— as efforts intensify to nab pirates in deadly attack

PUBLIC Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan on Sunday morning met with relatives and survivors of the missing Guyanese fishermen at the Guyana Embassy in Paramaribo, Suriname, as efforts intensify to nab the pirates in the attack.

The two countries are working around the clock to ensure that those responsible for last weekend’s brutal piracy attack off the Suriname coast are caught and brought to justice.

The minister who travelled to Suriname on Sunday morning, held a closed-door, “heart-to-heart” discussion with the small gathering in the presence of Guyana’s Ambassador to Suriname, Keith George.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle after the three-hour meeting, Ramjattan disclosed that three senior officers of the Guyana Police Force who accompanied him on the visit are working closely with their Surinamese counterparts to help capture and to bring to justice, the men who orchestrated the deadly attack.

Minster Ramjattan confirmed that as of Sunday morning, three bodies were recovered and identified, but the names have not yet been made public.

He further revealed that there are five survivors and the remaining 12 fishermen are presumed dead, based on information from meeting.

“This whole episode is basically murder of the most gruesome circumstances, where pirate boats attacked four other innocent boats with 20 crew members in total. The pirate boat, the members therein, believed that these boats had done something wrong to them and they went out there to do in the most brutal and horrific fashion the killing of all those members of those boats which total about 20. Thank God there were some survivors that managed to tell the tale,” the public security minister said.

The minister said the main reason he travelled to the neighbouring country was to stand in solidarity with the families of those affected and to share information gathered by the security forces of the two countries to them.
“What we did was to make sure as much family as possible came to the embassy here today, so we can have a very direct chat with them and I wanted a heart-to- heart as it also helps them in their moment of despair. They had a lot to tell me and I will be conveying this to the Minister of Justice and will be communicating through the policemen that I brought to the commissioner of police,” he said.

COLLABORATION 

He underscored the importance of collaboration by the two counties in tackling the heinous crime.

“When crimes like this, of an international level like this happens, whereby you may have Guyanese operatives, Guyanese victims, in Surinamese waters, we need to collaborate. We have managed and we have been congratulating ourselves only months ago that we have managed to bring piracy almost down to negligible amount and that’s the truth, only now to hear Guyanese in a neighbouring territory are being brutalised this way,” the minister said.

When quizzed on what he hopes to achieve at the end of the trip, Ramjattan expressed the desire to not only help solve this case together with Suriname, but take lessons from this case to spot and help prevent future occurrences.

He further indicated that he has a meeting with the Surinamese minister of defence and they will have discussions on several key points, such as early detection systems, information sharing, resource sharing, among others, and will host a joint press conference today on the progress of the investigation.

He expressed satisfaction with the manner the Surinamese have been handling the retrieval of the bodies and the investigation thus far and stated that he was given assurance by the minister of defence that all efforts are being made to solve the case as soon as possible.

“While some Guyanese have expressed dissatisfaction, I must say that the Surinamese methods are a little different from what we are accustomed to and we may feel they are taking long, but they want to be 100 per cent sure before they make a pronouncement, for example, the bodies are in a state where family members can identify them, but the authorities here want DNA tests to confirm since the bodies are mangled and facial recognition is not possible; so families are being a bit impatient, but overall I am pleased with the progress thus far,” he said.

The police have their theories according to which they are working and arrests have been made by both countries. In Guyana, police sources have confirmed three persons are in custody, two in Berbice and the other in ‘C’ Division. The minister confirmed that the time for detention of those arrested has been extended beyond the normal 72 hours.

An appeal was made to the families, survivors and other fishermen to divulge every piece of information they have on the attack, since it is critical and can be used to bring those responsible to justice.