By Nigel Williams
Some relatives of the victims of the Lusignan Massacre and residents of the community say they are yet to see several promises made by the government fulfilled and they feel no safer today than on the morning of January 26.
Promises of better roads, street lights, massive clearing of a grass field aback of the houses that were attacked and several others including refurbishing of homes and fences, they said, were made by the government MPs who visited the area following the tragedy.
But almost two months later all that had been delivered were a few street lights along Tract ‘A’ Lusignan and the occasional handouts from charitable groups and organizations.
“We are not safer because nothing change. Is the same way things deh,” Laldeo Pooran a close relative of the Thomases, one of the affected families remarked yesterday. The man, sitting at the side of the Thomases’ wooden house told Stabroek News that the government had promised to rebuild their dilapidated fence and also refurbish their dwelling, but he said to date there had been no move to fulfill those promises. “We are waiting…right now everybody just feel like pack up and move out from here,” Pooran said, adding that the survivors from the Thomases home are still today nervous and uncertain about their security.
Stabroek News visited the area yesterday in an effort to find out how villagers were coping. We met a group of men sitting at the corner of the southern entrance of Tract ‘A’. In the scorching heat, the men sitting under a shed and over bottles of rum and coke told about their fears and anxiety living in an area still reeling from the massacre. “Look we don’t think anywhere is safe in this country. We need protection here and it ain’t happening,” Ramjass Ramsaywack, a foreman at one of Guysuco’s East Demerara estates commented. The village streets looked desolate and even the homes of residents appeared deserted. “Life change in hay since that thing happen…people ain’t walking like before and people scared,” the sugar worker commented.
Asked whether they felt any safer today than when the massacre took place, Ramsaywack said no, adding that they wanted to see more action. According to him many of the villagers are disappointed that after two months the gunmen could not be found, leaving them open to the possibility of further attacks. The man was also peeved that after promising to take firm action against delinquent ranks at the Vigilance Police Station who failed to respond to calls from residents while the gunmen were carrying out their attack, the government has not delivered. Asked what would make them safer in the community, Ramsaywack said that a heightened security presence and the clearing of a dense grass field at the back of the area. He said the field is what provided cover for the gunmen to escape.
Amid pressure to provide answers to the angry villagers who had erupted in protest following the killings, President Bharrat Jagdeo and his cabinet had encouraged residents to form community policing groups. Asked whether any such group was functioning in the area, Ramsaywack said he was not aware. He however acknowledged that members of the security forces are usually seen patrolling. At the time of this newspaper’s visit to the area yesterday most of the immediate relatives of the massacre victims were attending a church service out of the village.
Stabroek News however caught up with Shazeeda Baksh, the daughter of Shalem Baksh, one of the 11 people killed. The young woman said that she is still being tormented by the memories of the attack, but her fear lies in the inadequacy of the state’s security to protect her family. “We do remember this every time, but what can we do?” she asked rhetorically. Like several other residents Shazeeda wants to see the dense vegetation aback of her village cleared and to this end she supported the administration’s move to mow down farmlands aback of Buxton. “They must not only clear Buxton but all the other villages where the criminals can run and hide” the girl said.
Government back in February launched massive bush clearing exercise aback of Buxton aimed at capturing criminals whom the security forces said usually take cover amidst the bushes after committing crimes. The exercise was supposed to have targeted the backlands of Enmore to the East to Beterverwagting in the West. However work had only started at Buxton/ Friendship where bulldozers graded down a section of Brushe Dam. It is not clear whether any work has been going on over recent weeks and some residents of Lusignan and surrounding communities are doubtful that the backlands of the villages proposed by the administration would ever be cleared. Shazeeda told Stabroek News that amid their fears, police and soldiers had been seen more often these days, but she said life at Tract ‘A’ has changed drastically. Accord-ing to the young woman her family too was promised a refurbished home with iron grill and a number of other things. She said they were still waiting. “We want to leave this country that is what we want. Not house and land we want to go away,” the young lady declared.
As the security forces battle to keep the unidentified gunmen in check, Lusignan residents are wary of the might of the criminals. “They move from here (Lusignan) to Bartica and do the same thing and the army and police can’t catch them. How are we to be safe or feel safe,” Shazeeda Baksh remarked.
On the morning of January 26 around 20 gunmen armed with high-powered rifles descended on the small village, shooting up homes and killing 11 including five children in a one-hour assault. To date police have charged one person, a Friendship teenager for the 11 murders.
