By Nigel Williams
Monday, January 28th 2008


These crime-besieged residents were begging for protection yesterday. At left this woman holds a garland made of newspaper reports of the Lusignan massacre which she wanted the President to wear. 

(Ken Moore photo)

One day after gunmen slew eleven residents at Lusignan, President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday held meetings in several East Coast communities but he offered no new solutions and villagers remained skeptical.

These were not the right helicopters

Police and soldiers continue to patrol the volatile East Coast corridor, but to date there has been no major move on the criminal enterprise by the security forces. Three different meetings were held at Lusignan, Good Hope and Mon Repos, where the President promised to help resuscitate policing groups and demand more from the security forces who the residents said had let them down. Gunmen early Saturday morning shot and killed eleven people, including five children in a 20-minute blitz at Tract 'A' Lusignan, ECD. They left behind the mutilated bodies of Clarence Thomas, Ron Thomas, Vanessa Thomas, Mohandai Gourdat, Seegobind Harrilall, Seegopaul Harrilall, Shazam Mohamed, Shalem Baksh, Dhanrajie Ramsingh, Seecharran Rooplall and Raywattie Ramsingh. Three others were injured in the carnage: Nadir Mohamed, Roberto Thomas and Howard Thomas.

Residents of several communities nearby later erupted in protest, setting fires to used tyres, blocking the roadways and dismantling steel bridges on the Railway Embankment and on the Public Road. Several government ministers and Jagdeo rushed up to the area but they made little impact on quieting the residents who hurled insults at them. By 9 pm Saturday the protesters had retreated to their homes and some of the broken bridges were fixed and the roadway cleared. They however vowed to return if their demands were not met and did so yesterday afternoon.

Jagdeo held discussions with villagers of Mon Repos, Good Hope and Lusignan between 11 am - 3 pm yesterday, but he offered no concrete solutions to the people who at times disrupted the meetings. The head of state first met with residents of Mon Repos at a school in the village. He was several times offered a garland made with newspaper clippings of the pictures of the dead victims. On each occasion he was offered the garland he refused. The woman who made the garland insisted that he be presented with it but every time she tried the President objected and at one time warned her of her behaviour. Still very angry at Saturday morning's atrocities, the villagers hurled insults at the Guyanese head of state, telling him that he and his cabinet were incompetent.

Residents complained on Saturday morning that during the shooting spree several of them had contacted the police at different stations along the East Coast yet ranks showed up one hour after the massacre. "I have asked for a full investigation into this," Jagdeo yesterday reiterated, noting that despite the flaws of the security forces, the army and the police were the only legitimate bodies to fight crime. Residents said they did not want the army and the police in their villages noting that at the time of need they were not there. The President said on Saturday that the security forces were fully deployed along the East Coast and he had promised a mobile as well as a static police presence in the troubled communities. However, on Saturday night residents of Lusignan, Mon Repos and Good Hope demanded that the lawmen leave their villages. Jagdeo said following this the lawmen were deployed in Buxton where they were positioned at different locations.






Workers of the Ministry of Works yesterday fixing parts of this bridge connecting Good Hope and Montrose. Residents in protest over the killing of 11 people had dismantled it. 

(Ken Moore photo)


Security issues

Addressing the issue of security, Jagdeo told the residents that some of them had to join the army and the police force if they felt these institutions were not ethnically balanced. He said he had asked several persons to enlist in the services but they refused saying that Indo-Guyanese did not like the police force and the remuneration was too low. "Well if the pay is low for one group then it is low for the other," The president said. He told the angry residents that despite their lack of trust in the security forces, the army and the police force were the only two bodies at the moment to protect them. One resident then suggested that greater attention be paid to community policing and that drug-indicated businessman, Roger Khan and former Home Affairs Minister, Ronald Gajraj be brought back. Jagdeo told the resident that no one man could solve the crime problem, noting that Khan was in a US jail on a charge of drug dealing. "We have to work together…no one man could do it," the head of state said.

Asked for proposals for more secure and safe communities, some of the residents suggested that the constitution be amended to allow every citizen to own a gun. Another proposed that the entire backlands from Buxton to Good Hope be cleared of cane fields and farms. The President said that his government had no problem with clearing the backlands, but at one time when the issue was raised, PNCR Leader Robert Corbin objected saying that several persons owned farm lands there from which they derive their livelihood.

"You ah the President not Corbin, what you say goes," one man standing on a bench shouted across the floor. Jagdeo said the matter would be further discussed. Another proposal was made for the administration to ask the donor communities to assist in fighting crime, but Jagdeo said the diplomatic community was all mouth. "They said they would help…but what is their assistance? a USD$15,000 and an advisor," the head of state declared. He insisted that the US, Britain and Canada would not send their troops here to assist this country in the crime fight. "They are not going to send their troops here." He acknowledged that the security forces here had limitations, noting that should a unit of lawmen be placed in every village only 10% of the country would be covered based upon the numbers available. Both the Guyana Defence Force and the Guyana Police Force have severe staff shortages. One man asked about the aerial capacity of the GDF and the police. Jagdeo said he would not answer in the open because the media was there. The GDF helicopter has been inoperable over two years now and the army had been trying to acquire a small aircraft abandoned by drug dealers in the Cuyuni Region. Residents also asked for the death penalty to return, but Jagdeo noted that he had signed death warrants for four persons shortly after becoming President but the victims have all sought legal recourse. "It is not that we are not doing anything, but these things do come up," Jagdeo said.

Give us Corbin

Amid the din a man walked into the meeting hall and told the President that he was incapable of protecting Indo-Guyanese. "If you can't protect Indians then Corbin's PNC should be given a chance," the man declared. Jagdeo then put the question to the hundreds who attended the meeting whether they wanted the PNC and he got a resounding no as the answer. He then told the man that it was his democratic right to vote for a party and a leader of his choice.

Leaving Mon Repos Jagdeo went to Good Hope, delivering very much the same message. He told the residents there that the security forces were being challenged on a number of fronts, noting that on one hand they were under-staffed while on the other they did not know many of the criminals they are hunting. Jagdeo said that the administration was hoping that with a bounty of $30M for any information leading to the arrest of wanted man Rondell Rawlins there would be much more cooperation. He said that the security forces had to go after Rawlins who is believed to be the leader of the Buxton/Agricola criminal gang, adding that wanted bulletins and rewards were also out for his cohorts, many of whose faces are not known to the police and soldiers. The President also held a meeting at a mandir in Lusignan.

Following the meeting Stabroek News spoke with several residents who said that the President did not address their concerns, instead he spoke of "rice, sugar and VAT," one man said while leaving the meeting. Another woman holding her daughter by the hand commented 'This man ain't say anything that mek sense".