The account of domestic violence victim Sandy Persaud’s resort to living in hiding following a near-fatal cutlass attack by her ex-partner, published on Sunday last, so closely mirrors that of another woman from the same county last December that it’s time to ask: just what is going on in Berbice?
Ms Persaud, 34, who was chopped about the body and in the head on April 5, and spent several weeks in hospital, is unable to return to work or stay with relatives. She used the opportunity to plead with the police to apprehend and charge her attacker, identified as Sasenarine Bridgemohan Sankar also known as ‘Wire’, who had since further threatened Ms Persaud, as well as her relatives. It should be noted here that she was asleep in her mother’s Corentyne, Berbice home when the man barged in and launched the attack, assaulting her mother in the process. Ms Persaud had ended an abusive four-year relationship with the man in February.
In December last year, 45-year-old Karen Mickel, also of Corentyne, Berbice resorted to the press to plead with the police to arrest her former reputed husband, who, she reported, had brutally beaten her about the body and later choked her and left her unconscious. Ms Mickel had ended an 18-year abusive relationship with the man, but found herself stalked, threatened and attacked.
In both of these instances, the women involved had followed to the letter, the steps prescribed by the authorities to protect themselves. They had moved away from the abusive household and attempted to carry on with their lives. In Ms Mickel’s case, she had reported the stalking to the police as well as the first attack, to no avail. In Ms Persaud’s case, there was an attempted knife assault from which she was rescued by passersby. She had made a report to the police and was attacked early on the morning that she was set to appear in court to obtain a restraining order. It is mind-boggling that weeks later, her attacker was still at large. How-ever, the day after Ms Mickel’s story appeared in this newspaper, her alleged attacker was arrested. Perhaps Ms Persaud might see similar results.
Obviously, this is not how gender-based assault complaints should be handled. These two incidents point to a dereliction of duty by the police in that Berbice division and one only hopes that the problem is not wider than what has been reported. Nevertheless, serious questions should be asked, especially given the high rate of femicide in Guyana.
Last September, Minister of Human Services and Social Security Dr Vindhya Persaud was happy to report that in one year, COPSQUAD, a collaborative initiative with the Ministry of Home Affairs had seen 1,600 police officers trained in dealing with reports of gender-based violence. The aim was to train 2,000 police officers, so by September the goal was close to being met. Although the question begging to be asked is why only 2,000?
According to the minister, the training was to effect a more professional approach to taking reports, as well as insight and knowledge of the legislation. Additionally, those trained should be able “to… wherever they are, exercise best practice when dealing with any case of domestic violence.” Did this training not extend to the police on the Corentyne? Is there now a need for specialised training among the officers in this division? Is it a matter of negligence and inefficiency on the Corentyne? Or is there a more deep-seated problem? For example, are patriarchal tendencies more deeply rooted? What are the general views in this community with regard to women’s autonomy?
Whatever the answers are, they are unlikely to be easily obtained. That being said, this is a situation worthy of study and one hopes either up and coming or already established local social scientists take the opportunity to delve into the complexities at play here. It is well known that research is the most effective way of discovering what the roots of issues are and the first step to overcoming them. However, that is the long-term approach.
For right now, the police hierarchy, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the government, by extension, need to move to get a handle on what is clearly a problem here. Disciplinary actions ought to be meted out where necessary. If the human factor is not addressed, then the training and the spanking, new multi-million-dollar police buildings like those commissioned at New Amsterdam, Albion and Whim last year and at Fort Wellington this year, complete with domestic violence rooms, will just be for show.
