Acting Police Commissioner Henry Greene says that the police will investigate reports that a cellular phone that was in the possession of a second victim of the Lindo Creek killings is being used.
Although the commissioner said on Friday that police ranks were “supposed to make contact with the man,” a check with Bonny Harry’s father, Winston, revealed that no police officer had contacted him. Winston Harry said the police in Essequibo know where his home was located. He told Stabroek News on Monday that his son, Eldon Harry, had informed him that when he called his dead brother’s phone, someone sounding like a Brazilian answered the phone. The unidentified man claimed to be in a hotel in Brazil. The elder Harry had said he did not report the matter to the police since he himself did not hear the stranger answer and he knew the police would have told him it was second-hand information.
But as the police continue to investigate the murder of eight miners at the Lindo Creek camp site, the report that Harry’s phone is in use raised red flags after a similar report was made about the phone that was in the possession of another dead miner, Dax Arokium. His phone was reactivated days after the burnt bodies of the miners were found. Several calls were reportedly made from that number telephone records have shown, and police later requested records from the phone company.
Stabroek News spoke with Eldon Harry on Friday evening and he said that since his brother’s death he had constantly dialled the number and it always had gone straight to a voicemail recording with his brother’s voice. But when he dialled the number last week, a man with a funny sounding accent answered the phone and said: “I am Bonny Harry but I don’t speak English.” He said he then asked the man his location and the man named a hotel he said was in Brazil. “He give me the name of the hotel but to tell you the truth I can’t remember. I told him that I was coming to meet him and he said, ‘okay,’ but I was just bluffing. There was a lot of noise like children in the background and then the phone cut off,” the man related. He added that he was unsure if he would report the matter to the police but indicated that following discussions with his father he would make a decision.
Two months ago, it was revealed that the Dax Arokium’s cellular phone was in use. Moments before he left Kwakwani to go into Lindo Creek on the morning of June 5, 2008 he called a friend asking for credit to be put on his cell phone account. The police subsequently said they had arrested three persons who might have knowledge “of a cell phone with a SIM card of a similar number” and they were being questioned. They were later released.
Mining camp owner Leonard Arokium has since given a statement to the police, but Greene could shed no light on the status of the investigation. Greene said that investigations were still ongoing into reports that Dax Arokium’s phone was in use but could not say what the status of those investigations was, indicating that he would have to check with his Crime Chief Seelall Persaud.
When questioned about the results of the DNA samples that were taken by a Jamaican forensic team from family members to verify the remains of the miners, Greene said the police force was still awaiting them. “We don’t have the report from the Jamaicans,” he explained. “Jamaica has a lot of the same work they have to do … There is a lot of murders in Jamaica. They are just helping us and their priority is their own country,” he told Stabroek News when asked if his detectives had been in regular contact with their Jamaican counterparts.
Winston Harry like other relatives of the dead miners said he was anxiously awaiting the results of the DNA samples. “My son dead and I ent even see a finger nail to know if is he. This thing really hard I tell you, and sometimes I don’t like thinking about it. I don’t like imagining what my son went through,” the man said. He said he would feel more at ease if he could receive remains in some form to bury. “But is really who feels it, knows it,” he added.
His son was the manager of the ill-fated Lindo Creek mining camp, where on June 2 his burnt remains were found along with those of Dax Arokium, Cecil Arokium, Clifton Wong, Nigel Torres, Compton Speirs, Horace Drakes and Lancelot Lee.
Since the gruesome discovery, Arokium has maintained that he believed the men were killed by elements in the Joint Services, while the police have said that all evidence thus far points to the now dead Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins gang. After the miners were killed, their bodies and belongings were burnt and no trace of diamonds was found, although it was clear that they had completed a ‘wash down.’
