By Oluatoyin Alleyne
Dredge owner, Leonard Arokium has challenged the police to produce the eyewitness they say they have fingering Guyana’s most wanted, Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins and his gang as being responsible for the deaths of the eight miners at Lindo Creek sometime last month.
Commissioner of Police (ag), Henry Greene was quoted in yesterday’s Kaieteur News as saying that the witness provided details to substantiate that the killings were carried out by the Fineman gang. Contacted by Stabroek News yesterday, Arokium said if the police have the witness then they should produce him. He said that if there is indeed such a person then that person should also be investigated as he/she may be an accomplice in the murders.
According to the Kaieteur News report Greene said the eyewitness has given the police a detailed account of what transpired at the camp. He reported that they recently got hold of the eyewitness who said that the men were attacked by Rawlins and his gang. “They went there the night. Basically, they attacked the men. They tied them up, they cooked etcetera, then the next night they were shot and killed,” the commissioner was quoted as saying.
Stabroek News attempted to make contact with Greene and Crime Chief Seelall Persaud yesterday on the report but was unsuccessful.
Following the June 21 discovery of bones and skulls believed to be those of the eight miners, Arokium had accused the members of the joint services who had been in the area of carrying out the attack. The joint services have since strongly denied this.
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 police have since said that ballistics tests on the spent shells discovered at the scene found that they match one of the weapons that was recovered by the security forces from Cecil Ramcharran called ‘Uncle Willie’ and Robin Chung called ‘Chung Boy’ who were slain at Goat Farm during a confrontation with lawmen
Yesterday Arokium said that it seems all too convenient that the police would suddenly find someone who claimed to have witnessed the murders of his men. He questioned why this eyewitness had not reported the matter to the police from the inception instead of him having to travel to his mining camp and being the first person to know that his men were killed and burnt to bones.
Arokium also disclosed that on Saturday an Assistant Commissioner of Police, who heads a special unit in the force, and other officers visited his home and further questioned him, asking him if he wanted to recant anything he had initially said. He said he told them that he has been telling the truth all the time and has no reason to withdraw anything he would have said. He was then told by the officers the man who he had allegedly said told him that his son Dax and the lawmen in the area had among other things killed and shared the remains of a cow has denied ever telling him so. “They told me that the man is prepared to come and stand up in front of me and deny it and I just laugh because I know what he tell me and I telling the truth,” the man said. According to him the person who told him this was the watchman who was at a mining camp located some miles away from his camp and who had been sought by the authorities. The sharing of the meat suggested that the lawmen had been aware of where the Arokium camp was located.
And relatives of Compton Speirs reported yesterday that last Thursday the police visited their home with a bag of muddied clothing and asked whether they belonged to Speirs. Relatives said they told the police that they did not recognise the clothing and the police then asked for a statement on when last they had seen Speirs. They were uneasy about the fact that one of the lawmen did a detailed inspection of their yard. Relatives of Drakes also told Stabroek News yesterday that they were visited by two constables on Friday and a statement was also sought from them.
Meanwhile, Arokium is questioning the government’s move to turn to Caricom for forensics help when his lawyers have been able to get UK experts to agree to come to Guyana. According to the man the Caricom countries “themselves need help, you go turn to them?”
The men’s relatives have secured the assistance of Forensic Science Service (FSS), a UK government owned company and through the law firm Hughes, Fields and Stoby, have written to Greene informing him of their desire to have the experts observe the conduct of any forensic examination
On Friday evening a statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs had said that it had received an official response from the US that “due to logistical and resource limitations” it was unable to fulfil the Guyana Govern-ment’s request for help with the murder investigations.
“Consequently, the Ministry of Home Affairs has already activated contingency arrangements at the bilateral level within Caricom together with other regional and international bodies for a forensic/pathology team to visit Guyana. It is expected that these contingency arrangements will bear fruit shortly,” the statement had said.
The statement had also said that the ministry appreciated the efforts of other stakeholders to expedite the arrival of an expert scientific team here, which appeared to be in reference to the efforts made by the Alliance For Change and the law firm, hired by the relatives of the dead men.
“The Ministry of Home Affairs wishes to reassure that the administration shares the concern of others in an equally emphatic manner and is exerting every effort to fulfil its responsibilities speedily in this matter as it has always done in the past”, the statement added.
In the wake of the third massacre in six months in June at Lindo Creek, pressure has been piled on the government to establish an independent probe particularly since the joint services have been accused of involvement in the killings.
