The Alliance For Change (AFC) is urging the administration to finance the UK-based forensic team identified by relatives of the eight miners slain at Lindo Creek.

Since the meeting between President Bharrat Jagdeo and AFC Leader Raphael Trotman last week, the party said, the administration had failed to secure the services of a US forensic team, and “a credible one with impressive credentials has since been located so the administration must now act”.

Declaring its full support for an independent investigation to be conducted by Forensic Science Service (FSS) of the UK, the AFC said yesterday at a press briefing, that President Jagdeo had expressed exasperation at the fact that there has been no response to the request for a US forensic team and that he had asked for the AFC’s assistance in locating such expertise.

On another front, a letter was dispatched to Commissioner of Police (ag) Henry Greene from the law firm Hughes, Fields and Stoby, whose services have been retained by relatives of the eight miners, informing him of the availability of the UK team. Included in the request was permission for the experts to conduct an independent review and analysis of any evidence retrieved from the crime scene or associated with it.
Attorney Nigel Hughes yesterday followed up the matter with Commissioner Greene urging in a letter that his firm’s invitation to retain FSS be accepted.

“This would address our clients’ fears about the daily degradation of the crime scene and the integrity and reliability of any investigation conducted after the expiration of three weeks from the date of the incident”, Hughes said in his letter yesterday.

Trotman told reporters yesterday that the party has since made contact with the owner of the mining camp, Leonard Akorium and his attorneys and has been privy to correspondence, which discloses that a forensic investigative team based in the UK is available and ready to travel to Guyana at a moment’s notice.

“This is a premier forensic team based in the UK and utilized by the security forces there whose credibility cannot be disputed. We support this effort and call on the government to prove its sincerity and bona fides by financing the arrival and work of this British team,” Trotman said, reading from a prepared statement.
He said that the party would be contacting Jagdeo shortly to advise him that a team has been identified and should be funded by the government. Trotman noted further that the relatives of the eight victims deserve closure and the right to hold funerals while the nation was entitled to know the truth.

Deliberate
According to Trotman, the country cannot wait any longer for a team to come in while the administration keeps mum. This, he said, will in fact force people to conclude that there is a deliberate attempt to cover up what happened at the mining camp so that the perpetrators are never known. He noted that waiting fuelled the speculation and the government could not use Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee to tell people not to speculate when it was keeping quiet.

“Already there has been a cover-up of the torture allegations levelled earlier in the year against the GDF and we just will not allow another cover up of what may very well turn out to be a security operation gone horrifically wrong,” the statement said.

Asked about the time lapse since the bodies were discovered and the presence of any useful clues for forensic evaluation, Trotman said, the sanctity of the camp has been lost but noted that a forensic expert should have the opportunity to pronounce on this. He said that only an expert would be able to determine whether there were any deliberate attempts at any cover-up and end whatever speculation surrounds the killings. Trotman added further that some basic clues might still be there which a forensic team could work with.

Acknowledging that the AFC had failed to elicit a commitment from President Jagdeo at the meeting last week for a Commission of Inquiry into the murders, the party cited several circumstances which demanded such a probe. These included: the location of the camp relative to the reported hideout of the `Fineman’ Rawlins, conflicting reports as to whether the passengers of a hijacked bus knew of the Lindo Creek incident and from whom and the burning of the bodies.

Camp owner Arokium says he is convinced that the killings were carried out by the security forces. His son and brother were murdered in the attack. Those who were killed at the site were Dax Arokium, Cedric Arokium, Compton Speirs, Horace Drakes, Clifton Wong, Lancelot Lee, Bonny Harry and Nigel Torres.

The AFC leader also referred to what he said appeared to be strained relations between the US and the local administration noting that the President needed to shore up his government’s relationship with Washington when he returns from Antigua. Trotman said the relationship might be strained for a number of factors including the apparent reluctance to cooperate with the US on extradition requests in addition to providing certain information.

He added that for one government “to refuse or to act or to display little alacrity whilst processing the request raises serious questions as to the level of the friendship indeed and suggests that is it not as amiable as is being made out.”

Further, it could not escape notice that even prior to and after disclosing evidence in the Roger Khan trial the US government has failed or refused to share such information with the administration even after an official request was made, he said.

The AFC has five seats in Parliament.