By Shauna Jemmott

EIGHT years after his most dreadful experience, a resident of Lusignan Pasture, who had suffered much in dealing with the devastation of a ‘massacre’ that left his entire family dead in their home in 2008, is grappling for strength to move on.While a few family members of those lost in the slaughter have moved on positively, one man who lost his wife and sons has started another relationship, seeking solace in alcohol.
Tranquility was shattered in the quiet community of Lusignan pasture when about a dozen heavily armed men stormed four homes in the wee hours of the morning of Saturday 26th January 2008, unleashing wanton violence against the defenseless. Most of those attacked lived in cottages and the assassins were pitiless, slaying five small children and six adults in the close-knit neighbourhood.
Armed with shotguns and AK-47s, the killers entered Lusigan around 2:00 am and invaded five homes, killing Clarence Thomas, 48; Vanessa Thomas, 12; Ron Thomas, 11; Mohandai Goordat, 32; Seegopaul Harilall, 10; Seegobin Harilall, 4; Dhanwajie Ramsingh, 52; Seecharran Rooplall, 56; Raywattie Ramsingh, 11; Shazam Mohammed, 22; and Shaleem Baksh, 52.
Rajkumar Harilall, 44, had left his family at his home and went to Trinidad and Tobago less than two weeks before the trgedy. At the time he was 36.
When Guyana Chronicle visited Lusignan Pasture Thursday morning, he was at his construction job somewhere in the village.

DRINKING
The woman he now lives with, Priya, said the loss Harilall suffered has transformed him into an alcoholic and he now consumes liquor, becoming drunk at least four times every week. Living with him is challenging for her too, but she understands his pain and loves him dearly.
She said the man began drinking rum about two years after his family was slayed, and cries bitterly many times. He would spend countless dollars on alcohol.
“He does cry. For this whole holiday when he see he nephew and them boy gon come and they talk, he does cry. When you see he start drink, he nah kay how much money he drink out. Every week he wan drink… Three four day and so you know. Like he does tek them on.”
Harilall’s family lived in a small house at the time they were killed, and he had since preserved the style of his house only adding paint. He has even kept under his bed, a microwave which was pierced with bullet holes. He has not done any repairs to neither the flooring nor walls which were damaged and has decided to keep even the bed and wardrobe which were bullet riddled.
“Everything was left there. He nah want change up nothing and so. Everybody change up and do what they gatto do, but he doesn’t want to change nothing,” the woman told Guyana Chronicle.
The two boys who were murdered were his only children, and his conversations now entail wanting children again.
At 41-year-old woman, with minor complications, is also praying for that miracle and the restoration of joy in Harilall’s life.
His drinking would sometimes become so overbearing that quarrels ensue and they would separate. This, she said, happens almost yearly, as the death anniversary of his children and wife approaches. The last separation took place December last, but it was brief.
She said when this happens the man will be thrown into further depression and consuming alcohol and not taking care of himself, he begins to lose weight again. That is when she would pity him and rekindle ties. The two were next door neighbours in their childhood.
“When me lef he me does sorry fuh he. He ah get fine fine. All he eye ah gone in. Nobody nah really know what he does go through. You nah give am another headache, that he ah go get wan next headache?”
She said the two knew each other long and had a childhood attachment.
“Me and he know (each other) from since we small. We (were) neighbor. You never know wha could come into he head. One time he say he gon put in fuh he visa and go away,” the woman stated.
He has no other close family around him and two years ago, while working, he almost lost his hand when he received a deep cut in the middle of his right palm, almost severing it. Since then he sometimes finds it challenging working with the hand. Just after that, he suffered an attack of chickungunya, a mosquito borne disease.
Priya said on the night of the incident Harilall’s wife Goordat who was killed was in the home with their two sons and a nephew, Arjune Bhim, 11.
The woman heard a commotion at the Thomas’ home obliquely opposite and peeped out of her window, switching her lights on. The men must have heard her while she was telling her mother during a telephone call, that gunmen were on the attack nearby.
Goordat had opened the door after the men threatened and pulled all her treasures to hand them over when she was riddled with bullets in the bedroom. Her sons climbed on their mother’s lifeless body and were cold-bloodedly murdered too. Her nephew, Bhim, quietly sheltered himself under the bed.
“He does remember it every time, and he does drink nuff rum because of dah.”