s, said Wednesday that it
hopes a commission composed of three Caribbean attorneys will
identify all those responsible for Rodney's death.  "We are very
interested in the truth coming out," party spokesman Desmond
Trotman said.  Rodney was killed in a June 1980 car bomb
explosion in Guyana's capital. Sixteen years after his death,
prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for former army Sgt.
Gregory Smith, who fled to nearby French Guiana and was never
arrested. He has since died.  Commission chairman Richard
Cheltenham, of Barbados, said that at least 100 witnesses
including politicians and ex-soldiers are expected to testify.
"Many of the witnesses remembered the events as