Verona Prince, the woman who was beaten by a police rank on the Marudi trail last Saturday, says a statement is still to be taken from her about the brutal assault that has sparked outrage.
Prince, 42, yesterday told Stabroek News that her husband was hospitalised and their 10-year-old-son has been constantly crying out in excruciating pain as a result of the traumatising assault, which was which was caught on video and uploaded on YouTube.
“No one has taken a statement from me as yet… I understand the police that beat us is still in Marudi and the Aishalton police told us that they can’t take a statement because police from town coming to carry out a big investigation and they can’t take the statement. When we got to Lethem they did not either,” Prince said from Lethem yesterday.
Acting Police Commissioner Leroy Brumell had told Stabroek News on Sunday that he had asked the police commander in the area for a full report and police investigators have been dispatched to the area to conduct a probe into the incident.
Efforts to contact Brumell yesterday for an update proved futile.
The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) has also dispatched its own team to conduct an investigation and prepare a report. Stabroek News was told by an official that when the report is concluded, the agency will speak on the matter. The Natural Resources Ministry has described the incident as “an alleged confrontation between members of the Guyana Police Force and illegal miners” during an enforcement exercise to curb illegal mining activities within Marudi Mountain, Region Nine.
The video titled ‘Police brutality in Marudi Mountains,’ which had gained almost 19,000 views up to yesterday, shows a group of policemen and GGMC mines officers standing around as one rank beat men who were trying to protect a woman and her child. The child was lying on top of his mother, who was on the ground as the policemen used their bodies in an attempt to protect them from the blows. The policeman used a stick to inflict the blows. There were other policemen around with guns.
Prince, a mother of four sons, said that she and her sons would normally visit her husband on weekends or whenever there is a school break.
The assault occurred as they were returning to take her sick 10-year-old son to the hospital as he had showed symptoms of having malaria. They waited on the trail as her husband heard that the police and the GGMC were returning to demolish camps and seize their mining equipment. “We were coming out and we hear that they were coming in to take away the equipment. We didn’t have time to pack up so we said we will video the operation to ensure whatever they said they seized was so, because we know how it goes, you had ‘x and y’ and when you check it’s only ‘x,’” she said.
Prince said her sick son was feeling cold and she told him to sit in the middle of the trail as that was the place where the sunlight was most intense. She said that they spread banana leaves and the child lay on it and went to sleep, while they were waiting on other persons to “form a cook” as they waited on the GGMC crew.
She took to lying with her son and was rubbing him to make him warm when the police and GGMC arrived. She said that they began using expletives. “They came up and start cussing up ain’t ask anything, just like ‘Get out the #@&* road,” she recalled. “The police, they have no respect for anyone. To me, the one that did the beating, he seemed high and it’s as if he wanted to show that he has no regard for child or woman, he going to beat this Amerindian woman.”
Prince added that she remained on the trail staring at them as she could not believe their behaviour. At that point, she resolved not to move as the police had no respect and that was when the blows began. “They start kicking and pulling, so my sons and husband run to cover me. But, next thing I know, is blows with a stick and my boys begging for them to stop… they continued and only stopped when my son screamed out from below that his foot was broken,” she said.
According to the woman, the blows were so severe and her sick son, now not only has a high temperature and shivers but also what appeared to be a broken foot. Her husband and sons abandoned their plan to video the demolition and seizure exercise. They instead had to be taken to the nearest hospital, at Aishalton, but it did not have x-ray facilities so they had to seek treatment at Lethem.
Prince said she was advised by persons to travel to Georgetown where she can make an official complaint and speak to relevant officials. But she said that the trip is expensive and she has no money. She also believes that her son can be treated adequately at either the Lethem or Boa Vista hospital. In addition, she says that the police can undertake their investigation without her leaving the Rupununi.
She called on the head of the police force to do something about the police ranks in the area, arguing that they have no respect and no mercy.
Yesterday she was told by Brazilian authorities at the border to return today. She said she does not know the nature of what that visit would be but since her son is Brazilian, she assumes that it is to give a statement of events as it pertains to the child.
