Leonard Arokium the owner of the Lindo Creek mining camp where eight miners including his son and brother were killed about a month ago, believes that his life is in imminent danger in the wake of checks on his movements by a group of men unknown to him.
A letter was dispatched yesterday to Commissioner of Police Henry Greene, signed by a representative on behalf of Arokium’s attorney Nigel Hughes who is currently overseas, advising him of Arokium’s fears. Hughes said he had been instructed that a group of six men have been making various inquiries in his client’s immediate neighbourhood about the location of his home, his movements and the persons who reside with him.
The letter further said that Arokium had been advised to make a report to the police station “But we fear that this is a real and present danger which requires your most urgent personal intervention.” Further, it said that the Arokium family has already suffered untold pain at their most recent loss and to compound their tragedy with the possibility of the loss of another family would be heinous.
Hughes said too that he hoped that in the light of Arokium’s suspicions “about the identity of the perpetrators of the Lindo Creek Massacre” that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) would spare no effort in protecting his life. “Our client remains available to speak with you personally about this plight,” the letter said, adding that Arokium fears that should information be shared with other members of the GPF it “may unwittingly find its way into the hands of those who are the subject of the information.”
Arokium told Stabroek News that he believes that the threats to him are a result of his outspokenness about the slaying of his men. From the beginning Arokium had made it clear that he felt it was the lawmen who had slaughtered and then burnt the remains of his men. He said his claims were based on his knowledge of the geography of the area and that it would have been impossible for wanted man Rondell Rawlins and his gang to be escaping the net set by lawmen and turn back to kill his men. He said too that the lawmen’s claim that the job had the mark of Rawlins’s gang was baseless.
The bodies of the eight men were burnt along with their belongings. This would have caused a fire that would have been seen from overhead. Throughout the search for the gang in the Upper Berbice River area, the army’s Bell 206 helicopter was said to be up and running; aiding the lawmen’s mission. However, to date neither the police nor army has reported seeing any flames from overhead.
Experts from Trinidad and Jamaica are assisting the local authorities is analyzing the crime scene and confirming that the remains found at the camp site are indeed those of the men who are believed dead. Meanwhile, Arokium says he has not gotten any word from the lawmen as regards their stated intention to conduct DNA tests. He had told this newspaper that the police had asked him to advise the relatives of the men believed dead of their intention.
This newspaper was not able to determine if Greene had received the letter.
