Today marks fourteen years since former Minister of Agriculture Satyadeow `Sash’ Sawh, his siblings and a security guard were murdered at his La Bonne Intention, East Coast Demerara home and his family is still anxiously awaiting the start of a promised inquiry into the deaths.
In a letter to Stabroek News, published in today’s edition, Roger Sawh, on behalf of the family, voiced the hope that when a new government is sworn in, an inquiry will be immediately held.
Sawh noted that urgency must be exercised given the “inexplicable” delay.
“It is the family’s determined hope that whomever forms the government post-2020 elections will proceed with immediacy to launch an inquiry into the despicable tragedy of the Sawh killings. We have noted in the past that such an inquiry must be independent, thorough, and focused on both the criminal elements and the controlling minds involved,” he wrote.
Sawh described the years after the killings as not only an “episode” of profound personal grief but also a “grisly” smear on the modern history of the country.
“It has been to the utter dismay of the Sawh family that, 14 years on, despite commentary, public statements, campaign promises and the invocation of the tragedy for political mileage by both sides of the divide, an inquiry has not been initiated, much less conducted. The ball has been in the courts of successive governments of both the PPP/C and the APNU+AFC, but has been left to sit in ominous stasis,” he further stated.
“The electoral brouhaha post-March 2, 2020 has been a sad reminder of the sorts of events Sash Sawh dedicated his life to fighting against. Once this calamity subsides, it will be high time to reckon with his murder in order to bring badly needed closure and healing to his family – and to Guyana,” he added.
Around 12.15 am on April 22, 2006, seven masked gunmen, dressed in military fatigues, invaded Sawh’s home and riddled him, his two siblings, Rajpat Sawh and Phulmattie Persaud, security guard Curtis Robertson and the family dog with bullets.
Three other persons were injured: Omprakash Sawh, 53, another brother of the Minister, and security guards Albert Mangra and Aga Khan.
The Minister’s wife, Sattie, and his brother, Omprakash, were in the kitchen when they saw a masked gunman looking at them through a window. Sattie had said that she alerted the Minister, who was in his hammock on the veranda, but before he could escape to safety, he was riddled with shots. He collapsed just inside his front door.
Sawh’s brother, Omprakash, hid his sister Phulmattie underneath a bed, but the gunmen found her and after dragging her out shot her in the face.
The gunmen then turned their weapons on the Minister again and at the same time placed Omprakash on top of another brother, Rajpa, to kill them both. Omprakash said he begged the men for his sister’s life and gave them $23,000, a digital camera and a watch. He said he and his brother were praying for their lives, but before the gunmen left they fired another shot at them, killing Rajpat.
Jermaine ‘Skinny’ Charles, who was killed along with Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins, during a shoot-out with the joint services and David Leander, called ‘Biscuit,’ who died, had been charged with the murders.
Former Crime Chief Seelall Persaud had told Stabroek News that the case was closed and would only be reopened when new information surfaced. He had said that the closing of the case signaled a suspension of investigations until new information came to hand. He did not deny that there may have been more persons engaged in the murders but pointed out that investigations are done based on the availability of information.
Shortly before taking up office, the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) coalition had promised that if elected to govern it would hold independent inquiries into the killings of Sawh and activist Courtney Crum Ewing.
After assuming office, President David Granger had announced that there would be a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the assassination of Sawh, his siblings and his security guard but he didn’t say when.
In December 2019, Granger cited the lack of evidence and witnesses as the reasons why the inquiries have not been held into the killing of persons following the 2002 Camp Street Prison jailbreak and the ensuing crime wave.
He had made this disclosure when he appeared on Hits and Jams 94.1 Boom FM’s radio show “The Hot Seat,” where he was questioned on a number of issues by host Stan Gouveia, including the failure to hold inquiries as promised during the APNU+AFC coalition’s 2015 elections campaign.
Granger had added that there were about ten massacres which would have occurred under the Bharrat Jagdeo’s administration and charged that none were investigated.
In 2018, Jagdeo had maintained his willingness to participate in an inquiry into the killings if one was ever held.
In January 2014, Granger had brought a motion before the National Assembly calling on the government to appoint a COI to probe criminal violence from 2004 to 2010, ranging from Sawh’s killing to the massacres at Lusignan, Bartica and Lindo Creek.
Sawh’s wife, Sattie, had first spoken to the media in-depth about the murders in 2016.
She had told Stabroek News that she welcomed Granger’s willingness to hold an inquiry into the killings and added that it did not really matter whether an inquest or an inquiry was done, only that there would be answers at the end of the process.
