–as 2000 storage base explosion inquiry commences

By Shirley Thomas

THERE was a mood of deep anguish last Thursday as ex-soldiers of the Guyana Defence Force who survived the December 18, 2000 series of explosions at Camp Groomes, the army’s ammunition storage base on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway, painfully relived the memories of the horrific ordeal in which the storage base was destroyed, killing three soldiers and severely injuring 11 others.Testifying before Chairman of the Commission, Colonel (Ret’d) Desmond Roberts; and its Secretary, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret’d) Carmichael, at the Ministry of the Presidency’s Waterloo Street branch in Georgetown, were survivors Samuel Archer, Colywn Lewis, Wendell Cort, Leeroy Hutson, Joslyn Ross and Winsel Waithe. Also testifying, though not a Camp Groomes’ survivor, was former soldier Kerwin Wilson, who was the last to give evidence.

There was overwhelming consensus in the survivors’ testimonies that the treatment meted out to them by the army was unconscionable once it was established that they were no longer able to function optimally as soldiers. Sixteen years later, the wounded soldiers continue to suffer varying degrees of pain and other forms of disconcertion from the multiple debilitating injuries they had sustained.

The survivors told the Commission that they had served the Guyana Defence Force dedicatedly for a number of years, and were disappointed at having been struck-off-strength (sos) and left to fend for themselves after a few years. The men said they were initially given light duties to perform in the office, but that concession was eventually suspended and they were sent home on condition of being medically unfit.

Samuel Archer, the first to testify, said that for the first four to five months after being sent home, he received no payment. He had been in the army since 1994, and was among those bearing the brunt of the injuries during the explosions. He was burnt with chemicals from his face down; his shoulders, legs and insteps were so badly burnt that the bones were exposed. Notwithstanding, he had to scale a burning fence and, with another soldier, literally crawl for several miles to reach Camp Soweyo, where he reported the explosions and sought to get transportation to rescue and take the injured to hospital.

RUN AROUND

But the men claimed that, throughout the ordeal, they tried ad nauseam to reach the Chief-of-Staff and/or other senior ranks at the Army Headquarters to discuss their plight, but they were always given the royal run around.

They credited Major Stewart for his compassionate outlook, but named another senior rank whom they said never gave them words of encouragement, nor did he ever “tell we anything to brave up we spirits.”

Archer also recalls being sent for “orders” because he had open wounds on his feet and could not wade through flood waters to go to work. He said that when he was informed that he was being sent off the job as ‘medically unfit’ he was so shocked he impulsively asked: “Sir, you putting we off medically unfit and we so young?” To this day, the men are still in a state of uncertainty regarding what would become of their lives.

Archer said he asked for the men to be given a sergeant or staff sergeant’s salary until they qualified for benefits, but the officer replied, “No, the Chief-of-Staff said you’ll have to go, and you’ll have to go!”

The army offered them each $1M, and the rank asked how could soldiers who were injured to that extent while in the line of duty be given just $1M, but he was given no answer. He said that during all this, he was just hoping and praying for a change. “I was just praying fuh somebody come and tek over this country,” he said. And now the survivors are each demanding adequate compensation plus disability benefits.

As Archer continued his testimony, appealing to the sympathy of the Chairman, he declared: “Sir, look things we pass through and nobody cared enough about us.” He related the ordeal of constantly ‘blacking out’ (losing consciousness) as the doctors scraped the dead flesh off his skin, the result of being burnt with chemicals. “And now we get treat like ‘dog or cat’; like animal when you going and hunt – just shoot them down.” [That is how they treat we, he said.]

The Commission Chairman asked what he would like to have, and the very vocal Archer replied: “Sir, I need compensation for my injuries, so I could live a proper life…. Right now $25,000 can’t mind me, my wife and the children. And those sentiments were precisely expressed by the other survivors, who were in one accord in relation to what obtains and what their survival needs are.

INADEQUATE

To justify their claims, the survivors cited, among other things, not being compensated for the injuries they had suffered in the line of duty; being ‘struck off strength’ once the army had determined that they could no longer function optimally as soldiers; the gross inadequacy of the $1M approved for each of them; and further, that they still do not know if it was a grant, gratuity or GDF pension.

They are asking that the $25,000 they are currently being given be increased to at least $60,000; or alternatively, that they be given the equivalent of a sergeant’s pay.
Moreover, the soldiers contend that whatever method was used to compute the payment, it ended up with them getting less than $1M, and as little as $700,000. That amount was received several years ago. The only other payment they receive is a fixed amount of $25,000 per month. They are still unclear on what that sum represents, and how long it will continue.

The survivors also related that after they had been struck off strength and not given any money, the army had initially promised to provide them with a backdated payment, but that hasn’t happened. Notwithstanding, the survivors consider it ludicrous that the army should believe that a mere $1M could compensate for the near-death experiences they had endured, and could cover payments for follow-up treatment.

Archer said that within two weeks of the disaster, the GDF had initiated their evacuation to hospitals in Texas, USA and Barbados. He said they left the hospitals with the clear understanding that at the end of every year they would be required to return for evaluation and further treatment until the doctors were satisfied that it was no longer necessary. However, this was never honoured, he said.

The survivors said, too, that even though they might appear on the outside to be healthy, they are not; and they cannot work to earn a living.

Archer reports that he is unable to properly stand on his feet, since, whenever he does, he gets sensations of an invasion by “stinging flies and ants.”

Others told of having sustained injuries to their eyes, backs, necks; and one said he was in danger of losing his leg, among other things.

With the Chairman’s permission, some of the men removed portions of their clothing to give the commission an idea of the injuries they had sustained in the blasts, and the extent of their present sufferings. Most of them now depend on proceeds eked out from kitchen gardens to augment their paltry income.

Asked how they propose compensation be paid to them, some opted for monthly payments while the majority seemed to favour lump sum payments, so that they could be able to do something tangible. They all needed homes, they said, and made requests for land; or preferably, the setting up of a housing scheme.

In his testimony, Samuel Archer recalled that, prior to the explosions, he had seen a lance corporal (name given) walking at the back of the arms store, and had cautioned him. “I gon talk if anything happen,” he had told the lance corporal. Strangely, that same lance corporal was the only person who emerged from that ordeal practically unhurt, Archer recalled. He noted that that lance corporal had only got a scrape at the back of his head.

He said there was evidence that somebody had been chipping blocks from the arms store, and added: “I believe to myself that the explosion was the work of an experienced person who knows how to get into the store.”

Archer said he attempted to give a statement to a particular Colonel (name given) but the Colonel would only tell him, “That ain’t important now.” He persisted, saying, “With all due respect, sir, I would like to know what caused the explosion,” and the Colonel replied: “If I don’t know, you gon know?”

Albeit, a senior rank had reportedly tried to create the impression that the soldiers in the building might have been smoking and might have discarded a cigarette stub which later ignited, causing the explosions and inferno. The survivors rubbished that statement.

The injured survivor is convinced that the ranks were deliberately ‘smoked out’ and opiated at Camp Groomes, since nobody had ever slept the way they did in the hours leading up to the explosion. At the time of the explosions, Archer said, he also was sleeping. He said he was dreaming about wars and of being attacked when suddenly he heard a loud explosion, and jumped up only to find the building on fire.

The Chairman, at this juncture, asked the ranks whether a board of enquiry was ever launched into the explosion and destruction of the arms base, and deaths and injuries to soldiers, to which the survivors unanimously responded: “No, sir. Nobody ever interviewed us; this is the first time we come to a board where somebody can listen we. This is the very first time.”

The Chairman also questioned whether the relatives of the soldiers killed had ever been compensated, but no one was able to say.