— report should be ready in three weeks, says Justice Trotman

A REPORT on the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the 2008 Lindo Creek Massacre is expected to be completed within three weeks, Justice (ret’d) Donald Trotman told Guyana Chronicle in an exclusive interview.

Over the last five months, Justice Trotman has been spearheading an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of eight miners: Cedric Arokium, Dax Arokium, Horace Drakes, Bonny Harry, Lancelot Lee, Compton Speirs, Nigel Torres and Clifton Berry Wong at Lindo Creek in the Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice Region on, or, about June 21, 2008.

The charred remains of the eight diamond miners were discovered at a mining camp at Lindo Creek by the camp owner, Leonard Arokium. It is suspected that the miners were shot, hammered and then burnt to death. Their murders have gone unsolved for a decade but it is hoped that the “truth” would be made known at the end of the CoI.

On the sideline of a memorial service for the massacred victims on Wednesday, Justice Trotman told Guyana Chronicle that he is wrapping up his investigation, and will soon submit his report with recommendations to President David Granger.
“We are pretty well on target but we have to put things into a presentable shape, so I would think in another two weeks we should have the report ready,” he told this newspaper. The extended deadline is June 30, 2018.

In his acceptance speech, upon being sworn-in to head the Commission, Justice Trotman while referencing a biblical term, said the nation cannot be really free unless it knows the truth. Today, his position remains the same.
“Well, we set out to do that, and I am still working towards that, and hoping and praying that is what will happen,” he said.

“We hope that neither his Excellency nor the families, nor the nation will be disappointed,” he added.
At the moment, Commissioner Trotman and his team, which includes Legal Counsel Patrice Henry, are compiling the information gathered during public hearings, in-camera hearings, interviews and based on documents submitted.

SATISFIED
Questioned whether he is satisfied at this point with the pool of testimonies secured during the close to five months investigation, the chairman of the Commission said, “We could have had, I wouldn’t say more, but we could have had a more focused kind and quality of testimony to help us. We still feel that there is more out there that hasn’t come forward even though we have continually made appeals,” he told this newspaper.

Nonetheless, he said the information gathered would be utilised to its fullest. “What we have is workable. We have to make it workable,” he posited.
As anticipated, Justice Trotman said there were challenges.

“There were many challenges, they were expected of course, we didn’t expect particular challenges but we expected that there would have been challenges in any exercise of this kind, and there have been challenges some were internal, some were external,” he explained.

Among the challenges include persons failing to appear before the commission though formal requests were made.
Notably, the transcripts from the Guyana Defence Force’s (GDF’s) investigation, which was conducted in 2008, are still to be submitted although numerous requests were made by Justice Trotman and Legal Counsel Henry.

Former Chief of Staff Rear Admiral (ret’d) Gary Best, when he took the stand, had said that the transcripts were handed over to the Guyana Police Force (GPF), contending that the GDF had not retained copies of the documents.

NOT FORTHCOMING
The GPF was contacted for the scripts but they have not been forthcoming.
“We requested from both agencies and up to now we have not received them… They are critical but they would not preclude the commission from reasonable conclusions,” Justice Trotman said while reiterating that the commission had expected that the documents would have been handed over.

The statements were taken from at least 24 Joint Services ranks, who operated in the Upper Berbice River area in Region 10, during June 2008 after it was alleged by Leonard Arokium and other miners familiar with the area, that it was the Joint Services that was responsible for the massacre. The Joint Services had refuted the allegation.

Based on the investigation conducted by the GDF, the miners may have been victims of a deadly robbery or may have been killed by the Rondell “Fineman” Rawlins Gang because they were suspected to be informants of the Joint Services.

The army said it was possible for the gang members to be mistaken as soldiers and/ or Joint Services ranks on the basis that they may have been using military weapons and camouflage clothing while on the run.

Over at the Guyana Police Force, a two-week probe was conducted by the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) into the allegations of police involvement in the Lindo Creek Massacre but no report was ever compiled. The verbal report on the investigation given at the time was inconclusive.

Additionally, after an investigation in the massacre was completed by the police investigators, a report was sent to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), and it was advised that the case into the murdered men be closed.

Publicly expressing his dissatisfaction in the manner in which investigations into the massacre were conducted, Justice Trotman has repeatedly assured grieving relatives that the truth would prevail.