– PPP rejects Lindo Creek CoI Report

THE Lindo Creek Commission of Inquiry (CoI) has reportedly recommended that 11 public officials be sanctioned at the level of the National Assembly over their failure to perform their duties “before and after” the killing of eight miners in 2008.

Chief among the public officials is the then President, Bharrat Jagdeo, who now serves as leader of the opposition.

According to the findings contained in the report pertaining to the Lindo Creek Commission of Inquiry (CoI) – A nation’s search for truth and justice, the state officials at the time, while functioning in their official capacity, neglected to perform their duties “before and after” the murder of the miners. The badly burnt remains of the eight miners were discovered by the owner of the camp, Leonard Arokium, at Lindo Creek in the Upper Berbice River, Region 10, on June 21, 2008; but it is suspected that the miners were killed between June 7, 2008 and June 21, 2008.

In addition to the former president, the commission has singled out the then Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee; former Guyana Defence Force Chief of Staff, Gary Best; former Commissioner of Police, the late Henry Greene; and the then Police Crime Chief, Seelall Persaud, who is now the former commissioner of police (ag).

The then Director of Public Prosecutions, the Deputy Crime Chief, Head of the Office of Professional Responsibility, Head of the Police Major Crimes Unit, police commander, E & F Division and Divisional Detective Inspector, E & F Division, were also listed among the 11.
The Guyana Chronicle understands that among the recommendations in the report, which was submitted to President David Granger in August, is a call to have these public officials censured.

The Military Criminal Investigations Department (MCID), back in 2008, had cleared the Joint Services,the Guyana Defence Force and the Guyana Police Force, of having anything to do with the massacre, even though fingers were pointed in their direction. A criminal investigation was ordered closed by the director of public prosecutions (DPP) on the grounds that all the members of the notorious Rondell “Fine-Man” Rawlins gang, which the Joint Services had blamed for the crime, were dead.

But Chairman of the Lindo Creek CoI, Justice (Ret’d) Justice Donald Trotman, in his report to the President, said the investigations, which had exonerated the Joint Services, were poorly conducted. Based on geographical and technical evidence provided by surveyors, evidence offered by civilians, including Leonard Arokium and the visit to the crime scene by the commission, Justice (Ret’d) Trotman concluded that it was not reasonably possible for the criminal gang to have moved from Christmas Falls, where they had engaged in a shootout with the police on June 6, 2008, to Lindo Creek in a matter of hours or days, while being hunted by the Joint Services.

He stated that from a process of elimination, it is more likely that if anybody did it at all, it was the Joint Services’ ranks.

But the findings and recommendations put forward by the commission have not found favour with the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) – the party which was in government when the miners – Dax Arokium, Cedric Arokium, Compton Speirs, Horace Drakes, Nigel Torres, Bonny Harry, Clifton Wong and Lancelot Lee – were killed.

On Saturday, the PPP emphatically rejected the findings of the Donald Trotman Commission of Inquiry, stating for a second time that it has no confidence in the commission.

“We knew that this commission was established with a preconceived intention of holding the Joint Services liable and to exonerate the notorious killer, Rondell Rawlins, also known as “Fine Man” and his murderous gang.”

“We pointed out that a close relative of a leading member of the coalition government was appointed as the lone commissioner to bring home this finding. Nearly a year later and after the expenditure of unknown millions of taxpayers’ dollars, we have been vindicated,” the main opposition party said in a statement.

According to the PPP, it is a “real tragedy” that the government has sought to tarnish law-enforcement officers, who risk their lives every day to protect the law-abiding citizens of this land.

“To our Joint Services men and women, who have been wrongly tarnished in this report, we say, do not despair, we stand with you, and we are sure that so do a large majority of our citizens,” the PPP said.

Over the six-month investigation conducted by Justice (Ret’d) Trotman, which included two extensions, over 60 witnesses and persons of interest appeared before the commission. A total of 20 public-hearing sessions was reportedly conducted, in addition to 10 private interviews and five in-camera sessions. While Best and Seelall were among those who appeared before the commission, Jagdeo and Rohee, though invited to appear,had declined.