The teenage girl who was chopped multiple times on Monday when her lover launched a brutal attack at Big Creek Backdam, North West District, killing a man she was with, was up to press time on life support at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Stabroek News was told that the 16-year-old is in a critical condition as a result of the chop wounds she sustained during the attack. Hospital officials said that she lost a lot blood.
The teen is a patient of the Intensive Care Unit.
Up to press time the police were still looking for the suspect who hails from the Pomeroon River.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud, when contacted, said that the search continues for the man whose age he gave as 22.
The body of the dead man identified as Junior Joseph, 22, of Lot 17 Onderneeming, Essequibo Coast is at the Port Kaituma Morgue awaiting a post-mortem examination (PME). The man sustained gaping wounds to the back of the head, chest and head, which were all inflicted with a sharp cutlass.
Sources told this newspaper yesterday that since the attack, which occurred around midnight on Monday, there had been no sighting of the suspect. They said the man moved into the area less than a year ago to operate a dredge in the backdam and had also rented a house at Oronoque, Port Kaituma.
Based on the information provided to this newspaper, the girl began a relationship with the suspect shortly after he moved to the area. According to reports she is originally from Matthew’s Ridge.
The man had suspected that the girl was being unfaithful to him and decided to hatch a plan to catch her in the act.
Sometime last week, the man travelled out of the area leaving his girlfriend in charge of the camp. Sometime during the weekend, the suspect informed his girlfriend that he would be sending in supplies for the dredge and that he would travel to the location two or three days after.
On Monday, as promised, the man sent in a 4×4 vehicle loaded with supplies for the dredge and caught another vehicle which travelled closely behind.
Reports are that when the man arrived at his camp he found Joseph and the teen in a compromising position and went berserk. Joseph began working for the suspect a few months ago.
From all indications, he caught Joseph off guard and began chopping him on his neck as the teen stood helplessly nearby. When Joseph’s neck was almost severed from his body, the man turned his attention and his cutlass on the teen.
The badly-wounded girl was transferred to the Port Kaituma Hospital by persons in the area before being air-dashed to the city where she underwent emergency surgery to close her wounds including a lengthy one on her abdomen.
Time for action
An infuriated Simona Broomes, president of the Guyana Women Miners Organisation told this newspaper that this incident should be an eye-opener to all involved. She said the time has come for the issue of trafficking in young girls to be urgently addressed and tackled.
She said when she read the story earlier in the day she was horrified. Broomes said that she was personally affected since the girl was only 16 years old and living in a mining camp; an issue her organization has been fighting against since its formation.
She said that no one knows how the girl ended up where she was or whether she endured abuse at the hands of the man.
“I am again calling on the authorities to recognize that this is a reality. They know it is happening and that it exists,” she said, referring to the growing prevalence of the trafficking of young girls some as young as 11 who are taken to mining camps to work as sex slaves.
She said the organization is putting a lot of work into this issue because its members recognize that it is a growing problem.
Broomes explained that she along with other members are currently in Mahdia and on arrival residents pleaded with them to educate young girls in the community and make them aware that “life is not all about having sex with men for money in the backdam.
“It seems to me that everyone else has their head in the sand [where this issue is concerned]”, she said, stressing that her organization is going to continue fighting because a 16-year-old girl should not be chopped up like this.
She noted that the authorities need to act now; they need to begin by arresting those who transport young girls and women to the mining camps to be cooks and other things and then turn them into sex slaves.
“Everyone of them should be before the court,” she stressed. She said that when young girls are found, the authorities need to find out who transported them to the area and lock those persons up. “If they don’t start doing this then it will happen over and over again.
The woman miner told this newspaper that since the organization has been formed, a lot of tips about young girls being exploited in the North West area have been received and the frequency of the tips began to increase about three weeks ago.
She said that area appears to be the biggest problem spot and her group would have preferred to go there but ended up at Mahdia because of a lack of funding.
She explained that to go to Mahdia is cheaper adding that it will cost about $300,000 per person to go to the North West by aircraft.
She explained that when her organization rescues girls from these situations, it comes at a great cost as clothing, food and shelter are among the things that have to be immediately provided.
However, she said, the lack of funding would not deter them. “We can’t stop,” she said, adding that on their arrival in Mahdia, a group of women offered to provide them with some funding.
Last week, the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security received US$75,000 ($15.4 million) from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for a project to help combat human trafficking by giving support to the victims and their families
The project aims to strengthen the ongoing efforts of the ministry toward public awareness, training of focal points in the administrative regions, victim support and updating the directory of focal points in the administrative regions.
Human Services Minister Jennifer Webster told this newspaper after the project document was signed that there is a special team which would travel to mining areas and other places where human trafficking is said to be rampant. She explained that there is a counter-trafficking department and this year the intention is to increase the number of staff to help.
