—Joint Services source
Smoke was seen somewhere in the vicinity of Lindo Creek where eight miners were killed in early June by at least one law enforcement officer but he never reported it to his colleagues until the night, according to a senior Joint Services source.
Stabroek News understands that the date the law enforcement officer is thought to have seen the smoke may have been some time between June 9 and 10.
This newspaper attempted to contact others senior Joint Services officials to ascertain whether a timeline has been established for when the men may have been killed but efforts were futile.
The burnt remains of Clifton Wong, Nigel Torres, Cecil Arokium, Compton Speirs, Bonny Harry, Horace Drakes, Dax Arokium and Lancelot Lee were not found until June 21 by the owner of the mine, Leonard Arokium. It is believed that one or more of the men may have been tortured before being killed and their bodies burnt along with all their possessions at the camp site.
According to reports the law officer was in the army helicopter that was flying over the area, following the June 6 discovery of Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins and his gang at Christmas Falls, when he observed smoke. The officer reportedly told his colleagues what he had seen that night, but by then it was too late to investigate.
Courtney Wong, who had taken the lawmen to the area following Arokium’s discovery, had reported that while at the camp he had heard a conversation between some soldiers which suggested that they may have noticed a fire in the area on June 10.
According to him one said “You could remember when we fly over and we see this big fire. One soldier was talking to another soldier and he was saying this is probably where the fire came from. I think it was three of them… I don’t think if they come in front of me I would recognize them because I wasn’t paying much attention,” the man had said.
At that time Arokium had said if someone was looking for bandits and a fire was seen, it was something that should be investigated.
“They don’t got bush fire in that area,” he had observed.
When this was put to a senior officer in the army they reported that an investigation had been launched which included the questioning of the ranks who would have flown into the area along with Wong and it was ascertained that no such conversation had taken place.
Questions have been swirling around the identity of the killers, and while the police have said Guyana’s most wanted, Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins and his gang committed the act others, including Arokium who lost his son and his brother, have accused members of the Joint Services of killing the men. The Joint Services have strongly denied the allegation. A forensic team from Trinidad flew in to conduct ballistic tests and a Jamaican team came to take DNA samples from family members of the men.
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, some 90 miles from Christmas Falls during a confrontation with lawmen.
This was after a group of gunmen had hijacked a busload of passengers on the Aroaima trail and then disappeared. In addition to killing the two men at Goat Farm, the police also 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. However, they have not been captured and when asked recently about the status of their search for Fineman Greene said he wished not to answer that question.
June 6
Meanwhile, this newspaper has been reliably informed that the tip that Fineman and his gang were in the area may have gone to a senior government official. According to a source a call was placed to the government official via a satellite phone informing the person of the gang’s presence in the area and the official in turn informed a senior officer in the force, but not the top cop.
Arrangements were made to quickly transport police officers to the area which resulted in them leaving without the support members of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF). Army ranks only went into the area following the first confrontation between the gunmen and the police on June 6.
The police were so certain that they would have caught Fineman and his men unaware that they failed to cordon off the area before announcing their presence via gunfire. Their failure to cordon off the area resulted in Guyana’s most wanted – who is suspected to have committed the two massacres in Lusignan and Bartica along with other crimes – and a number of his men to escape.
Stabroek News’s source indicated that the person who made the phone call now fears for their life.
