Considering the level of response by the joint services on the night 12 Barticians were slaughtered, the question arises as whether Bartica and other riverain communities were catered for in the security plans during this high alert period, Regional Chair-man Holbert Knights says.
Knights in an invited comment to this newspaper said this may have been the reason for the joint services somewhat delayed response, in addition to the fact that the gunmen capitalized on the element of surprise.
The Bartica killings came less than a month after 11 other persons were slain in their homes in Lusignan, which together with an attack by gunmen on Police Headquarters at Eve Leary, caused the lawmen to go into high alert.
However, it was not until midnight that the joint services were able to touch down at the Baganara airstrip and then travel by boat to the Bartica stelling, some time after the gunmen had ended their rampage, which had begun at approximately 9.45 pm, a police source confirmed.
“Probably Bartica was not part of the plan, based on the time it would take to get here. My assessment is that the stand-by joint services team may not have been prepared for areas like Bartica,” he said.
Knights said because of the peaceful nature of Bartica, no one would have expected that such a thing would happen there.
“And so I feel that is the perception out there, because most people feel that no one would be able to come into Bartica and do something like that as easy as they did and then leave, because we feel we are protected
