– recommends the case be reopened

HE is not at all happy with the quality of work that was done by investigators into the maccabre June 2008 Lindo Creek Massacre and he wants the matter to be reopened.
“There was an investigation, but that investigation, in the estimation of the commission, was not adequate; was not competent, and could not have brought about accurate results,” Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry into the Lindo Creek Massacre, Justice (Ret’d) Donald Trotman told the Guyana Chronicle on Thursday.

The investigation at reference was conducted by the Military Criminal Investigation Department (MCID), and when completed, it had cleared the Joint Services of having anything to do with the massacre, even though fingers were pointed in their direction, seeing that at the time of the massacre they were hot on the heels of the notorious Rondell “Fine-Man” Rawlins gang, which was on the run and reputedly hiding out in the Lindo Creek area.

There was also the little matter of a two-week probe by the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) into allegations of police involvement in the massacre, but so far there’s been no report in writing on its findings.

And with the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Defence Force having thus been exonerated of the killings, the blame was now shifted and placed squarely at the feet of the “Fineman” gang, which was wanted at the time for a string of robberies and murders not only in Georgetown, but elsewhere in the country, most notably at Lusignan on the East Coast and at Bartica.

In fact, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had advised following a police-led criminal investigation into the massacre that the case be closed.

As former Police Commissioner (ag) Seelall Persaud, who was then crime chief, told the Commission of Inquiry in March, “Given the fact that the perpetrators that the investigation identified had all been killed, except for one who had been cooperating with prosecutions on several other matters, we were comfortable with that [the call for closure].”

But Justice Trotman is sticking to his guns, and told the Guyana Chronicle during an interview on Thursday that he has made strong recommendations in the report he submitted to President David Granger for the criminal investigation into the massacre to be reopened, due to the sloppy work done by the previous investigators. After a six-month investigation of its own, the chairman handed over the CoI report to the President on August 2, 2018.

NO EVIDENCE

Justice Trotman said that while there is evidence to suggest that investigations were done, the commission was dissatisfied with the scope of those investigations, particularly since only a few persons were interviewed by the investigators and in some cases, there was no evidence to show for it.

While investigative teams had journeyed from Trinidad & Tobago, and Jamaica on separate occasions to assist with investigations here, after the badly burnt bodies of the eight miners were discovered at the Lindo Creek campsite, Justice Trotman said the “help” offered was not adequate.

“We feel that it might not have been adequate, because they were called in but were not given sufficient time to carry out their investigations,” he contended, while referring to the advanced state of decomposition of the bodies upon arrival of the regional teams.

The Lindo Creek campsite is located on the Upper Berbice River in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice), and the discovery of the bodies was made on June 21, 2008.
As Justice Trotman rightly observed, under such conditions, it may have been difficult for the regional criminal investigators and pathologists to have come up with valid scientific results.

“Because the bodies were so badly burnt, they were so clumsily removed from the scene of the murder or massacre that the team, however scientifically able and competent the members were, could not find themselves able to give valid scientific evidence that would have helped any investigation,” Justice Trotman said.

State Pathologist, Dr Nehaul Singh, during his testimony before the Commission of Inquiry, said the charred remains of the massacre victims should have been separated to allow for eight separate post-mortems to be conducted with support from a forensic anthropologist. He had recommended a forensic anthropologist from the U.S., who was willing to travel to Guyana to lend his expertise, but the Guyana Police Force did not budge on the proposal.
The chairman noted that such expertise would have aided the investigation. “It was not a matter to be dealt with at the level of forensic pathology, but forensic anthropology, because of the time that had passed between the time of death and the time of examination,” he said, adding:

NOT TAKEN UP
“But that was not taken up; was not approved by the authorities. So even the possibility of more certainty of what happened could not have occurred.”

On the basis that a thorough investigation was not done into the mass murder at Lindo Creek, Justice Trotman reiterated that he recommended in the report to President Granger that the criminal investigation be reopened.

“You see, the CoI was not a criminal investigation; it was a fact-finding investigation. And one of the recommendations is that from the facts found by the commission, the state should continue the criminal investigation which had been started 10 years ago, but not completed,” he said.

Such a move, the chairman said, will point directly to those who committed the act. On the basis that the commission concluded that the “Fine-Man” gang did not commit the act, and that evidence suggests it may have been the Joint Services, Justice Trotman said there is a strong possibility that those who are responsible for the gruesome crime are still in the forces, be it the GDF or the GPF.

If the police reopen the investigation, the chairman believes, too, that more persons may come forward with critical evidence and information.

“It could very well mean that persons could be more directly identified who were responsible for the actual killings and burnings, and there are persons who have not given evidence to the commission, who may come forward in a criminal investigation where they may feel more protected,” he posited.

The miners killed at Lindo Creek were Dax Arokium, Cedric Arokium, Compton Speirs, Horace Drakes, Nigel Torres, Bonny Harry, Clifton Wong and Lancelot Lee. Their charred bodies, which bore gunshot wounds, were discovered by campsite owner, Leonard Arokium, whose son, Dax, and brother, Cedric, were among the victims.