After around 30 minutes of dialogue on recompense for farms hit by the clearing of the backlands, Buxtonians yesterday stormed out of a meeting with Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud after he said that President Bharrat Jagdeo had not branded farmers aback of the village as criminals.

Upturning tables and stomping their feet on the floor of the Friendship Community High School, over 100 farmers stormed out of the meeting, shouting, “You are a liar!” and “Jah Rastafari”.

Persaud desperately tried to persuade the angry farmers, already provoked by the destruction of their farms by the security forces, to return. But in his bid, he lost Region Four Chairman Clement Corlette, who had been sharing the head table with him; some members of the media and other officials, as tensions escalated dramatically.

Army and police patrols were quick to respond, bringing a sense of security to the area and calming nerves. Later yesterday, President Jagdeo met with Christian leaders from Buxton and reiterated that he had been misrepresented. (See other story on page 3.)

Jagdeo, at a meeting with residents at Mon Repos one day after gunmen killed 11 people at Lusignan, had said that one of the problems the security forces had in confronting criminals ensconced in Buxton was that they did not know their faces. He added that many times the lawmen would encounter people in the backlands who claimed they were farmers.

At the meeting yesterday, residents objected to the President’s statement and Persaud responded. “The President never branded all the farmers as criminals