Seven weeks after Roger Simon appeared before the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court charged with the slaying of 12 persons at Bartica, a second man has been charged with the murders.
Clebert Reece called ‘Chi-chi’ of Lot 63 Barr Street, Albouystown, a 30-year-old miner who works in the Cuyuni area, was not required to plead to the 12 indictable counts of murder.
Reece stood calmly before Principal Magistrate Melissa Robertson-Ogle yesterday as she read the charge to him. He stared straight ahead with a blank expression.
It is alleged that on the night of February 17 at Bartica, Reece murdered nine civilians: Edwin Gilkes, Irving Ferreira, Ronald Gomes, Baldeo Singh, Dexter Adrian, Deonarine Singh, Abdool Yassin, Ashraf Khan, and Errol Thomas and three police officers: Ron Osborne, Zaheer Zakir and Shane Fredericks.
Attorney-at-law Adrian Thompson represented the accused. “The charge surprised us,” the attorney said. “He was in police custody for a while and was released. After months police have charged him,” Thompson told the court.
Reece was remanded to prison and the matter was transferred to the Bartica Magistrate’s Court and will continue on June 11.
The accused, Reece, was previously before the court for allegedly being involved in a robbery. However, he was subsequently freed on November 6 last year by Magistrate Fazil Azeez since there was not enough evidence to convict him.
It was alleged that on 22 March, 2006 at Baboon Hole, Essequibo River, Reece along with three other men robbed the passengers of a speedboat heading to Bartica. Four men, earlier reports said, being armed with guns robbed the passengers of over $1 million in items, abandoned them on an island in the river and fled in the boat with the captain who later managed to escape.
On the night of February 17 at approximately 9.40 pm, some 20 gunmen attacked Bartica slaughtering one dozen people including three policemen during an hour-long strafing.
It was reported that the gunmen attacked the police station first, killing three policemen and freeing prisoners. They then took the vehicle assigned to the police station and went on a rampage, terrorising the community and murdering nine others. According to reports, the gunmen arrived in the area by boat and departed in similar fashion taking with them firearms they had grabbed from the police station and from a mining company.
Simon, a 44-year-old miner and father of nine who is a resident of the community, was the first person charged for the 12 murders. He first appeared at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on April 9 and then later at the Bartica Magistrate’s Court on May 14. Reece, a father of one, made no statement to the court. Like Simon he passed through the court in an orderly manner without any outbursts from relatives.
The attack on the Bartica community came amidst supposedly heightened security across the country following the slaughter of 11 people at Lusignan, East Coast Demerara three weeks earlier.
James Anthony Hyles, 19, called ‘Sally’, of 70 Friendship, East Coast Demerara has been charged with the Lusignan massacre.
