His call was in response to allegations made by a resident of the remote Amerindian community, who told Stabroek News that villagers, and particularly Brazilian miners, are being terrorised by lawmen.
The woman, who gave her name as Norma, identified a particular police officer, who is attached to the Kamarang Police Station and has become well known for shake downs.
She recalled two cases within the last month. On October 6, the woman said, a Brazilian miner was relieved of $182,000 as he was checking in to the Crystal Guesthouse. “The Brazilian man come at the guesthouse and the policeman appear out of nowhere and took all his money he had on him and the caretaker saw when he took the money,” the woman said. However, she said, the caretaker of the guesthouse reported the matter to a detective attached to the same station as the rank implicated and the man managed to retrieve $82,000. “This is really terrible… when he collect the money he ask the man, ‘What you doing with all this money? You ain’t supposed to get all this money,’ and he pick it up… Then, because the police them ain’t want a big story, they give he back $82,000 but that was not all… it’s real advantage,” she said, adding that no statement was taken from the caretaker at the Kamarang Police Station.
Norma said another recent incident involved the same rank, who was seen taking money belonging to a miner who was under the influence of alcohol at the time. “The man came from the backdam with a lot of money and he dropped the bag and same [name given] pick it up and a man who saw him shout at the police and tell him give back the man he money… the police put the man in jail for couple days and tell him he make false allegations against him,” she related.
According to the woman, because Brazilian miners speak little English, they are often targeted.
Asked about the problems in Kako, Persaud told Stabroek News that he would advise concerned persons to meet him, the Commissioner of Police or the Divisional Commander to have their issues addressed.
He noted that he attended a Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners’ Association (GGDMA) meeting only two weeks ago and was informed of some of the issues. However, he emphasised that no formal reports were made and until that is done there is very little that can be done.
“I am challenging the people there to work with us to take action and sort out the problems,” Persaud declared.
Persaud, who was the guest speaker at the GGDMA bi-monthly meeting last month, was met by several miners who raised concerns about policing in the interior regions, including “quite prevalent” corruption. In response, he had urged them to report such cases and follow through to ensure that guilty ranks are caught and prosecuted.
Told of Persaud’s reaction, Norma, speaking on behalf of Kako residents, said that the people of the community are not confident in the Guyana Police Force at any level after seeing victimisation and being victimised by those in their own district. She explained that because of the language barrier too, the Brazilian miners are not encouraged to travel to the city to meet the authorities.
However, she said some other mechanism should be put in place to tackle the issues faced by the Kako residents, since it is apparent that they can get no assistance from the ranks operating in their community.
