Days before eight miners at Lindo Creek were slaughtered, one of those killed, a former member of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), was said to have been overheard telling serving joint services members that the miners were expected to do a “wash down”, according to a well-placed source.
A ‘wash down’ means the miners were expected to go through a process that would have sorted the diamonds that they had found.
Stabroek News has been informed that the ex-army rank was speaking to a serving member of the force, who was known to him, at the Kwakwani Water Front. The operator of the Lindo Creek mine, Leonard Arokium says he believes that the men were killed by elements of the joint services while the police have said that all evidence thus far points to the Rondell `Fine-man’ Rawlins gang. After the miners were killed, sometime towards the middle of June, their bodies and belongings were burnt and no trace of diamonds was found although it was clear that they had completed a `wash down’.
The source told Stabroek News it would not be difficult for the army to ascertain when the ex-rank served in the force and who from his batch would have been in the area around the time the crime was committed. It is suggested that the particular serving member should be questioned extensively.
It is also suggested that investigators should interview the residents of the area as more than one of them overheard the `wash down’ conversation.
Clifton Wong, Nigel Torres, Cecil Arokium, Compton Speirs, Bonny Harry, Horace Drakes, Dax Arokium and Lancelot Lee were slaughtered at the Lindo Creek mine and their remains burnt possibly around June 9-10. Their burnt remains were only discovered by the owner of the mine, Leonard Arokium, on June 21.
Since his discovery, Arokium has repeatedly said that he believes that it was members of the Joint Services who carried out the heinous crime, an allegation that has been strongly denied by the forces. He had said he believed the men were killed and then the camp was robbed as there was evidence that a `wash down’ was done.
The men are believed to have been killed early in the second week of June as according to reports a member of the Joint Services had reported seeing smoke while in the army helicopter in the area but only reported what he saw to his colleagues late that night. The sighting of the smoke occurred between June 9 and 10.
Separately, a member of one of the parties who had visited the site after the discovery of the burnt remains had said he had overheard members of the Joint Services speaking about having seen smoke from the air. It was also suggested by sources that the authorities could easily identify which joint services members had been part of the search team and have them questioned about this revelation. Smoke from the area would be a definite indicator of when the miners were killed and could help to clarify who could possibly have done it.
Days after Arokium made the allegations the police reported that ballistics tests on the spent shells discovered at the Lindo Creek mine 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.
Arokium had received two calls just prior to his discovery of the remains on June 21, one in the morning and one in the evening, from the mother of Nigel Torres, Yonette Torres, informing him that she had heard the miners were killed and their remains burnt. He dismissed the calls following checks he made with a member of the police force and being told that the police had no such reports.
Torres has since told Stabroek News that she became concerned after persons in her Kwakwani community reported that they were told by persons who were on the hijacked bus that the bandits told them that they knew they were going to die because “soldiers” had killed and burnt some miners.
The police have since revealed that two women who were passengers on the hijacked bus had reported that a man identifying himself as ‘Fineman’ had told them that he had killed some miners and burnt their bodies.
Acting Commissioner Henry Greene had also told the media that the police had an eyewitness to the crime who not only saw `Fineman’ and his gang kill the men but also observed them cooking and eating a meal at the mining camp. Later, the police issued a release stating that they had a suspect in the Lindo Creek massacre. A few days after the release was issued Greene speaking to reporters had indicated that the eyewitness and the suspect are one and the same and had hinted that the person may be used as a state witness. More than a month later there has been no word on this suspect/eyewitness.
Meanwhile, family members are anxiously awaiting the results of DNA samples that were taken from them over two weeks ago by a team of Jamaican police officers who were in Guyana. And the police have not said whether the final report from the Trinidadian forensic team has been handed over but Greene had said the initial reports from the team had supported his force’s findings as regard the ballistic tests.
More than two months after the miners were killed there is however no clear evidence pointing in the direction of the perpetrators or the motive for the attack.
