Partial results of the DNA samples taken from relatives of the slain Lindo Creek miners by Jamaican forensic experts has confirmed that at least one of the men died at the location, according to acting Commissioner of Police, Henry Greene.
He, however, could not say which one of the victims was identified.
“Yes, we have a response from Jamaica that indicates that… we have identified one of the bodies so far out of the DNA, they haven’t said which name and they said they have not identified the rest as yet,” Greene told Stabroek News on Friday when asked about the issue.
Samples were taken from the remains by a team from Jamaica to be cross-referenced with samples taken from family members who presented themselves to Police HQ, Eve Leary for this purpose. This is the first information released since the samples were taken way back in July as the police have been reporting that they were receiving no information from their Jamaican counterparts.
Friday’s information may bring some hope of closure to relatives of the eight miners as many of them are still anxious to receive remains of their relatives for burial. The burnt remains of the men are in police custody.
On Friday a relative of Compton Speirs, one of the dead men, told Staborek News that the feeling is “terrible” as they await some word from the police about the samples. “No one is telling us anything, no one is calling us but we not giving up. We were planning to go to the office of the Minister of Home Affairs (Clement Rohee) about this because we want to know,” Carmen Gittens told Stabroek News. She said her family wants something to bury of her brother but she even suggested if there is some intractable difficulty that the police can hand over the remains and the family can hold a joint thanksgiving service for the men.
“But every time I look at his picture I does just feel so sad. I want to know (what happened),” the woman said.
But while Gittens said her relatives have not given up a relative of another of the slain men, who said she did not want to be named, said she has already left things in the hands of God. “No one is calling us about the DNA and I just give up I am not going to fight anymore,” the woman said.
Both women pointed out that the police have said that the now dead Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins and his gang were responsible for the death of the men and as such they feel that the police have closed their investigation. “It seems as if they are not contacting relatives and they have just closed the investigation,” one of the women commented. “I am leaving all of them, the commissioner, the home affairs minister, the president and all of them in the hands of God, God will give me justice,” the woman who prefers to remain anonymous said.
Recently, owner of the mining camp Leonard Arokium, had told Stabroek News that he was anxiously awaiting the return of the DNA results on the remains found at Camp Lindo. He was puzzled at the delay in the return of the samples and the results. He surmised that the results could tell a lot more about the massacre e.g. if remains are found that do not belong to the eight men who were thought to have died at Camp Lindo. There were suggestions that the remains of a ninth man could possibly have been at the site.
The camp owner was also keen on finding out which of the members of the camp sustained the sledgehammer skull wounds as it would indicate who resisted the attackers. The theory would be that his son, Dax Arokium, would most likely have been the victim and that up to this point the attackers were only interested in robbing the camp. After the miner was fatally struck in the head, a decision would have been triggered then or later to eliminate all of the camp members.
Meanwhile, the two women expressed concerns over reports that cellular phones that were on two of the dead men are reportedly being used. The women noted that it means that something is amiss and they called on the police to thoroughly investigate the reports.
A brother of Bonny Harry, one of the dead men, had told Stabroek News that since his brother’s death he had frequently dialled the number and it had always gone straight to a voicemail recording with his brother’s voice. However, when he dialled the number two weeks ago, a man with a funny sounding accent had answered the phone and said: “I am Bonny Harry but I don’t speak English.” Eldon Harry said he had then asked the person his location and had been given the name of 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 had related.
It was not the first time reports had emerged that cellular phones which had reportedly been in the possession of miners at Lindo Creek were being used.
The report that Harry’s phone was in use had raised red flags after a similar report had been 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.
Moments before he left Kwakwani to go into Lindo Creek on the morning of June 5, 2008 he had called a friend asking for credit to be put into his cell phone account. The police subsequently said they had arrested three persons who might have had knowledge “of a cell phone with a SIM card of a similar number” and they were being questioned. They were later released.
Harry 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, Speirs, Horace Drakes and Lancelot Lee.
Since the gruesome discovery, Arokium has maintained that he believed the men were killed by elements of the Joint Services, while the police have said that all evidence thus far points to the now dead 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.’
