— says Justice Trotman as Kwakwani resident alleged drunk soldiers confessed to Lindo Creek Massacre 

Story and photos by Svetlana Marshall

STATING that it would be injudicious to draw a conclusion before the life of the Lindo Creek Commission of Inquiry (CoI) comes to an end, the CoI Chairman, Justice (ret’d) Donald Trotman assured residents of Kwakwani that the truth about the 2008 Lindo Creek Massacre would be revealed at the end of the inquiry.

Since the charred remains of the eight miners – Dax Arokium, Cedric Arokium, Compton Speirs, Horace Drakes, Nigel Torres, Bonny Harry, Clifton Wong and Lancelot Lee – were discovered at a mining camp at Lindo Creek by the owner, Leonard Arokium on June 21, 2008, there have been two theories as to who are the killers.

The Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) are of the opinion that the Rondell “Fineman” Rawlins gang had committed the gruesome act. The GDF went one step further and suggested that the diamond miners were probably robbed by the gang and then killed, or may have been tortured, shot and killed because they were suspected informants of the Joint Services.

On the other hand, the theory which has been posited by the owner of the camp, Mr Arokium, whose son and brother were among those murdered, suggests that the Joint Services mistakenly killed the miners, believing they were members of the ‘Fineman Gang’.
The Joint Services, during the month of June 2008, was conducting operations in the Upper Berbice River, covering Ituni, Kwakwani, Christmas Falls and the UNAMCO trail which leads to Lindo Creek, among other places. They were in search of the gang. This theory has received the backing of relatives and friends of the deceased.

On Saturday, during a public conversation at the Kwakwani Workers Club, Justice Trotman told residents, including relatives of Nigel Torres, Dax Arokium and Lancelot Lee, that when the work of the commission concludes at the end of June, the truth about the massacre will be revealed.

“The truth has a way of coming through the thickest darkness and to come to the light, and that is what is going to happen. I assure you by God’s grace, and God’s guidance, the truth will come out by the end of next month when the life of this commission would have come to an end. You will hear the truth and the truth will make you free,” he said to loud rounds of applause.

SATISFACTION
Though some may not be 100 per cent satisfied, he is convinced that the affected will receive satisfaction to the extent that they will receive the necessary closure.
According to Justice Trotman, the commission ought to have been established 10 years ago to thoroughly investigate the massacre, but it was not. However, he expressed deep satisfaction with President David Granger’s decision to reopen the case.

“In his learned wisdom, the right President has appointed the right man to do the right job. President David Granger has done that, and you will see results. We will see the right results because the right thing has been done, even though it is 10 years after,” he said.
He noted that the President’s decision to extend the life of the commission has allowed for a visit to the scene of the massacre to be conducted.

That visit was conducted on Saturday by a 23-member team led by Justice Trotman, and included members of the Torres and Arokium families. If the mining camp at Lindo Creek was not visited by the commission, he opined that his investigation would have been incomplete and left at the mercies of critics.
“That would have left us in a very incomplete state… and the naysayers, they would have been laughing all over the place,” he posited.

DEFYING THE ODDS
Justice Trotman told the residents that since the establishment of the commission on February 1, 2018, the work of the commission has been criticized, with many suggesting that the visit to the scene would not have been possible, at least by him.

However, Justice Trotman proved naysayers wrong when he and his team travelled the more than 119 miles from Kwakwani, through the treacherous UNAMCO trail for a period of two-and-a-half hours before it was time to come off the road. The team then trekked through the forest, covering rough terrain in the process. The fallen trees, the steep and slippery hills, and the five creeks proved to be the most difficult to manoeuver during the more than two-hour-long journey to the scene of the massacre.

Though describing the journey to Lindo Creek as “rough, hazardous and strenuous”, Justice Trotman was determined to reach the camp, and he did with the assistance of a GDF officer, the police and the tour guides. The journey, he said, was necessary.

“They felt that we would not have been able to go and see the place. They felt that this old man really couldn’t make the trip. He would have had to sit down in Georgetown and rub his aching bones…. But there are some aching bones this morning, but these aches and pains that I am having are nothing to the aches and pains and suffering that the surviving relatives of these unfortunate dead men are suffering,” the retired judge said.
Though retired from the judicial system, Justice Trotman made it clear that he has not retired from justice, as he reiterated the truth will be revealed.

DRUNKEN SOLDIERS AND NEWS OF BURNT MEN
Resident of Kwakwani Charles Thom, who was a logger back in June 2008, said he was at home when a little boy told him that a group of drunken soldiers said they had burned some men at a camp in the Upper Berbice River, several miles away from Kwakwani.
“My neighbour son came over by me and said Uncle Thom, them soldiers drinking and them drunk, and they say how they burn up some men up the river deh,” Thom disclosed during the public conversation.

Thom said he enquired from persons operating along the UNAMCO trail, if they heard anything, and was told no. However, he became increasing suspicious when no one had seen or heard from the miners operating at the camp at Lindo Creek.
As his suspicious grew, Thom said he learnt in the newspaper that “the Joint Services torched bandits’ camp at 63km (UNAMCO Road)”. The Lindo Creek is in the vicinity of 76km, UNAMCO trail.

“The newspaper said ‘Joint Services torch bandits’ camp’ but it wasn’t bandits’ camp, but it was some hard working miners,” Thom said as he questioned the reason behind the senseless killing. According him, the evidence is out there.

Jocelyn Morian, Edward Farrell and Yonette Torres – mother of 17-year-old Nigel Torres–were among residents who spoke openly about the Lindo Creek Massacre, and the need for the truth to be disclosed.

The commission’s Legal Counsel, Patrice Henry; the Commission’s Public Relations Officer, Melanie Morris; Community Development Council Vice Chairman, Nadia Welcome; the NDC Chairperson, Juanita Leacock; the NDC Overseer, Clairann Owenkirk, and the Assistant Regional Executive Officer, Leola Narine were among the officials present at the public conversation.