The body of another crewman from a missing Corentyne fishing boat was discovered yesterday along the foreshore at Good Faith, Mahaicony, bringing the death toll to two with two more fishermen still missing.
The body was identified as that of Lamar Petrie, 20, of Lot 9 Miss Phoebe, Port Mourant. The body of Kawal Kissoon, also known as ‘Ajai,’ 36, of Lot 233 Letter Kenny, Corentyne, was discovered on Friday morning on the foreshore of the Abary River. Still missing are boat captain Vishnu Seeram, also known as ‘Kevin,’ 20, of Port Mourant and Marvin Tamasar, called ‘Buddy’, 20, of Lot 305 Port Mourant.
Petrie’s body was brought to the Bailey’s Funeral Parlour, West Coast Berbice, where families of the missing men rushed yesterday afternoon to see whether it was their relative. Petrie’s mother, Onika Simon, identified the body as that of her son sometime around 5:30 pm.
Stabroek News was told yesterday afternoon that police were searching the areas surrounding the sites where the bodies were found in an effort to locate the remaining missing fishermen.
The fishermen had left from a private wharf at Number 65 Village, Corentyne, on the fishing boat, SARA 1, to fish in Suriname on the morning of October 5th. They were expected to return 14 days after. However, the unmanned boat was discovered floating aback Cromarty Village, Corentyne, on Friday, with evidence of blood and a missing engine and seine.
Relatives have since said that the men’s clothing, identification, food supply and a chopper were found on the boat while a large pool of blood was covered with part of a seine.
Kissoon’s wife, Tashminie Seecharran, also known as ‘Tasha’, 31, said that they had seen in the news that a body was found at Abary and it was after they were informed that Kissoon was missing that they decided to head over to identify the body. “We saw it on Facebook and then I called the hospital and they give me the funeral home number and the funeral home told me the body at Bailey’s Funeral Home and I googled up the number and I called and then them tell me a body was found and I ask a few question [about] the colour of the clothes and then I decide to go,” she recounted.
The woman said that she went to the Whim Police Station and informed them that she wanted to go and see the body. She said that she was initially told that a rank would accompany her but that was not the case. “I called back and ask if we can identify the body without the police. Nobody didn’t contact us and tell us anything…and [we] decide to go,” Seecharran said.
After waiting for a while for the police, the relatives of the other missing men and Seecharran ventured over to West Coast Berbice where she confirmed her worst fears that her husband was dead. She identified Kissoon from a tattoo on his hand. “I couldn’t recognise his face, there was no flesh on his face. I see marks of violence on his body and his two foot was swell but I tell them that is his clothes that he work with,” the emotional woman recounted yesterday.
Seecharran said that she was told that her husband’s hands were tied behind his back and his legs were together while he had a large gash on his body.
Stabroek News was told that West Coast Berbice police ranks arrived at the parlour shortly after and facilitated the second identification.
Suriname waters
There was some amount of speculation initially as to whether the men had reached Surinamese waters since their boat was found aback of Cromarty Village, Corentyne. However, Seecharran said, she last spoke with her husband on Saturday evening on his Suriname cellphone number and he told her that they “go Suriname and work them way back.”
“I saw they were out at sea because he call and we talk and I see water in the back and them deh on the boat,” she recounted.
The woman said that Kissoon asked about his child and how she was doing and told her not to worry about him since this would be his last trip. According to Seecharran, she always worried about her husband’s safety especially after hearing about previous horrific pirate attacks on the high seas.
She said that Kissoon was uneasy on this trip due to the difficulties he and his captain, with whom he was close, faced on recent trips since they began working with this boat owner. Seecharran said that her husband, the captain and three other fishermen went on previous trips where they experienced issues with the seine and the boat and returned without making a profit and owed the owner some money. Another trip had to be cut short after one fisherman complained of health issues, she recounted.
This last trip marked the third time they had headed out to sea since working with this boat owner. “The fishermen and the captain take the money and suppose to go out but the other two didn’t want go and then the captain call my husband and say the boatman behaving for the money and that he might bring police [and] let them go out and work and pay” the boat owner the money owed, a proposal to which her husband agreed, Seecharran said.
“The captain na been a pay holdover money but my husband decide to go without it because is he friend and them want pay out the boat man,” she added.
Hunting for employment
According to Seeram’s mother, Shamwattie Inderjeet, 41, her son, Kissoon and two other fishermen were set to leave on October 4th but Kissoon and her son were unable to do so after the two other fishermen went on another boat to work, despite allegedly owing this boat owner a sum of cash.
She said that that made her young son frustrated and after searching for workmen, Tamasar and Petrie signed up. The parents of the two young men told Stabroek News that the lads were on the hunt for employment. They said that once the opportunity to head out to sea to work arose, they jumped on it since it would have meant an income for them.
“Job na deh, job na deh and me son them ah go work hard,” Inderjeet said as she broke into tears.
Meanwhile, the relatives of all the fishermen lamented the lack of information and contact with the authorities. As of yesterday afternoon, the families were unaware whether any searches were being carried out, they had no word on an investigation and whether anyone had been arrested in connection with the matter.
They said that the only time they spoke with the authorities was when they were informed that their relatives were missing and were invited to provide a statement to the police. They said that they have not heard back anything since nor has any official made contact with them.
Inderjeet recounted to Stabroek News that on Friday evening, the police arrived at her house. “We lock up and deh upstairs; them run inside the yard, run up the step and ah bang down the door and me daughter answer them and them ask where Kevin and if he ah live here and we get frighten and them start say let we open the door so me daughter tell them they don’t have any identification to show them is police because them na had on police clothes and them start talk why she behaving so,” she recalled.
Inderjeet, a single mother, who resides with her now missing son, her 21-year-old daughter and five months old baby, said that they became extremely scared at that point. “We na open the door. We start call on we neighbours and then when we neighbours come out, we come out and then them tell we that Kevin missing,” she said.
Empty-handed
Relatives of the fishermen also lamented that the boat owner has not been in contact with them. As of now, the families only know the first name of the owner and do not have a telephone number for him.
According to the relatives, the boat owner was with the police the night they were informed of the tragedy and that was the last they saw of him. “He na say help with one boat to search or nobody na say help with nothing, only friends and families and neighbours,” Inderjeet observed yesterday. Residents of Port Mourant and neighbouring communities took to the Corentyne foreshore yesterday searching for the men. However, they came up empty-handed. One woman, who was a part of the search, said, “No police, nobody na deh with we and we ah walk see if we find them. Every time we hear a body here we gone to see if we can find them. That is how them relatives deh, nobody na tell we nothing.”
Irfaan Ali, the presidential candidate for the PPP, yesterday visited the homes of the four families. “This is a sad situation and the stories from the families is one that tells us how much more we have to do as a country in the way in which we approach situations. Some families told us the way in which they were approached by the police in receiving the message, the harshness and the treatment they have received from the police, and since the last incident, we heard of a quick response taskforce in situations like these and what we have seen [is] a very limited response in the words of the communities and the families,” he said.
Ali said that the families informed him that they were not aware whether the authorities had embarked on any search and rescue operation or done aerial searches nor has the boat owner assisted with the provision of another boat for a search.
“It is really the community members who are spearheading the search operation and it is a sad situation. These are poor people fending for their daily lives and you hear from the authorities [that] there are systems in place and there is an end to piracy but this [is a] tremendous loss to the families and communities and from all that you are hearing, there is no system in place to help these people, no system in place to have monitoring, tracking, search and rescue emergency,” he added.
“The non-response basically from the authorities, all the families in the communities are saying to us they are left in the dark, there is no information. I mean, these are four lives we are talking about, large families…children, they leave their parents behind,” he said.
Ali emphasised that the families are seeking any information. “You have to understand what they are going through. They want to be told what is going on, they want to know that the authorities are doing something to try to find their loved ones; that the authorities are reaching out and doing their best but nothing is being done and nothing is being said to them and it’s inflicting greater pain in the wounds. You have families running to different places, responding to phone calls that they are receiving in relation to bodies being spotted here, bodies being spotted there. There is no centralisation of information or no formal channel through which these things are [being] pursued,” he said.
“These are things we have to fix as a people and this is not a situation [in] which fingers are pointed but this is a situation in which the system has broken down and the system is not working and people suffer as a result of that and communities suffer, our country suffers,” Ali added.
He said that he was shocked at the gruesomeness of the attack as explained by Kissoon’s wife. “I want to call on the authorities to take this very seriously, to reach out to the families. There is a lot that is needed here. There will be a lot of counselling needed here. [There] are young people involved, children involved, parents involved. There is a lot of help that is needed for these families and communities,” he emphasised.
Over a dozen Guyanese fishermen went missing last year May following a piracy attack off of Suriname and they are believed to be dead.
