Five years on, the circumstances surrounding the bizarre death of Private Julian Marks are still hazy and with no information on a GDF Board of Inquiry or the commencement of an inquest; his parents are still clinging to the hope that this year will bring answers to their many questions.
Their sadness is still raw and for them it may never subside unless they can get closure. Given the conflicting accounts that are out there, they maintain that their son met his death by foul play and are calling on those responsible for ensuring that it is properly investigated, to do so.
Recently the grief-stricken parents, Julian Marks Snr and Denise sat down with Stabroek News. During the interview they spoke of their sorrow and the fact that the army which their son had served faithfully for 20 months had done little to ease their pain. They say too that they are convinced that he was killed.
Based on the reports released by the army back then, Marks and another soldier, Private Clyde Bailey, both of Jaguar 1, Infantry Battalion and based at Eteringbang, were missing during a roll call on November 17. A search was subsequently launched and Bailey was found the next morning about two miles from the location. Marks’s badly decomposed body was found some seven days after, floating in the Cuyuni River, approximately one mile before the Ekereku River mouth and 11 miles from Eteringbang. A post-mortem examination on the remains had revealed that he died from asphyxiation due to drowning and also sustained blunt trauma to the left side of his head. Lacerations to the right jaw were also found during the examination.
The soldier’s father said that there has been “no word” on his son’s death; either from the army or the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) who had ordered an inquest. He related that the DPP had made that order five years ago and every time he calls the chambers to inquire about it he gets pushed around. He said that when he visited the week before speaking with this newspaper he was asked to fill out a form. He said the person who dealt with him knew what he was there for as it was she who invited him to visit the office.
He said he promptly objected because as far as he was concerned what was listed on the form had nothing to do with his query concerning the commencement of the inquest. Marks said that he promptly left as he felt that his query should have been checked so that when he arrived he could have been given an update.
After leaving the DPP’s Chambers, he said that he decided to make a stop at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court to see whether anything concerning his son’s inquest was there. He was told that there was nothing.
He recalled that in 2013 he had called the army for an update and spoke to a major. He said that he asked the major about the inquest that was ordered by the DPP but the major was unable to answer and advised that such information could be sought from the Chief of Staff.
According to Marks using the word “disappointed” to express his feeling is very mild.
He remains adamant that his son ought not to have been sent to the border location and he pointed fingers at a “particular captain.” He said that the former Bishops’ High student was “more than above average” and was computer literate. He said that prior to his posting at the border location he was doing typing and other clerical duties. His request for a transfer to the IT section was turned down.
His mother said that her son was determined to enter the GDF because “he wanted to serve his country.” She recalled that initially he wanted to be an officer but he was denied the opportunity of taking part in the cadet officers’ course. He was however determined to “start from the bottom and work his way up.”
Asked what they plan to do now, Marks responded, “We are still demanding answers. I think they [the army] owe me answers. Cause that cock and bull story they gave me bout him absconding… and going to a farm… don’t make sense.”
He said that his son was a signaller; someone with authority and as such the story given does not add up.
According to both parents, the impression they are left with is that no one cares about their pain and grief and the fact that they have lost a child.
“You give service, end of story,” Marks stressed.
While expressing belief that his son was killed, Marks recalled the days between the news of the private’s disappearance and the recovery of his body. He said that after he was informed that his son was lost, he could not put the two together. He said that son had prior training in compass use so he could not bring himself to believe that someone with some training managed to get himself lost in the jungle. “This thing about him being lost and drown… My son was a swimming instructor,” he stressed.
He dismissed the army’s story of the body being found 11 miles from the camp saying that one could not have walked that distance. He said he had visited the area and it was clear that one could not make such a journey on foot given the bushy and mountainous terrain.
He said that at Eteringbang he was shown a map but he was dissatisfied with what was being shown and told to him because it did not make sense. He said he was not convinced that any proper efforts were being made to search for his first born.
Marks said that when he returned to Georgetown, they met with the then chief of staff and he arranged for them to be transported back to Eteringbang. He said that on the day when he was scheduled to leave Timehri, there were delays. However, while still waiting on his flight he was informed that the body had been found.
He said that while on the runway the plane suffered a punctured tyre that took forever to be fixed. The man said his children at home knew their brother’s body was found before he was officially informed.
Marks said he found the timing of the discovery of his son’s remains strange, noting that he had been stranded at the airport for five hours before the news was relayed to him.
When he saw his son’s body at the time of the post-mortem examination, he concluded that before he was killed he was “warding off blows”. He said his son’s eyes were missing, the face was darker than the rest of the body and there was the presence of loam from the neck down, all of which raised suspicions.
He said that following the PME the pathologist was unable to tell him whether his son sustained the hit to his head prior to drowning and questioned why he wrote about blunt trauma.
Five years on he said, “I cannot put closure to this thing.”
Denise said that given all the obstacles she is still confident that they will get some answers. “With God all things are possible,” she said.
