Last month’s rural rape-murders have again highlighted how low the level of human security is, particularly for women and girl children, in certain areas of this country. These serious crimes have exposed the seeming inability of the administration and its educational, law enforcement, social welfare and youth services to comprehend the causes of the crisis. As a result, no policies are likely to be put in place to ensure the safety of the country’s most vulnerable citizens, the very old and the very young.

The nation awoke on Independence Day to the news of the rape-murder of 79-year-old blind, shut-in Dhanwantie, known as ‘Auntie,’ at Sans Souci on Wakenaam Island in the Essequibo. That tragedy rekindled memories of the gruesome rape-murder of 12-year-old Julie Sooklall on the same island of Wakenaam in November 2004. The girl’s body was found, still dressed in her school uniform, not far from her home. Three adolescents were found culpable of the crime. There was also another vicious rape-murder of 75-year-old Millicent Subechen, known as ‘Aunty Milly,’ at her home in Wakenaam in September 2001. Another adolescent was found guilty and imprisoned.

How is it that such a small island of 45 km² with a farming population of a mere 3,000 families, most of whom are familiar with one another, could be the arena for such atrocities? In fact, Wakenaam is not alone. On the smaller island of Leguan a short distance away, Bibi Farida Khan, known as ‘Monica,’ had also been savagely raped, murdered and dumped in a canal at Blenheim in July 2006. Across the Essequibo River channels, the rape-murders of 17-year-old student Sharon Sooklall at Naamryck near to Parika on the East Bank Essequibo in February 2001, and of 46-year-old Fazila Mohamed of Johanna Cecilia on the Essequibo Coast in June 2005 are still ruefully remembered……