–as victim’s daughter collapses

THE public hearing into the Lindo Creek Massacre came to an abrupt end on Thursday as the eldest daughter of Clifton Wong fainted as her uncle recalled packing charred skeletal remains of eight miners, her father included, one day after they had been discovered.

Throughout the public hearing on Thursday at the Department of Public Service, two of Clifton Wong’s children were seen crying as their mother, sister and uncle took the stand to detail the last moments spent with their beloved and the subsequent events that followed. But it was at the pinnacle of Courtney Wong’s testimony – Clifton’s older brother – that a relative of another miner realised that the deceased miner’s eldest daughter Alicia Wong was unresponsive.

The hearing came to halt, and Alicia Wong was rushed to the Woodlands Hospital where she was treated and subsequently discharged.

Prior to the adjournment of Thursday’s public hearing, Courtney Wong recalled leading members of the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Defense Force, and Pathologist, Dr. Nehaul Singh and team to Lindo Creek on June 21, 2008 based on a request of the owner of the mining operation Leonard Arokium. According to Courtney, he and his brother Clifton, who was commonly called Berry, were both mechanics.

Courtney told the Commission, led by Justice (Retired) Donald Trotman, that he was the designated mechanic for the mining operation at Lindo Creek, which was owned and operated by the Arokium Family. The mechanic said he was unable to return to the interior at the time because of other commitments and had asked his younger brother to assist. According to Courtney, he last saw his brother in June, 2008, just two days before he departed to Lindo Creek from Georgetown.

After asking the witness to detail the route from Georgetown to Lindo Creek using the trail, the Commission’s Legal Counsel Patrice Henry turned Courtney’s attention to June 21, 2008.

“It was on the 21st June, that Mr. Arokium called me, and tell me that something serious happened, that they shoot, killed and burn up all the boys…I said man, what you saying? He said they killed all them boys man, they killed all them boys,” Courtney said as he recalled that conversation with himself and Leonard Arokium.

In disbelief, the mechanic sought clarification from Arokium’s son, Dean, who confirmed that eight miners were indeed killed. The mechanic said it was not long after that Leonard Arokium called him for a second time – this time to request of him to journey to Lindo Creek with the security forces, and without hesitation he agreed.

During that conversation, Courtney noted that Leonard Arokium had informed him that the then Commissioner of Police Henry Greene, the then Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, and the then Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee visited his Met-en-meerzorg home and “tried to convince him that ‘Fineman Gang’ did it.”

According to Courtney, at 6:00hr on Sunday June 22, 2008 he was collected from his home by a police officer and taken to Eve Leary. From Eve Leary, he along with an expanded police team proceeded to collect Pathologist, Dr. Nehaul Singh from his home, before heading to the Ogle Airport. “We went to Ogle where a few others joined us and we flew to Timehri. From Timehri we flew to Kwakwani. From there, myself and Mr. Nehaul Singh and the pilot, he had a small plane, and we flew to the UNAMCO gate, that’s where we landed and waited for the rest of the team who came…in three pickups,” he detailed.

Courtney told the Commission that he led the team along the trail leading to Lindo Creek, and upon arriving at the first camp, which was abandoned, he suggested to Dr. Singh that he should rest there and allow the other members of his team to proceed to the camp where the miners were last operating from based on prior discussions that the journey had been fatiguing. According to the mechanic, Dr. Singh remained along with other senior members of the police force at the inactive camp, but sent his supporting team to facilitate the autopsies.

It was noted that the “active” camp, which was close to one hour away from the abandoned camp, was situated on top of a hill.
Courtney said as they moved closer to the “active” camp, they first saw the kitchen. “When we reached the kitchen, it was in disarray….Rice, the flour, potato, onion, everything that was purchased for the purpose of cooking was scattered all over, it was a mess,” he recalled.

The mechanic said they then proceeded to the living quarters, a short distance away but surprisingly, there was no tarpaulin, no hammock or clothes in that area. “It was like a deserted area,” he posited.
Beside the camp, at the “tail” of the sleeping area, Courtney said they were confronted with “a heap of bones.”

Upon seeing the burnt remains, he said one of the police officers asked the team, comprising of 10 to 12 persons, to form a line for the purpose of combing the area. “We were supposed to be looking for any spent shells. So we combed the area, backward and forward, and no spent shell was found,” Courtney said. However, he said as the sub-teams began to execute their functions on the crime scene, one police officer, announced that he had found three spent shells. “The same police found three spent shells, no other police…and this was the same area that was already combed” Courtney pointed out.

It was noted too that a decision was taken to wrap the remains in a large tarpaulin. “We folded the tarpaulin and we placed it next to the remains. And they started to take out shoulder bones, all the big bones that remained…we had skulls that were totally burnt,” he recalled.

Courtney further told the Commission that they then found a skull which a huge hole at the top. According to him, it was not long after that they found two hampers close to the remains. “The first hammer could not have fit there, the other hammer fit right in there,” he added.

In addition to the remains, the mechanic said they found a burnt Identification Card, Passport and Birth Certificate. It was noted that though it was a mining camp, no precious metal was found at the time of the visit.

Courtney, due to the state of his niece who collapsed during his testimony, was unable to complete his statement before the Commission. He is expected to continue his testimony on Tuesday March 27, 2008. The burnt remains were that of Cecil Arokium, Dax Arokium, Horace Drakes, Bonny Harry, Lancelot Lee, Compton Speirs, Nigel Torres and Clifton Berry Wong. They were allegedly shot and burnt to death at Lindo Creek in the Upper Berbice River in Region 10 in June 2008.