…as gov’t prepares to implement recommendations of CoI

ATTORNEY General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams SC recently met with the close relatives of the eight miners who were killed at Lindo Creek in 2008, as the government prepares to implement a section of the recommendations made in the Lindo Creek Commission of Inquiry (CoI) Report compiled by Justice (Ret’d) Donald Trotman.
The meeting was held on the instructions of President David Granger, who in February 1, 2018 had ordered that an inquiry be launched into the massacre. The CoI was established to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the killing of Cecil Arokium, Dax Arokium, Horace Drakes, Bonny Harry, Lancelot Lee, Compton Speirs, Nigel Torres and Clifton Berry Wong at Lindo Creek in the Upper Demerara-Berbice Region on or about June 21, 2008. The report was handed over to the President on August 2, 2019.

Implementation of the recommendations proposed in Trotman’s Report was central to the discussion during the recent meeting.

According to a report seen by the Guyana Chronicle, the Attorney General Williams extracted specific recommendations from the report which are considered to bring tangible consolation to the relatives and dependents of the slain Lindo Creek miners.
“These recommendations were examined and discussed extensively by Attorney General Williams and relatives of the slain miners, as the implementation of certain recommendations will benefit the relatives. Relatives were keen to identify the recommendations that they viewed as most beneficial and will welcome the implementation,” a second of the report states.

In the meeting, the Attorney General Williams noted that an interagency approach and collaboration with the relevant ministries will be required to oversee their successful implementation of the recommendations.

He committed to engage in discussions at the ministerial level on the matter to further develop and adopt the most suitable approach in light of the discussions with the relatives.
“Relatives of the slain miners, almost one decade later, by virtue of the constitution of the Commission of Inquiry were afforded the opportunity to visit the site of the massacre for the first time. Many relatives expressed that this exercise would have provided them with a degree of closure and solace,” another section of the report stated.

In his report to President David Granger, Justice Trotman recommended that counselling be provided to the families of the deceased. 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 in an interview with the Guyana Chronicle had 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, disclosed 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 to 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.