With the installation of DNA testing equipment at the Guyana Forensic Science Laboratory (GFSL), relatives of the miners who were gruesomely murdered at Lindo Creek in 2008 may be one step closer to getting death certificates for the men.
The families had recently expressed concern that they were still not in possession of the respective certificates almost 11 years after Cecil Arokium, Dax Arokium, Horace Drakes, Bonny Harry, Lancelot Lee, Compton Speirs, Nigel Torres and Clifton Wong were killed.
Speaking to the media recently, Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan said with the procurement of the equipment, the relevant authorities will now be in a better position to issue the death certificate. He, however, could not say definitively if the death certificates will be issued. “I really can’t say but certainly we are in a better position to do so,” he said, before emphasising that in the near future the laboratory may be in a position to help the frustrated relatives.
GFSL Director Delon France said the relatives of the deceased can be given a death certificate provided that there is supporting evidence at the scene. “If it’s not, then it’s still an open case because as it is there were burnt bodies that are ashes and you cannot say specifically whether the family member was indeed there at that point in time when that crime occurred.”
…If, for example, when that area was burnt…and that particular family member was not at that location, then there is nothing to be found…,” he further noted, while adding that getting samples from other family members would be helpful.
The eight men were mining for diamonds when they met their gruesome deaths sometime between June 9th and June 10th, 2008. After the miners were slaughtered, their bodies and belongings were burnt.
Burnt human bones and skulls had been discovered on June 21st, 2008 by Leonard Arokium, owner of the Lindo Creek mining camp. DNA tests done in Jamaica several years later confirmed that the remains had belonged to his son Dax, his brother Cedric and the other miners.
A Commission of Inquiry (CoI) was established to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the killings and to report its findings and recommendations to President David Granger. Justice (ret’d) Donald Trotman, who led the CoI, had noted during the handing over of the final report last August that one of the main recommendations was that the families of slain miners, receive compensation from the state.
The report is still to be made public and government has been silent on the compensation recommendation.
Trotman had also revealed that it was recommended that some parts of the investigation be re-opened and while noting that no one had been found culpable, he had recommended that senior security officials during the time of the killings be called upon to explain their conduct during that period.
Granger has previously said that the report raises “troubling questions” about the roles of the police and defence forces as well as the reticence of the political administration of the day to provide useful evidence to the CoI.
He assured that the report’s recommendations were being studied and “will be acted upon” in due course. Granger would later inform that the report is being perused “in detail.” He had said too that there is a lot of evidence and although there are some brief recommendations “we need to ensure that they are enforceable.”
In March of this year, several of the relatives expressed disappointment that the recommendations contained in the CoI report were yet to be implemented and said that they were contemplating “taking to the streets.”
The remains of the men are in three coffins that were buried in the Le Repentir cemetery. At a funeral service in September of 2012, only the relatives of one of the victims was present. Several others when contacted subsequently said that they were never informed.
Jamaican forensic experts were unable to group together the body parts of each of the men. One coffin has the name ‘Clifton Wong’ printed on it; ‘Nigel Torres’ was on another and ‘Bonny Harris’ on the third.
