Last month’s rural rape-murders have again highlighted how low the level of human security is, particularly for women and girl children, in certain areas of this country. These serious crimes have exposed the seeming inability of the administration and its educational, law enforcement, social welfare and youth services to comprehend the causes of the crisis. As a result, no policies are likely to be put in place to ensure the safety of the country’s most vulnerable citizens, the very old and the very young.
The nation awoke on Independence Day to the news of the rape-murder of 79-year-old blind, shut-in Dhanwantie, known as ‘Auntie,’ at Sans Souci on Wakenaam Island in the Essequibo. That tragedy rekindled memories of the gruesome rape-murder of 12-year-old Julie Sooklall on the same island of Wakenaam in November 2004. The girl’s body was found, still dressed in her school uniform, not far from her home. Three adolescents were found culpable of the crime. There was also another vicious rape-murder of 75-year-old Millicent Subechen, known as ‘Aunty Milly,’ at her home in Wakenaam in September 2001. Another adolescent was found guilty and imprisoned.
How is it that such a small island of 45 km² with a farming population of a mere 3,000 families, most of whom are familiar with one another, could be the arena for such atrocities? In fact, Wakenaam is not alone. On the smaller island of Leguan a short distance away, Bibi Farida Khan, known as ‘Monica,’ had also been savagely raped, murdered and dumped in a canal at Blenheim in July 2006. Across the Essequibo River channels, the rape-murders of 17-year-old student Sharon Sooklall at Naamryck near to Parika on the East Bank Essequibo in February 2001, and of 46-year-old Fazila Mohamed of Johanna Cecilia on the Essequibo Coast in June 2005 are still ruefully remembered.
Earlier last month, residents of the Corentyne Coast were revolted at the rape-murder of Deokali Peter, an 18-year-old waitress. She had been gang-raped and left to die after her assailants tried to drown her in a canal at Port Mourant. There have been similar crimes of violence in other villages on the Corentyne. At Maida, three brothers broke into the home of 32-year-old Achama Madramootoo, dragged her to the backdam raping her repeatedly on the way, and drowned her in a canal in September 2003. At Warren, 16-year-old schoolgirl Roshini Pertabsingh was raped and killed in a home in June 2006.
Elsewhere, 18-year-old Anita Persaud of Good Faith, Mahaicony, in August 2001; Rohana Wilson, a 24-year-old mother of two of Mahdia, in October 2006; and 9-year-old Sade Stoby whose violated body was found a mere 500 metres from her home in the village of Mocha-Arcadia on the East Bank Demerara in November last year, have also been victims of rape-murders. Many of the assailants have been adolescents.
The list is long and bloody but, with all of this evidence, exactly what has the administration done? The Ministers of Education, Home Affairs, Legal Affairs, Human Services and Social Security and Culture, Youth and Sports must surely realise that something has gone wrong among the young. These ministers have the responsibility to remedy the problem. It should be clear, also, that some sort of study or inquiry should be initiated to determine the causes of this particular type of cruel criminal conduct.
The administration’s primary responsibility should be to ensure human security by protecting citizens and communities from criminal violence and by preserving vital freedoms to ensure people’s ability to live in dignity. Its cherished policies for community policing, neighbourhood policing and citizens’ security now seem to have been misdirected against some imaginary non-community threat when the real problems reside among the idle louts next door. Many women and girl children have become victims of violence in their own homes and communities.
Over the past 15 years, the administration has promulgated a National Youth Policy and sponsored an array of nice-sounding youth schemes – the Guyana Youth Development Association; National Youth Council; National Youth Parliament; President’s Youth Choice Initiative; President’s Youth Award Republic of Guyana; and the Youth Employment Scheme – for example. But it is clear that they have not been able to significantly improve employment opportunities or curb criminal activity among the young.
If the lives of the young are to be changed, and if women and children are to be saved from savagery of rape-murders such as those which have afflicted Wakenaam and elsewhere, the administration needs to refashion its patchwork youth policy. The problem will not go away of its own accord.
