Ballistic tests on the spent shells found at the scene of the slaughter of eight miners at the Lindo Creek camp show no link between weapons used by gunmen connected to the Rondell Rawlins gang, well-placed sources in the police forensic unit have disclosed.

Testing of the 7.62 spent shells mostly used to fire AK-47 and M-70 rifles began on Monday and yesterday officers within the forensic unit completed the analysis, finding no match of the shells previously retrieved from murder scenes thought to have been carried out by Rawlins’ gang.

Up to press time last night the police had not officially disclosed the findings from the ballistic tests and when contacted Crime Chief, Seelall Persaud declined to comment.

Other senior sources within the Guyana Police and Defence Forces have also declined to comment publicly on the results of the ballistic analysis, although they acknowledged being aware of the findings. Leonard Arokium, owner of the Lindo Creek dredge has accused the military of killing the miners, but the Joint Services have dismissed his allegations as unthinkable and unimaginable, saying that ranks are highly and specially trained and experienced in the execution of their duties whether in urban or rural terrain.

It is not clear, given the findings of the ballistics test whether the army would subject its weapons issued to ranks who were in the jungle to an examination.

Senior joint services officials have admitted that there were a number of outstanding questions to be answered, but one top official told Stabroek News yesterday that the time to answer those questions was not yet. The official mentioned that investigations were still ongoing in the area and at the end the findings would be made public.

Stabroek News had been told that lawmen who visited the Lindo Creek camp site found evidence of some of the miners being tortured. This newspaper has been informed that one of the skulls found at the location had an impression suggesting that the person was beaten in the head. According to information reaching Stabroek News, on arrival at the camp all the lawmen found were burnt bones.

Resemblance

Security officials believe that the manner of the miners’ killing, with some evidence of torture noticeable, bears some marks of the modus operandi of a particular criminal gang. “While I will not speculate there is some resemblance,” one official said, adding that soldiers would not beat anyone with hammers and burn their bodies.

On Monday the joint services said in their statement that the very conduct of their operations would not allow for such actions. “While we understand the state of mind of Mr. Arokium, having lost his family members in this manner, it is unproductive to directly accuse the Joint Services without any shred of evidence and based solely on speculation”.
They further stated that based on information received from reliable sources, the heinous act was committed by criminal elements they are actively pursuing.

Early Saturday morning, Arokium discovered all of his mine workers dead in a camp located south-east of the country. The men were shot and killed and then burnt. Arokium said he only discovered skulls and bones at the scene.  Some relatives of the men are adamant it was the work of the security forces, while others believe that gunmen roaming the jungle after fleeing from the joint services three weeks ago might have killed the miners.

Stating that he believed that the army was responsible for the attack and that it could not be Rondell Fineman Rawlins and his gang, Arokium told Stabroek News in an interview on Sunday night that the fugitive would have had to come into “enemy” territory to launch the attack. He explained that the camp could be reached by travelling strictly over land. Driving from Linden and through Ituni there was a “turn-off” 76 km before reaching the Kwakwani junction. The “turn-off” is the UNAMCO logging road which is located approximately a 30-minute walk from the main road. According to Arokium, Fineman was probably moving away from the Joint Services ranks that were scouring the area around Christmas Falls for him and his gang. Fineman would then have logically crossed over the Berbice River, the man said. He went on to explain that had Fineman wanted to attack the camp then he would have then had to cross the Berbice River once again, this time moving towards “enemy territory” where the Joint Services ranks were awaiting him. Arokium believes that no man in his right senses would have done that. “I think that the army did it. All the evidence points to the army,” Arokium charged.

Arokium last evening told Stabroek News that on Saturday night when the matter was first made public two government officials, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee visited his Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara home in search of him but he was not there. However, he said later that night he met with the officials at his Crane Place, South Ruimveldt residence.

“They kept insisting that it was Fineman and his gang that killed the men, but I am not a little boy. They are supposed to be professional and should not make their rank and file get out of hand,” he said.

Further the man said if it were that the men were killed by mistake, the Joint Services should come out and say so.  He insisted that the joint services were well aware of where his camp was and noted that he had been told that only days before, his son had assisted the lawmen in cleaning meat which they shared.

Arokium recounted that  the young men in particular, who worked with him were youths who he had taken under his wing and given a job, adding that it was extremely saddening the way they were killed. “Those boys were not supposed to be killed like that I took them into my hands, give them work and they were learning the job beautifully and they were never lazy, they did their work well,” he recounted.

Asked whether he had heard any word on whether the remains would be flown to the city and handed over to relatives, Arokium said he was not aware of when this would happen since he has not been notified by anyone.

“They haven’t told me anything and the people’s families are calling me and I don’t know what to tell them because I myself ain’t hearing nothing,” he said.

It is believed that the miners were killed sometime between Sunday June 15 and Tuesday June 17.

Government Pathologist, Nehaul Singh who had viewed the bodies is yet to make any pronouncement as to how long the men might have been dead.