… says MOHA release
THE Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) yesterday said that the long arm of the law will soon catch up with wanted fugitive, Kevin Narine, called ‘Long Hair’, who managed to escape from the New Amsterdam Prison and have carried out several attacks on fishermen in the Corentyne River. MOHA said it is understood that ‘Long Hair’ and his associates were provided support from persons who were detained by the police on suspicion of harbouring criminals and fugitives from justice.
A MOHA release said that it is to be regretted that Narine managed to escape from the New Amsterdam Prison.
MOHA added that the report from the Norman McLean Board of Inquiry has been received and the recommendations contained therein are being examined.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs has issued general directives to the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to the effect that greater emphasis be placed on intelligence gathering in “B” Division with the objective of crushing piracy.
On the international front, Guyanese law enforcement agencies are in contact with  their  Surinamese and French counterparts,  with a view to tracking down and ferreting out Narine and his cohorts who are believed to be hiding out somewhere between the Suriname and French Guiana borders.
MOHA stated that the recent acts of piracy off the Corentyne foreshore and in the Corentyne River in which Guyanese fishermen were victims are regrettable.

The ministry is of the view that piracy must be tackled on all fronts, at the national and international levels.
On the domestic front, law enforcement ranks must be more assertive and aggressive in hunting down and tracking pirates as well as persons harbouring pirates on land.  There must be no room for indecisiveness nor equivocation. The laws are there to be enforced and the administration has, time and again, signalled its unqualified support to have the laws enforced.
The government has worked and continues to work with the law abiding and hard working fishermen and to assist in providing them with the necessary wherewithal to ensure their physical protection as well as their assets and catch.
It is critical that the larger, more modernised and better equipped “trawler” fishing community provide their unstinted support and solidarity to their more disadvantaged and less resourced brothers in the fishing industry.
From the security perspective, greater information sharing between the fishing community and the law enforcement agencies is critical to the success of dismantling and capturing the pirates and those who provide them with material and financial support.

Police reported that between 05:30hrs on Thursday, June 30, and 19:00hrs on Friday, July 01, 2011, three men, armed with shotguns, attacked and robbed five captains and nineteen crew members of five fishing vessels off the Corentyne foreshore, and another two captains and six crew members in Suriname waters, including Surinamese Michael White, 45.
The Guyanese captains whose fishing vessels were attacked are Herman Baldeo, 45, of Number  43 Village, Corentyne; Iqbal Bacchus, 27, of Rampoor, Corriverton; Vincent Peters, 32, of Number 46 Village, Corentyne; Rajesh Chunu, 40, of Lancaster Village, Corentyne; Ramroop Sukhan, 49, of Lusignan, East Coast Demerara; and Nokhul Manohar, 31, of Number 41 Village, Corentyne, Berbice.
During the series of armed robberies, Herman Baldeo was shot to his left shoulder and the perpetrators took away groceries, cell phones, fishing seines, and four outboard motor engines. All the fishermen were subsequently placed in one fishing boat and left adrift, while the pirates escaped in the fishing boat that was captained by the Surinamese Michael White.
Between 15:00hrs and 18:00hrs on Saturday, all the victims were rescued with the assistance of other fishermen. Herman Baldeo has been admitted to the New Amsterdam Hospital and is reported to be in a stable condition.
The fishing vessels that were set adrift have been recovered, with the exception of Ramroop Sukhan’s boat.