More than six months after the January 26 massacre at Lusignan and the pointing of the finger of blame at Guyana’s most wanted Rondell `Fineman’ Rawlins, numerous questions remain to be answered by the police and the government while the searing statistic of 31 people slaughtered in three separate attacks continues to haunt.
While his name had been on the lips of law enforcement officers ever since the Lusignan attack, it wasn’t until a bloody confrontation between a gang he is believed to have headed and the police at Christmas Falls on June 6 that there was said to be a tangible sighting of him. There was none at Lusignan or at Bartica on February 17 when 12 people were mercilessly gunned down. But at Christmas Falls on the day of the attack the police were sure that he and his men were ensconced in a camp with some creature comforts.
One of the questions which has lingered is why only the police – with their obvious limitations – were involved in this operation to capture or neutralize `Fineman’? If after six months the police – and by extension the Joint Services – were convinced that they had cornered the man who had perpetrated two heinous attacks within three weeks why wasn’t the army involved? Why wasn’t the entire camp area surrounded by the forces of both services, exits cut off and a pincer-like, clinical operation carried out to confront and apprehend the gang members?
Was it because the police and the army had failed to apply the protocol previously established for joint operations of this type or was it that the police had had excellent intelligence on `Fineman’ but was unprepared to share this with the army for fear of compromising the information. It had been publicized in the past that both services had had doubts about the security of information in their respective domains.
The details of the Christmas Falls operation have never been made public but observers believe that the police must lay bare the facts so that the public can understand what transpired. One man, Otis Fifee was killed in the clash by the police but the others – allegedly including `Fineman’ – vanished into the jungle.
After this clash the police announced the discovery of items such as a diary which they said belonged to `Fineman’, and which indicated that he had carried out the two massacres and was planning another to avenge the murder of his sister Marcyn King. There has been no further word on this diary. The police and the authorities however went to great lengths to say that the remnants of the gang were on the run and it was only a matter of time before they were captured or the wildlife of the jungle got the better of them. Yet, more than two months since these confident statements by the police and the government, `Fineman’ and remnants of his gang remain elusive. More puzzling, in the days following, `Fineman’ and his men were accused by the police of involvement in a third massacre – the brutal murder of eight miners at Lindo Creek sometime between June 6 and June 21. This would have been done supposedly when they were on the run from Christmas Falls with barely the clothing on their back and not much in the way of arms and ammunition. How was that possible?
Crossing the river
It has been argued by the operator of the Lindo Creek mine, Leonard Arokium, that it would defy all logic for `Fineman’ and his men to have done it if indeed they were the ones who had fled Christmas Falls on June 6.
If they had fled Christmas Falls they would have retreated across the Berbice River. To execute the Lindo Creek massacre they would have had to re-cross the Berbice River – something that would have posed logistical challenges – travel 10 miles and moreover they would have had to sweep past police and army units who had swarmed the area in the aftermath of June 6 to get to the Lindo Creek camp.
Moreover, getting to the Lindo site was not an easy thing as search parties that essayed the trip found. One had to know precisely where to go as the site was not the same place as it was before and the fording of creeks and dangerous clambering was necessary to find the site.
Arokium, convinced that the Joint Services were behind the Lindo massacre, has argued that the Joint Services knew where his camp was as they had shared supplies with some of his workers before including his son Dax. The police have since denied the essence of some of the conversations that Arokium had said he had about this and were willing to present a witness who would substantiate their side. The police said in a press release “The guards at the UNAMCO gate and the camp attendant at No.69 mining camp were contacted and they have all denied speaking to Mr Arokium, much less telling him any of the stories he related”. No witness has since been presented by the police.
Question: If indeed `Fineman’ and his gang had overrun the Lindo camp allegedly because they thought that their Christmas Falls position had been given away by the miners, then they would have had to operate with great stealth to avoid detection by the joint services men in the area.
Yet, there is little evidence of this furtiveness. The miners at Lindo Creek appeared to have been tortured. Further, based on the police account of the finding of shells, gunfire could have been part of the killing – not the type of behaviour of men desperate to remain under cover.
Moreover, the men and all of their belongings were gathered up and set afire. From all appearances this was no ordinary blaze but a big raging bonfire. Whether at night or during the day why didn’t the joint services men in the area pick up signs: either smoke or fire and become aware that there was some emergency in the area. Why, further, did the helicopters which the state had then pressed into service not detect smoke from the air during their supposedly daily surveillance in support of the ground operations?
Was it more plausible that the purpose of the burning was to incinerate any possible clue as to who had killed the men and how it was done? Based on fuel consumption at the camp, it is believed that the miners had done a `wash down’ for diamonds and may have been preparing for another. Could the diamonds mined have been the motive for the attack?
Were fingerprints or partial prints retrieved from the hammer which it was believed was used in one of the killings at the camp?
The investigation
Since the police were aware very early in the piece that Arokium was firmly of the view that the joint services had carried out the attack why was there no attempt to send independent observers along with the team to Camp Lindo to establish that in the securing of the area and the recovery of items there would be no tampering or planting of evidence. On the night of his return from the camp and the grisly find, Arokium said that in their visit, Prime Minister Sam Hinds, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee and Police Commissioner (acting) Henry Greene had been keen to say that it was `Fineman’ who had committed the atrocity. How could they have been certain considering that there was yet no real information on the nature or timing of the attack? Was the resort to `Fineman’ just a reflex as it had been applied for the two previous massacres?
Were the soldiers and the police in the area questioned about whether they had any knowledge of an attack in the area? Should they have been given lie detector tests on this very important issue considering that the government had recently employed this testing in relation to the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit officers?
And then what is to be made of the Goat Farm confrontation on June 15 in which two men were killed and the hijacking of a vehicle on the Aroaima trail the next day. Goat Farm is 90 miles from the scene of Christmas Falls. If the two men: Chung Boy and Cecil Ramcharran were part of the `Fineman’ gang that had been at the Christmas Falls attack and participated in the Lindo Creek assault, how come they managed to travel 90 miles with a range of supplies. According to the police, after the confrontation AK 47 rifles, 781 7.62 x 39 rounds, nine AK-47 magazines, ten 16-gauge cartridges and eight 12-gauge cartridges were recovered by the Joint Services.
In addition a quantity of foodstuff, a variety of clothing, cellular phones, documents, basic medical supplies and other articles were found in their possession. These include: One Republic Bank Visa Card, one Canadian Bank Gold Card and one Bwee Miles Card in the name of the late minister Satyadeow Sawh. Further, the police recovered, one kerosene stove and cooking utensils, 11 GT&T cell phone chips, three Digicel cell phone chips; three cellular phones; two torchlights; one pocket radio; one Qu’ran; one New Testament and one Bible.
How could these men be a splinter group from the retreating `Fineman’ gang when they were found with all of these supplies? This confrontation occurred before word had seeped out about the Lindo Creek massacre.
The day after the Goat Farm confrontation, a gang of men hijacked a bus on the Aroaima trail and stopped off at some unknown point. It was during this hijacking that the first information was possibly transferred about Lindo Creek. It was stated that one of the hijackers had told a passenger that soldiers had killed miners at a creek. Knowledge of the attack might seem to indicate that these hijackers could have been associated with the attack or had perpetrated it as it was unlikely that given the terrain of the area they could not just know of it in passing. But could it have been the `Fineman’ gang? Could it possibly have been another gang of men who had been confronted at Goat Farm and hijacked a bus to flee? Where exactly were they taken by the driver and why hasn’t the driver been given the necessary protections so that he could say exactly who he thought he was transporting, where they came off and what information was gleaned from them during the hijacking. The police had a different version on the conversation on the hijacked bus. In a press release, the police said that evidence had been unearthed from the two women on the bus that was “hijacked by a man who allegedly called himself `Fineman’ along with others and who said that he had killed nine persons and burnt their bodies and the Joint Services could not see the smoke”.
Suspect/eyewitness
Perhaps the most asked question recently is just who the suspect/eyewitness is who can substantiate the police contention that it was Fineman’s gang who was responsible for Lindo Creek.
In early July, the police via a press release announced that they had a suspect in the murders of the miners who would buttress their argument about `Fineman’. Arokium when asked about this said he has not heard anything about the suspect other than what he read in the newspapers and that “it is the police who say they have a suspect, so let them charge the person.”
The disclosure about the suspect came two days after Commissioner of Police (ag), Henry Greene was quoted in the Kaieteur News as saying that the force has a witness who provided details to substantiate that the killings were carried out by Rawlins’ gang. Around a month since this statement, the police have not charged the person or used his alleged eyewitness information to charge any one. It has said nothing further about the conditions under which the eyewitness is being kept or whether the person has been offered witness protection.
As to the forensics investigation, questions continue to be asked about what can be achieved from the present investigation. It has been broken down into at least two parts: ballistics (Trinidad) and DNA testing (Jamaica) so that relatives can be given the remains of their loved ones. The government had first approached the US government which declined to provide help. Observers have however queried why the government did not take up the offer of help from a UK unit which had been enlisted by a lawyer acting on behalf of the families. The unit specialized in this type of operation and considering that the UK is currently providing security assistance to Guyana it was felt this would have been a good match. The government has not said why it didn’t pursue the offer of help from the UK.
There has been no substantial statement by the police on developments in the Lindo case since July 23 when the families of the victims submitted themselves for DNA testing and the questions persist about all three of the massacres.
