Continuing crime wave...
More people moving after another attack at Coldingen

Next door neighbours of the robbery victims moving zinc sheets and other things from their dismantled house.

THE East Coast Demerara village of Coldingen was once again invaded by armed bandits who beat, terrorised and robbed two households Tuesday night.

The robbers carted off an undisclosed sum of money, jewellery and household articles, one of the victims, Brijanand Baksh told the Chronicle.

He said their ordeal started about 19:30 hrs (7:30 p.m.) when three armed men, clad only in short pants, stormed into their Lot 20 Coldingen home.

Baksh, still visibly shaken Wednesday, said they were just about going to bed when the bandits struck.

Prior to then, he had heard voices outside the house but paid no attention to them because the one-flat building, made mostly of zinc sheets, houses two families, including five children who were inside.

Baksh said the invaders gained entry through the front door and immediately attacked his brother Mohammed, wife Radica and two children, Avinash and Shabana.

Radica and Mohammed were seeking medical attention at Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation Wednesday, for wounds suffered at the hands of their attackers, who failed in a bid to forcibly take away eight-year-old Shabana.

They ransacked the house and, not satisfied with what loot they gathered, dealt Radica several blows, including with a gun butt. One of the trio made a stab at Avinash with a screwdriver but the thick jersey the child was wearing caused the point not to penetrate.

However, the 13-year-old boy was thrown into a chest of drawers and commanded to deliver money as the men searched and found some hidden in a coffee bottle.

A tape recorder, a bicycle and other things were also stolen by the marauders, before her parents' pleas prevented them abducting the girl who was screaming all the time.

Baksh said the robbers next turned their attention to the adjoining one- bedroom apartment where the male occupant handed over $5,000 which they took, along with a camera, a 'Casio' wrist watch valued $10,000 and more things.

Baksh said Tuesday night was the seventh time his household had such an experience. He had only moved to that address three days before but is now leaving the village permanently.

The other family has been residing there for more than a year because they have nowhere else to go, despite constant attacks by bandits.

Coldingen and Non Pariel villages have been targeted since the February 23, 2002 Georgetown jailbreak that saw the start of the escalating crime wave.

Some other people in the Coldingen neighbourhood were dismantling their house Wednesday and one of them, Sharon Shirlochan said she is moving to Enterprise after three weeks at the location.

"I came here for a fresh start, to build this small house with the little money I had. But we have to move now that the bandits are around," said the woman, who was living there with her sister and a small child.

Many more houses in the vicinity have been abandoned and locked up or sold as their occupants vacated for the same reason.

Another man, Abdul, who was attacked in daylight on Tuesday, offered that the absence of electricity and security makes Coldingen an ideal target.

Others said they desperately need a Police outpost because where they live is like a backyard to Buxton, from where most of the banditry is launched.

Battling kidnappers and terrorists
...Antigua's PM calls for special regional force
By Rickey Singh
LAST Saturday's kidnapping of a senior United States diplomatic officer in the U.S. Embassy in Guyana has had the effect of moving at least one Caribbean Community Prime Minister to revisit the idea for establishing a special regional mechanism to rapidly and effectively respond to security challenges such as kidnappings of public officials, acts of terrorism and other serious crime.

Prime Minister Lester Bird of Antigua and Barbuda, who had first raised the necessity for such a mechanism when CARICOM leaders met in The Bahamas to consider improved security measures in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist strikes against the USA, is convinced that now, more than ever, priority needs to be given to such an idea.

In Guyana last July, when protestors in an illegal anti-government demonstration invaded the Presidential Complex of President Bharrat Jagdeo while the 23rd CARICOM Summit was taking place in Georgetown, Prime Minister Bird had warned of criminals engaging in "guerrilla warfare" to undermine the rule of law and provoke political destabilisation.

The Community leaders were still in session when Bird came up with the specific proposal for the urgent establishment of what he identified as a Caribbean Rapid Response Anti-Crime Force.

Or, as he explained to the media, "some similar mechanism to beat back the very serious criminal threat we are facing..."

In the wake of the abduction by armed criminals of the American diplomatic personnel, Stephen Lesniak, released on demand of ransom payment after ten hours in captivity, I telephoned Prime Minister Bird to find out whether now was the time to revisit his own idea for a special anti-crime regional force.

I discovered that he was indeed so concerned over the implications for all Community partner states by the kidnapping of a U.S. diplomatic mission officer in Guyana at this time, that he was already in the process of communicating with the current Chairman of CARICOM, Prime Minister Pierre Charles of Dominica, on the matter.

Bird is convinced that the Community should not wait "any longer" for matters to get worse, as he said, before taking "the most appropriate initiatives".

He has, therefore, decided to formally request Prime Minister Charles to inform all fellow heads of government on the need for a special rapid response anti-crime mechanism linked to the Regional Security System (RSS) that is headquartered in Barbados.

In explaining some ideas on the issue, Bird said the mechanism he envisages could be comprised of some of the best elements of national security forces of the Community and operate under the umbrella of the RSS with non-member states like Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago becoming involved by entering into suitable Memoranda of Understanding MOUs).

The idea could be activated in the context of plans being discussed within the framework of the Regional Task Force on Crime and Security.

Against the background of escalating kidnappings for ransom, some with fatal consequences, in Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, there are growing demands from various segments of those societies for national master plans on crime and security -- an idea also considered by the Regional Task Force on Crime and Security.

There are now calls not just for sharing of critical intelligence information across the region. There are also suggestions for active collaboration in the sharing of security personnel and resources, over specified periods, to strengthen local anti-crime forces in battling criminals whose kidnappings, daring armed robberies and terroristic activities are increasingly endangering national security and, by extension, impacting negatively on the Caribbean Community's development efforts.

After this weekend 's Easter festival is over, we may learn if any new regional initiative will in fact take place on the creation of a strategic rapid response security force for which Prime Minister Bird feels financial and technical assistance could be obtained from major aid donor partners.
(Reprinted from yesterday's `Our Caribbean' column by Rickey Singh in the Weekend Nation of Barbados)

Rise in kidnapping threatens Caribbean recovery
(Excerpts from Oxford Analytica Ltd report of April 11, 2003)
KIDNAPPING for ransom has long been a lucrative activity for criminal gangs in Latin America, particularly Colombia, Mexico and Brazil.

In Colombia, which averages about 3,000 kidnappings a year, left-wing insurgents are involved, and are estimated by the World Bank to have collected at least $1 billion in ransoms and 'insurance' from foreign companies over the past 20 years.

In the Caribbean, where there are no guerrilla groups, drug-trafficking and people-smuggling have until now been the most common criminal activities. However, there are signs that some organisations are diversifying into the expanding kidnapping business.

This is at least in part a response to more effective security operations at airports, and the interdiction of ships and planes transiting the Caribbean. Well-organised international criminal gangs are highly adaptable, and well-informed enough to spot new opportunities.

They often have an advantage over the authorities of small states, which are short of resources and ill-equipped to respond to multiple challenges.

The expansion of this activity is likely to undermine investment in the region and hinder recovery in the tourism sector. Tourism is an important source of revenue for the Caribbean which, after the negative impact of September 11, 2001, could now be well placed to benefit from concerns over the spread of Severe Acute respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in other popular tourist destinations.

In the Caribbean, the recent explosion of violent crime has included kidnapping for profit in some of the larger countries.

In Guyana and Trinidad, wealthy businessmen have been taken and held until ransoms, sometimes in excess of a million dollars, have been paid.

In both countries, kidnappings have reflected political and communal divisions and helped to exacerbate them.

In the other Caribbean country where there has been a recent increase in kidnappings, the Dominican Republic, the police are held in low esteem by those they are meant to protect.

Official figures indicate that there have been 10 kidnappings since the beginning of last year, in which the victims' relatives paid a total of $20 million for their release. In one high-profile case, a leading textile manufacturer, Juan Fernando Capellan Diaz, was kidnapped last August while jogging near his hone in Santiago.

His family are said to have paid more than a million dollars to secure his freedom, using a local priest as an intermediary. They did not contact the police, because they did not trust them to handle the delicate matter competently, or even not to be involved in the kidnappings themselves.

Because of this mistrust of the police, foreign private security companies, with expertise in training potential victims and in negotiating with kidnappers, have become involved in a growing number of cases. The authorities try to discourage the use of such companies, many of them based in south Florida, because they feel that the agreed payment of ransoms merely encourages the gangs to expand their activities and perhaps to increase their demands.

The companies argue that the victims are much more likely to survive if professional negotiators are involved. The police appear to be improving: they claimed an important success at the end of March, when three of the members of a gang that kidnapped a six-year-old boy were captured or gave themselves up, and the 750,000-peso ransom was recovered.

In the Dominican Republic, only the rich and powerful have been targeted by the kidnappers so far.

Caribbean governments are aware that they need a coordinated approach to tackling escalating crime rates.

Regional initiatives include one by the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), an umbrella body that includes mainland countries such as Colombia and Venezuela, as well as the island states.

The ACS recently formed a special advisory group on security, which is charged with presenting recommendations to the next summit of heads of government, in Panama later this year.

There is also a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Task Force on Crime and Security, which has been working on the causes of crime, and the CARICOM heads of government meeting in Trinidad in mid-February agreed to use a Regional Security System (RSS) mechanism as the basis for improving information-sharing and intelligence cooperation between member states, and for providing assistance for non-RSS countries in the region.

The authorities are not well equipped to deal with what is a relatively new phenomenon, which is compounded by widespread mistrust of the police.

Further regional cooperation in training and information-sharing are essential if kidnapping is to be curbed.

Slain Presidential Guard laid to rest

President Jagdeo, accompanied by Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, met relatives at Sandy's Funeral Parlour in Georgetown where the body was laid for viewing before being taken to Helena Number One, Mahaica, for a military funeral.

Daniram leaves to mourn his father and sister. His mother died some years ago.

Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Ronald Gajraj was expected to attend the funeral at Mahaica.

Daniram, 24, was shot by one of three bandits in his abdomen.

Police said he was in a minibus which had stopped, at about 14:45 hrs (2:45 p.m.), to put off three men at Middle Street, Buxton.

One of the three, who was in the front seat of the bus, pulled out a gun and robbed the driver of his gold chain and gold rings, Police said in a press release. At the same time, the door of the bus was opened for the two who were in the back with other passengers, to leave the vehicle, Police reported.

One of the two snatched Daniram's gold chain as he stood outside the bus for them to disembark.

"A scuffle ensued and the other man shot Constable Daniram in the abdomen after which the three men immediately fled into Buxton", the release said.

The wounded Policeman managed to re-enter the bus and was rushed to hospital where he died shortly after, Police said.

PPP condemns murder of kidnapped schoolboy
THE People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has condemned the heinous murder of 16-year-old Roy Joshua Bell and has extended condolences to his family, relatives and friends.

"This shocking crime of kidnap, torture and murder must be also condemned by all Guyanese without reservation or hesitation", it said in a statement yesterday.

"The torturers and murderers of young Roy live and function beyond the pale of human decency. They have taken Guyana to a new, depraved level of criminality and we hope that the entire Guyanese community will make its revulsion so resounding that these monsters in our midst will find no one to help and no place to hide", it said.

The PPP called on the Government, the law enforcement agencies, the military and all other appropriate agencies to act immediately to eliminate the scourge of kidnapping.

"While it is prevalent, no one is safe, not even our children", the party said.

Bell, a student of the School of the Nations in the city and of 178 Sun Flower Circle, South Ruimveldt Park, Georgetown, was kidnapped in the vicinity of the Stabroek Market area on Saturday afternoon. His body was found on the northern parapet of the Pattenson/Turkeyen Public Road, East Coast Demerara, at around 22:30 hrs Monday.

The Police release stated that after the boy was kidnapped he was taken into the troubled East Coast village of Buxton.

Reports indicate that the teenager was last seen in the company of a female friend at the East Bank Demerara minibus park, prior to his disappearance sometime between 13:30 and 14:30 hrs on Saturday.

A relative told media operatives that the boy's captors had made telephone contact with the family around 19:30 hrs on Saturday requesting $10M ransom, and promising to call again.

On hearing the disturbing news, the relative said, the boy's father, Ferguson Belle who operates a mining operation in the interior, hastily flew to the city arriving at around 17:30 hrs Sunday.

The kidnappers who called again at approximately 20:05 hrs, spoke with the father who immediately began negotiating with them in an effort to secure his son's release, while also trying to secure the sum which was asked, the relative said.

Another contact was made later in the night by the kidnappers who were informed by the father that he had secured a portion of the money, he said.

They instructed that the money be left at an identified place in the city, and according to the relative the father also offered to leave along with the cash, a car with the keys inside.

A relative subsequently took the money and the car to the location and when he returned the boy's family waited anxiously for word from the kidnappers, but none was forthcoming.

He said they waited the entire night but got "no word".

Then on Tuesday morning they learnt that a body was found on the East Coast which was identified as that of the missing teenager.

The Rights of Children (ROC) group yesterday said the teenager was one of its members.

In commemoration of his death, ROC said it will be holding a vigil tomorrow at 10:00 hrs near Pizza Hut on Vlissengen Road where Joshua was last seen alive.

"Joshua joined ROC last year and took part in the Race-Free Chain Campaign and appeared in the television advertisement for that campaign.

"In addition to mourning Joshua's death, the vigil is also intended to draw attention to the fact that Joshua's kidnappers must be found.

"Moreover, the event will also highlight the dangers that young people are exposed to today in Guyana", the group said in a statement.

Friday, April 18, 2003