– GDF officer recalls seeing rotting flesh, bones

LIEUTENANT Colonel Lloyd Souvenir on Tuesday told the Lindo Creek Commission of Inquiry (CoI) that the Rondell “Fineman” Rawlins gang may have been mistaken as Joint Services members due to their camouflage clothing and military ammunition.
Souvenir was present on Tuesday before the Justice Donald Trotman-led Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the 2008 killing of eight miners at the Lindo Creek campsite. The inquiry is being held at the Department of Public Service on Waterloo Street. During 2008, Souvenir was deployed from 6th-29th of June in Kwakwani as the Operations Officer for the Joint Task Force to capture the “Fineman” gang operating, then, in the Christmas Falls area.

Souvenir told the commission of an incident which occurred on Monday, 16th June, 2008 where word came to the Kwakwani headquarters of an attempted armed robbery at Goat Farm during the morning hours.

At the time all the patrols were stationed elsewhere, so Souvenir assembled a team of six ranks from persons within the headquarters who travelled to the Goat Farm area, in the hopes of later being relieved by the Joint Services.

The team remained there until evening and around that time came into contact with three armed men who opened fire at the ranks after refusing to give themselves up.
“The men fired at us and we returned fire. One of the men run away and keep firing at us but because of the angle he ran from us it was difficult for us to continue to engage him and we went forward to the other two and disarmed them, they were motionless on the ground,” he said.

On their way back to Kwakwani, the ranks met up with the Joint Services and debriefed them. A search of the gunmen’s equipment revealed: 2 AK47 rifles, 781 7.60x39mm rounds, credit cards, sim cards, cell phones, torchlights, camouflage clothing, stove, pot, food stuff and a frequent flyer credit card with the name of the late and former Agriculture Minister, Satyadeow Sawh.

These items were recovered in two haversacks worn by the men, and Souvenir noted that one of the weapons bore the serial number of the late Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Lance Corporal Ivor Williams who had dropped his weapon when he was shot and killed in Buxton in 2008.

The other firearm had the serial number of another weapon which went missing from the GDF storage bond. Presented with photographs of the slain gunmen, Souvenir pointed out in two of the photos where he saw camouflage clothing being worn under the t-shirts of the men through holes in their garments. His observations were similar to the ones made by GDF Major Andy Pompey, and Lieutenant Colonel Omar Khan, who testified at Monday’s hearing.

Pompey suggested that these factors, along with the stolen weapons, may have resulted in the assumption that the men were part of the Joint Services.
Speaking on the matter of the massacre, Souvenir testified that on 22nd June, 2008 a police team which he accompanied visited the Lindo Creek campsite and witnessed the gruesome aftermath.

“The camp was destroyed…things were scattered, there was a heap of what appeared to be human bones with the flesh rotting. For me it was nauseous,” he recounted.
During the period of deployment in the area, Souvenir recalled that a helicopter was attached to the taskforce for the conducting of aerial patrol. Additionally, Souvenir told the inquiry that around the 25th June, buried ammunition, shot gun cartridges and weapons were recovered along the trail between Goat Farm and Ituni.