A ninth man who had accompanied one of the slain Lindo Creek miners towards the camp in June could be key to solving the grisly jigsaw puzzle.
Camp owner Leonard Arokium told Stabroek News yesterday that he learnt about the man about three weeks after the slaying of the eight miners in June. He said he was told about the ninth man by a tractor driver in the area who had related that he had transported Arokium’s son Dax with the man to a certain point towards Lindo Creek after which the two had to dismount and make their way on foot.
It isn’t certain whether the ninth man did indeed make it to Lindo Creek with Dax. However, sources say it is possible that the ninth man is the person that police alleged was an eyewitness to the killings. If he is the ninth person then he is in a position to testify about what happened at the camp and may even be considered a suspect as he would have to explain how he survived the macabre massacre which was blamed on the now dead Rondell Rawlins and his gang but which has seen Arokium and others laying responsibility at the feet of the Joint Services. Even if he didn’t make it to the camp this person may still have useful information.
Arokium yesterday says he is anxiously awaiting the return of the DNA results on the remains found at Camp Lindo. Samples were taken from the remains by a team from Jamaica to be cross-referenced with samples taken from family members who presented themselves to Police HQ, Eve Leary for this purpose.
Arokium was puzzled at the delay in the return of the samples and the results. They should have been here weeks ago. It was surmised that the results could tell a lot more about the massacre e.g. if remains are found that do not belong to the eight men who were thought to have died at Camp Lindo. It could then mean that the remains may be those of the ninth person or someone else.
The camp owner was also keen on finding out which of the members of the camp sustained the sledgehammer skull wounds as it would indicate who resisted the attackers. The theory would be that Dax would most likely have been the victim and that up to this point the attackers were only interested in robbing the camp. After the miner was fatally struck in the head, a decision would have been triggered then or later to eliminate all of the camp members.
The remains should also confirm definitively if all of the eight persons who were believed killed were indeed killed. Arokium had told Stabroek News several weeks earlier that one of the camp members, Clifton Wong, an ex-member of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) had been heard at Kwakwani mentioning to one of his army `squaddies’ when a `wash down’ for diamonds was going to be done at Camp Lindo. It was thought that this remark could have led to the massacre.
Arokium yesterday challenged the GDF to ascertain who would have been in the same batch with Wong when he was in the army and to determine whether he had been in the Kwakwani area during the month of June.
“It is not hard for them to do that,” the man said yesterday. He said that Wong was not supposed to be in Kwakwani at the time. “People ask him what he was doing there and if I know he was there and he could not answer,” Arokium told Stabroek News yesterday.
Meanwhile, Arokium feels that jet-fuel was used to burn the remains of the men as he said while he had diesel at the camp site he does not believe it was used for the conflagration. The man said when one is in the interior, depending on the location, if clothes get wet it takes about two or three days to dry because of the humidity. That is why he believes that the men’s bodies were placed together and jet-fuel used to burn them so as to accelerate the process. He said he found about three drums of diesel at the camp site and as such does not believe that his fuel was used to commit the act.
Meanwhile, the police in a release on Saturday said the force had received a printout from the telephone company on the cellular phone which Arokium said his son Dax had on his person but the number is registered to a female. The phone evoked interest after Arokium’s lawyer revealed that calls had been mysteriously made on it in August this year. If it was the phone he had at the time of this death whoever made calls from it would have a lot of information to provide.
The police release said the force contacted Arokium on the issue and asked how his son would have gained possession of “such a phone, from whom, and whether it was received from the person recorded as being the legitimate owner.” The release said that Arokium related that he had bought the phone and SIM card from a Digicel outlet at Parika, East Bank Eessequibo and gave it to Dax.
Yesterday Arokium maintained that he purchased the phone and told Stabroek News that he is willing to take the police to the store where he made the purchase. He said while the number listed by the police is correct he could not understand how the phone would have been listed in a female’s name.
And the police said acting on information received they have since arrested three persons who may have knowledge “of a cell phone with a SIM card of a similar number” and they are currently being questioned.
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 Arokium on June 21.
Since the gruesome discovery, Arokium has maintained that 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 ‘Fineman’ gang. After the miners were killed, their bodies and belongings were burnt and no trace of diamonds was found although it was clear that they had completed a `wash down’.
A forensic team from Trinidad concluded preliminarily that tests of shells found in the area indicated that the killings were carried out by the Rawlins gang. Skeptics have said that ballistics tests will not prove anything as shells could have been planted at the site by persons who had free access to it. A team from Jamaica subsequently came to gather the DNA evidence.
The Lindo massacre – the third for the year – has riveted public attention and spawned many theories on what possibly happened. The government has not agreed to have an inquiry into what occurred at the site. The massacre came after those at Lusignan on January 26 and at Bartica on February 17.
