As people make Christmas wishes and New Year’s resolutions, one family is praying for a miracle to wash away the memory of their 16-year-old son hanging in his bedroom a few days after this year started.
While gifts were being unwrapped at Christmas, Akbar Sattaur and his wife, Nadira were fighting to block a kaleidoscope of images of last year’s Christmas from plaguing their minds; images of their last Christmas with Safraz Sattaur; images of when last December took a tragic turn.
On January 4, 2013 at Anna Catherina, Safraz was found hanging in his bedroom. He had locked the house, locked his room and committed suicide, reportedly minutes after he was approached by Ministry of Education Welfare officers in a vehicle identified by the ministry’s logo imprinted on a bus.
His girlfriend, 15-year-old Natasha Nazamudeen, had allegedly hanged herself in her bedroom in Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo, two weeks before Sattaur killed himself. After Nazamudeen’s death, villagers in Anna Catherina had stated that three education welfare officers had threatened Sattaur with jail time if he did not speak out about problems his girlfriend supposedly had at home.
“He never told me what was happening in that home with her but he did say that her mother was calling and nagging him with questions like ‘if Natasha told you anything…what did Natasha tell you?’ and I told him to swallow it down that it done happen…” Nadira Sattaur said.
She said that even though Natasha had died, Safraz appeared to be happy during Christmas. She recalled how he had kept the house lively and fun that Christmas. “He spent it with us and we had a wonderful time and we enjoyed ourselves,” she said.
“Now there wouldn’t be a Christmas for us…actually no holiday would be a holiday for us because he wouldn’t never be around anymore,” she said, recalling a memory that was engraved in her mind forever; the day when she returned from Georgetown and called out for him to open the door and received no answer -nothing but fear and anticipation that something was wrong.
“…and then I keep remembering one thing when I came home that afternoon…I remember I come home and I keep calling for him and then getting no response. I got worried and when they opened the door I run up to go upstairs and see what going on,” she said, noting that the first thing she saw was her son hanging from a rope in a beam on the ceiling. “When the door break that was the first thing I could have seen when I go in…my son hanging.”
“I feel the same way like I did that day…every day is another day…every month is a next month that he’s not here,” she said, adding that she missed him a lot. “It’s just like other day story to me…nothing has changed.”
Nadira added that she remembered going to the market and buying things for him. She remembered getting a random call during the day from him asking when she would get home. “He would call and ask me what time I coming home and that he done put on the rice for me and what I would cook…when I’m running late he would cook it for me.”
“The feelings would come back to me and I would get so weak and I don’t want to get up…and every month I count,” she stated, noting that she would watch a ministry of education welfare officer’s bus visit the neighbourhood to speak to another family with similar issues.
“I would just sit down and watch them talk to the people. And I would think back to when they come and threaten my son…if we were here that wouldn’t have happened…that girl has her family with her…he had no one,” she said.
Nadira expressed disappointment with the ministry for not looking deeply into the matter and punishing the officers who allegedly threatened her son. “You don’t hear anything…if the man still has his job or if they punished him. Every month I count it…”
In May, the Chief Education Officer, Olato Sam had stated that an investigation conducted into the matter, found no evidence to implicate the three welfare officers. He said that there was no evidence to suggest that the officers did what they were accused of. He added that the concluded probe was sent to the Education Minster.
However, relatives and villagers who gathered at Safraz’s funeral had said that the ministry officials had no right to question the teen in the absence of his parents. Villagers had called for the ministry to come forward and explain why the officers were sent to question Sattaur and why they persisted without parental consent.
“We are not stupid! We want to know why they were sent and we want answers now! What were their motives? Why did they send those personnel to question a young boy without first asking his parents? Why isn’t the education board taking actions?” the villagers had argued.
“They supposed to investigate to find out if it’s truth or lie” Akbar Sattaur told Stabroek News, stating that his dream as a father to see his son marry was shattered when he saw Safraz hanging that day. “I would calculate by the time I had reach 43 he would have been married already but that’s just a dream…”
“We have to live with that. We can’t take the law into our own hands and if they are not doing anything what can we do to change that…? Every time I watch that room I remember it and that’s the first door that I see when I go upstairs and I remember seeing him hanging there. He was happy I knew he was,” he said.
On May 12 this year there was further tragedy for the family. Nadira’s sister, Maryann Sunita Nauth was found with a knife in her chest at the K&VC hotel on South Road. A post-mortem performed on her body had revealed that she was stabbed 35 times. Her ex-husband was charged with the murder. “This was a rough year for my life,” Nadira said.
