Police at Bartica with support from the community’s Speed Boat Association on Monday began regularizing a system of random security searches of persons entering and leaving the community.
At the Parika stelling persons are usually asked to give their names and sometimes present a form of identification before boarding any vessel to the mining community. The system had obtained at the Bartica stelling but had been relaxed for some time.
Officer-in-Charge of the Bartica Police Station, Deputy Superintendent John Sauers when asked about the system told this newspaper that the intention is to re-introduce the system.
He confirmed too that persons would be subject to random searches. He pointed out that only on Saturday one such search on a man leaving the community unearthed 11 grammes of cannabis. The man has since been charged and placed before the courts.
Asked about the logic behind the security initiative, Sauers said the system was operable in the past and noted that the community was the gateway to the interior.
He acknowledged too previous assertions by lawmen that many illegal guns and illicit drugs pass across the country’s borders, most of which remain unmanned due to its vastness and inadequate human resources.
However he called on members of the community and those visiting to co-operate with the police during the exercise which should not be seen as police harassment but a way of protecting the community.
“People should not be annoyed and see it as harassment – we are just trying to protect the community,” he said. Barticians on February 17 this year were victims of an attack on their community which left 12 dead, a mere three weeks after a group of gunmen slaughtered 11 people in Lusignan, East Coast Demerara.
The gunmen who some eyewitnesses had numbered at about 17 reportedly entered the community via the Transport and Harbours stelling there. They then attacked the community’s police station during which three officers were killed. They proceeded to CB&R Mining where they killed a security guard and escaped with a quantity of gold, money and guns.
Another security guard who was on duty at the Banks DIH outlet just opposite on the main road was also killed. The gang of gunmen also invaded the home of a Bartica gold miner and escaped with a quantity of gold.
