A second Lindo Creek miner has been identified through DNA testing, according to Police Commissioner Henry Greene.
Greene also told Stabroek News yesterday that the Jamaican forensic investigators have requested more DNA from some of the family members of the miners, who are believed to have been killed at the camp last year. Greene, however, refused to disclose the identity of the miner, saying only that the Jamaicans forensic personnel have informed that they have identified a second person, leaving six others persons to be identified. Those who were killed at the site were Dax Arokium, Cedric Arokium, Compton Speirs, Horace Drakes, Clifton Wong, Lancelot Lee, Bonny Harry and Nigel Torres.
It is not clear when and if all the miners are identified whether the burnt remains will be handed over to the relatives of the men as has been requested on numerous occasions. Commissioner Greene said that he did not want to go into more detail on the issue as Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee is expected to make a statement.
Last December Greene had confirmed that partial results of the DNA samples taken from relatives of the miners confirmed that at least one of the men died at the location. He, however, did not say which one of the victims was identified.
The delay in the results may be as a result of the utterance of Jamaica’s Deputy Commissioner of Police Charles Scarlett, who during the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP) conference here in May said the island’s force had some limitations of capacity and had embarked on a process of reform. He had said the DNA forensic laboratory “is in for special treatment [and] we hope that we would be able over time with improvement,” to respond quickly to our own needs as well as to requests of our Caribbean sister countries.
The burnt remains of the miners were discovered at the Lindo Creek mining camp in June last year. They were unidentifiable. About a month later, after much lobbying by individuals and organisations, the Guyana Police Force requested assistance from Jamaica. Officers from that country’s police force later arrived here and went to the site where samples were taken from the remains. Relatives of the dead men were also asked to submit DNA samples. They were promised that the results would be known in two weeks but have since received very limited information.
Some relatives of the dead miners have since indicated that they have given up ever knowing the results, while others are still wishing for closure through positive identification of their loved ones, which would give them an opportunity to say goodbye.
Owner of the camp where the eight miners died, Leonard Arokium, who discovered the remains of the men, lost his son and his brother, both of whom had been working at his mine site. Arokium has stated publicly on many occasions following the June 21 discovery of the burnt bones and skulls that he believed members of the joint services were responsible for the deaths of the men.
The Joint Services had strongly denied this and said that the now dead infamous Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins and his gang were responsible for the brutal slaying of the men. The alleged kidnapping and murder of a young Bartician by three members of the coast guards last week has brought the Lindo Creek massacre again into the focus of the public.
