A miner says he was beaten, chopped and threatened with death by a group of men, who accused him of stealing a mat near Omai last Friday morning.
Andre Hardy, 32, of Sisters Village, West Demerara, is alleging that a group of around 17 men from a nearby mining camp carried out the attack. The men, who were armed with cutlasses and guns, allegedly attacked him a short distance from where his camp is located at Omai.
Hardy sustained injuries to his back as well as a chopped finger and cuts to other parts of his body. He said that he and his family left the interior on Monday, since there was no transportation for them to do so earlier.
The injured man said that he was employed as a miner in the interior for the past eight weeks and he and his reputed wife, Jenny Henry, also operate a shop in the area.
On Friday, around 6:30AM, Hardy said he left his mining camp at Omai to purchase bread. He told his wife that if he did not find any bread, he would not be back in a hurry and she should purchase something to eat with the money he had left with her.
Henry said that after her husband left, she went to a nearby shop to purchase something to eat when she saw the group of armed men approaching her. “They said, ‘where khaki dread deh?’ And I said, ‘who you talking ’bout?’ And they said, ‘your husband,’” she recalled. She added, “I said he went so (pointing in the direction he left for).”
Henry said she inquired from the men if there was a problem and they informed her that her husband had stolen their mat. Henry said she returned to her camp while the men set off in the direction that her husband went.
Hardy, who did not know about the men looking for him, had gone to another mining camp, after he did not find any bread. After speaking with the owner’s nephew, he began working at the camp, hoping he would find a piece of gold for the day, he said.
It was while he was working that Hardy said he saw about 17 men armed with cutlasses and guns approaching him. The men surrounded him and asked him what time he had left his camp, to which he replied around 6 o’ clock. They then accused him of stealing their missing mat and began beating him on his back.
He said they even attempted to chop off his finger, which was cut.
After beating him, Hardy said the men took him to a remote location in the bush, where they tied a rope on a tree and placed it around his neck while threatening to kill him if he did not tell them what they wanted to know. “When they carry me in de bush an put de rope round me neck a man deh behind me digging a hole and they tell me if I did not talk I going in de hole,” he said, adding that the owner of the camp where the men worked later arrived and ordered the men to bring him out of the bushes.
Once out, Hardy saw his wife, who the men had collected from their camp and brought to witness what was happening.
The men then took him out of the bushes and told him to lie on the ground, while they continued beating him in the presence of his wife. “The men start kicking him and put a gun in he mouth and seh if he din say where de thing is, they gone put a bullet in he belly,” she recalled.
Hardy said the men eventually released him and told him not to tell anyone about what transpired. “I told them that I going to the police and they tell me I bettas watch what I telling the police ’cause I get me family in the backdam,” he said, adding that he later reported the attack to nearby police.
