– and their families counselled, compensated, financially and otherwise

THE thought of her 17-year-old son being battered, shot and his body set ablaze at the hands of criminals haunts her to this day. Yonette Torres finds comfort in singing, but that does not stop the tears, the pain, and at times the rage she feels inside.

Nigel Torres had gone in search of work at a mining camp at Lindo Creek on the Upper Berbice River, when he was murdered along with seven other miners in June 2008.
Their bodies were placed haphazardly on top of each other, set alight and burnt beyond recognition.

Clifton Wong was among the slain miners and though 10 years have passed, the wound remains fresh. Back in March, during one of the public hearings conducted by the Lindo Creek Commission of Inquiry (CoI), Alicia Wong fainted as her uncle recalled packing the charred skeletal remains of the eight miners, her father included, one day after they had been discovered.

Dax Arokium, Cecil Arokium, Bonny Harry, Horace Drakes, Lancelot Lee and Compton Speirs are the other miners that were killed.

Undoubtedly, the massacre has had, and will continue to have a psychological effect on their families. And so as to help them, Chairman of the Lindo Creek CoI), Justice (Ret’d) Donald Trotman, in his report to President David Granger, has recommended that counselling be provided to the families of the deceased.

“We have suggested counselling because it has been very traumatic, and continues to be traumatic,” Justice Trotman told the Guyana Chronicle in a recent interview.

Counselling forms part of a menu of recommendations made with respect to the family.On the basis that all of the miners were the breadwinners of their families, at the time of their demise, the Commission has also recommended that those they left behind be paid monetary compensation.

And while he declined to disclose the amount recommended for each of the eight families, Justice Trotman said:
“I think we would want to leave that to the discretion of the President and a team of appropriate advisers. We suggested an amount, but we still feel we would want to leave that open.”

He, however, went on to say that the Commission also recommended that special provisions be made for the offspring of the dead miners,in the form of financial grants, scholarships, housing and job opportunities, particularly those who are qualified.

It has also been recommended that that the hill leading to the mining camp at Lindo Creek, be named or renamed “Arokium Hill”, and for monuments to be erected in each of the villages that the miners lived,in their memory.

The Commission has also called on the government to hold an annual commemorative ceremony on June 21, to celebrate the lives of the miners.

According to the Commission, the evidence garnered suggest that the miners were more than likely killed by members of the Joint Services,who at the time,were conducting a manhunt for the notorious Rondell “Fine-Man” Rawlins gang, along the UNAMCO trail in the Upper Berbice River area.