PRESIDENT David Granger has declared Monday a National Day of Mourning in memory of the victims of the deadly piracy attacks between April 27, 2018 and May 3, 2018 in Suriname.

In making the proclamation, President Granger called on all authorities, commissions, boards, ministries, public agencies, corporations and citizens to fly the national flag at half-staff to demonstrate solidarity with the families of those killed in those grisly and gruesome acts and accord due homage, respect and reverence to the memory of the victims.

During April-May this year, two separate attacks took place against five Suriname-registered fishing vessels, both with some 25 crew members, mostly Guyanese. Nine fishermen survived the grisly, gruesome blood-bath; 12 are still missing, and are presumably dead.

The alleged mastermind, 43-year-old Primnauth Persaud, called “Sinbad” of Cromarty Village, and his co-accused Nakool Manohar, popularly known as “Fyah” of Number 43 Village, were last week charged with two counts of murder for allegedly killing fishermen Mahesh Sarjoo and Tillacknauth Mohabir during a piracy attack in Suriname last month.

The men appeared before Magistrate Rabindranauth Singh at the Springlands Magistrates’ Court, where they were not required to plead to the indictable charge. The charge stated that between April 26 and May 3 at sea, they allegedly murdered Tillacknauth and Sarjoo during the course or furtherance of a robbery. A week before the duo appeared in court, 19-year-old Alexander DenHart, called “Shame Face,” appeared before acting Chief Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus and was not required to answer to the charge. Particulars of the charge allege that between April 26 and May 3, 2018, while in Guyana’s territorial waters, DenHart murdered Tillacknauth Mahabir, called “Caiman”, who was on a vessel that was robbed.

President David Granger days after the attacks, had described it as a massacre and announced then that a day of mourning would be formally observed for the men. “We are deeply grieved by the tragedy; clearly some Guyanese have been victims, and we are in touch with [the] Surinamese government and also the Surinamese police authorities and our police in the ‘B’ Division, which is the East Berbice- Corentyne Division, are in touch with the families and we plan to observe formal mourning. It is a massacre, it is a great tragedy,” President Granger said.

He told reporters that his administration has been very successful over the last three years in curbing piracy, “so this has come as a great setback and we extend sympathy to the families.”
Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, had referred to the incident as a “brutal crime.” The current law provides stiff penalties for acts of piracy or hijacking of fishing boats off Guyana’s sea-coasts and in its rivers, including life in jail and execution by hanging.

Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo in his weekly newspaper column, “My Turn,” last week reminded all fisherfolk and their hired hands that offences at sea carry serious penalties. These include life imprisonment for hijacking, that is, taking away or attempting to take away another boat; life imprisonment for piracy, that is, illegally detaining a boat in a river or on the sea; or participating in the operation of a pirate vessel; 10 years imprisonment for covering up a piracy attack, where death resulted; and death by hanging, for murder on board a vessel during an armed robbery, hijacking or piracy.

He cautioned that fishing crew who sign on to work on a “pirate boat”, whether in Guyana, Suriname or elsewhere, cannot claim that they do not know the law; or plead that “is dem, not me!” Nagamootoo was at the time commenting on the multiple counts of murder with which three Guyanese fishermen have been charged, arising from the piracy-related massacre of mostly Guyanese fishermen off the coast of Suriname.

He noted that the alleged mastermind and his co-accused, as well as a third murder accused, are all from the Upper Corentyne. Nagamootoo said upon conviction, they face the penalty of death by hanging.