A man who was shot in the right eye during last year’s protest in Linden was among the four persons who made compensation claims to the Linden Commission of Inquiry (COI) yesterday
Leslie Stephens, who was part of the protest actions when he was shot in the right eye, David Shemroy Vigilance and two businessmen, Vishnu Singh and Carlton Mohan, whose trucks were destroyed, catalogued their losses to members of the COI, when hearings continued at the Supreme Court Law Library.
Relatives of the three men—Ron Somerset, Shemroy Bouyea and Allan Lewis—who were shot dead at the start of the protest on July 18 are expected to testify today. Although they had been slated to testify in the presence of their attorney, Nigel Hughes, yesterday afternoon, they were absent when the hearing resumed. Chairman of the COI, former Chief Justice of Jamaica, Lensley Wolfe then announced that the COI will continue today with the relatives of the deceased testifying.
Stephens claimed that a pellet is still in his eye and he has to undergo surgery to
remove it. However, the surgery is not being done in Guyana, he said. He was sent to get an estimate of the cost of the operations and airfare from his doctor by the commission.
Also testifying yesterday was Lindener David Shemroy Vigilance, who said he lost his gold chain and two gold finger-rings after the police started to beat him. He is claiming the sum of $600,000 for his jewellery in addition to another $300,000 that he said he had in a bag which was missing after the police collected him and started to beat him.
Vigilance had given a statement to the COI outlining his claims but did not mention anything about a bag containing money in it. This caused former Chancellor of the Judiciary Cecil Kennard, who is one of the commissioners, to state that he did not believe that Vigilance lost a bag containing any money.
In reply, Vigilance stated that he is a businessman and he would normally have the amount of cash he claimed he had on him.
Commissioner and Senior Counsel K.D. Knights then asked Vigilance why he would need $300,000 to buy beverages and confectionaries that he claims he sells, but Vigilance stated, “I am a businessman…”
Justice Wolfe then told Vigilance that the statement he signed, which is before the commission, had nothing about him having $300,000 and he read the statement to him. Vigilance was then asked to step out of the witness box when he was finished giving his evidence. As he was leaving, Justice Wolfe told him, “…I hope you find the $300, 000,” which prompted laughter.
Meanwhile, Singh said he lost his fuel truck, which was transporting fuel to the interior. The truck, which he bought overseas, cost £20,000, he said, while adding that he had to pay additional fees to get the truck in Guyana. His stated that his freight cost was $1,584,875 while another $4,120 was paid in security charges. Singh also said he paid $918,100 to customs and landing charges of $63,975. He is, therefore, seeking compensation for all of this.
Another truck owner, Mohan, whose truck and trailer were destroyed, said he was seeking $5.5M for his truck and $2.5M for his trailer, which were all purchased on hire purchases. Mohan said that he paid over $6M for the truck and trailer but still has an outstanding balance of over $1M to pay.
The four witnesses yesterday brought the total number of persons seeking compensation to date to 20. Among them is Director of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) Winston Brassington, who has sought compensation for the losses NICIL suffered after the Linmine Secretariat was razed during the protest.
He stated that an estimate of the losses was done by Rodrigues Architects Limited and the damage was estimated at $204,070,000 but this was deemed absurd and leading to a dead end by the commissioners.
The COI has been tasked with inquiring and reporting on the circumstances surrounding the shooting to death of the three men and the injury of several others at the Mackenzie-Wismar Bridge. The members of the commission were identified to also serve as the assessors of compensation. A report containing the findings of the COI along with the commission’s recommendations is expected to be completed by the end of next month.
