The police yesterday said that a man claiming to be the notorious `Fineman’ had told two women on the bus hijacked on the Aroaima Trail in June that he had killed “nine persons” at Lindo Creek and burnt their bodies.
It has been believed that eight persons, Dax Arokium, Cedric Arokium, Compton Speirs, Horace Drakes, Clifton Wong, Lancelot Lee, Bonny Harry and Nigel Torres were murdered at the mining camp. Yesterday’s statement also for the first time definitively linked two gunmen killed at Goat Farm to the hijacking of the bus.
In a press release last evening, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) said that it wishes to again empathise with the family members of those persons who were murdered at Lindo Creek but expressed concern about recent statements made by relatives.
After giving DNA samples on Tuesday, some relatives had expressed the view that the Joint Services had been involved in the killing of the miners at Lindo creek last month. This view had earlier been expressed by another relative but the lawmen had strongly denied this. The police yesterday declared that some relatives of the deceased rather than waiting on the findings of the currently ongoing investigations “prefer to make statements which have no evidential or factual basis.”
The police declared that owner of the mining camp: Leonard Arokium, who has accused the Joint Services of committing the heinous act, has not produced one person to corroborate his story. The release said that Arokium cited several persons that told him different stories concerning: the Joint Services killed the men at Lindo Creek, the Joint Services killed a cow and ate with members of the Arokium camp and the Joint Services ranks would usually transport these men from the UNAMCO road to the camp area.
The lawmen asserted that the guards at the UNAMCO gate and the camp attendant at Number 69 mining camp were contacted and denied speaking to Arokium or telling him any of the stories he related. The statement said that the woman who called Arokium from Kwakwani said that she had heard a rumour and told him so. Stabroek News was unable to contact Arokium last night on the lawmen’s statement.
“The investigators have unearthed evidence from two women who were on a bus that was hijacked by a man who allegedly called himself ‘Fineman’ along with others and who said that he had killed nine persons and burnt their bodies and the Joint Services could not see the smoke”, the release declared. Eight persons were believed to have been killed at Lindo Creek.
The statement added that subsequently the Joint Services encountered the gang at Goat Farm and two were killed. “They have been identified by persons who were on the bus that they were with the persons who hijacked the bus on the day in question along with the man who called himself ‘Fineman’”, the release stated adding that this information has been related to Arokium by the Police Office of Professional Responsibility and “he said that he was speaking things that he had heard”.
The police further said that a woman, Patricia Hutson Esquire, who is a relative of Speirs, has said that the Commissioner of Police is lying and called on her “to tell us what the truth is as she seems to know it and to stop using the emotionalism which surrounds such issues to make irresponsible statements.”
“If anyone knows what is the truth, other than what the investigators have unearthed, they have a responsibility to come forward and disclose what they know”, the lawmen said adding that the force holds that view that Esquire in calling on the United Nations Office to intervene, “should also mention the plight of the many other families left scarred and distraught by the Bartica and Lusignan murders, and not focus on the Lindo Creek issue alone.”
The police further issued a call on all concerned including the press “to act responsibly in this matter and allow the current investigations to take their course.”
Police had said they encountered Rondell Rawlins called ‘Fineman’ and his gang during a confrontation at Christmas Falls on June 6. They said that one of the gunmen was killed while six others managed to escape.
The eight miners were believed to have been murdered sometime after this date.
Shortly after the confrontation, on June 16 a group of gunmen hijacked a busload of passengers on the Aroaima trail and disappeared. Police killed two gunmen subsequently at Goat Farm, located some 90 miles from Christmas Falls and arrested a teenager at Ituni.
The two men killed at Goat Farm were identified as Cecil Ramcharran called ‘Uncle Willie’ and Robin Chung called ‘Chung Boy’. Yesterday’s statement was the first time that police have definitively linked them to the hijacking. Police had earlier said that ballistics tests on the spent shells discovered at the Lindo Creek scene found that they matched one of the weapons that was recovered by the security forces following the confrontation at Goat Farm.
The teen was subsequently charged with the February 17 Bartica killings.
The skull and bones were discovered by Arokium on a visit to Camp Lindo on June 21.
Police have so far not explained how the gang would have moved 90 miles from the original confrontation with weapons and supplies when they were supposed to have been on the run. The police have also not explained how since the Joint Services had control of the area there was no sign of smoke from the camp when the bodies were being burnt sometime in June after the June 6 Christmas Falls shootout.
