Just over a month after giving the assurance that Guyana’s most wanted, Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins was trapped in the jungle and would be caught, Acting Commissioner of Police Henry Greene yesterday declined to pronounce on the fugitive’s possible whereabouts.
Greene was responding to questions from the media following the commissioning of a $17M Computer Training Centre at the Felix Austin Police College yesterday morning.
Several police sources had told this newspaper that Rawlins and the surviving members of his gang had managed to elude a cordon that was set up by members of the Joint Services following the Lindo Creek massacre.
When asked yesterday if the wanted man had indeed managed to slip the cordon, Greene responded “I wouldn’t want to comment on that at this time. Spare me that one.”
He however chose to speak on the investigation into the killings which claimed the lives of miners Nigel Torres, Bonny Harry, Cecil Arokium, Lancelot Lee, Horace Drakes, Dax Arokium, Clifton Wong and Compton Speirs.
The Commissioner told the media that as of now, the Force is awaiting the final report from the members of the Jamaican Forensic team who took samples for DNA testing from the relatives of the eight men several weeks ago.
When asked if there was any new information as regards the state of the investigations Greene said “Nothing new, we are still waiting the final report out of Jamaica.”
George Arokium was met with the sight of a heap of burnt human remains when he visited his camp nearly two months ago after receiving reports that his men had been killed.
All that remained were bones and skulls at the Camp Lindo site.
Since then he had repeatedly said that he believes that it was members of the Joint Services who carried out the heinous crime but that allegation has been strongly denied.
The police have since said that ballistics tests on the spent shells discovered at the scene matched one of the weapons that was recovered by the security forces from Cecil Ramcharran called ‘Uncle Willie’ and Robin Chung called ‘Chung Boy’ who were slain at Goat Farm during a confrontation with lawmen.
Police had said they encountered Rawlins and his gang during a confrontation at Christmas Falls on June 6 during which one of the gunmen was killed while six others managed to escape.
Shortly after this another group of gunmen hijacked a busload of passengers on the Aroaima trail and disappeared. Police killed two gunmen subsequently at Goat Farm, located some 90 miles from Christmas Falls and arrested a teenager at Ituni. The teen was subsequently charged with the February 17 killings at Bartica. It is not clear whether the two men who were killed at Goat Farm were among the hijackers.
Speaking for the first time at a press conference days after the discovery, Greene had said that he believed that the gunmen were still trapped and the Joint Services would not leave until they found them.
He told reporters that the security forces were still in the jungle, declaring that from all accounts Rawlins and his men were still trapped and would be caught.
Though the Joint Services had maintained since the Christmas Falls attack that the gunmen were trapped in the jungle, they have since not explained how the men were still able to move 90 miles to the Aroaima trail one week later where they supposedly hijacked a busload of passengers.
It is believed that the hijackers are part of Rawlins’ gang which was split into two groups after the Christmas Falls confrontation.
Following the gruesome discovery at Lindo Creek, the government had requested the help of the US to provide forensic assistance but this was subsequently denied and help from CARICOM was sought. Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Barbados all responded positively and the first two have so far responded.
A three-man Trinidadian crime scene team visited the camp site early last month and according to Greene two preliminary reports from the team support their “theory and support their position in terms of what happened.”
Then on July 24, members of the Jamaican Forensic team collected hair and saliva samples from close relatives of the eight men.