The results of DNA analysis to positively identify seven miners who were slaughtered at a Lindo Creek mining camp back in 2008 are to be submitted by the Jamaican Force Constabulary by this month, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee said on Monday.
Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee
Both the Guyana government and the Jamaican constabulary had been criticised for the delays in the submission of the report close to four years since the investigation was launched. Soometime between June 12-24, 2008 miners: Cecil Arokium, Dax Arokium, Compton Speirs, Horace Drakes, Clifton Wong, Lancelot Lee, Bonny Harry and Nigel Torres were shot and killed, and their bodies burnt at the Upper Berbice River mining camp operated at the time by Leonard Arokium.
Police had linked the massacre to the now dead Rondell Rawlins, but Leonard Arokium had denied this, and instead accused the servicemen of committing the act during their search for Rawlins and his gang. In a statement, Rohee said relative to the killings, the Guyana Police Force, honouring its obligation, commenced an investigation. He said the evidence found at the crime scene suggested that persons in the camp were burnt along with the camp to the extent that none of them was identifiable. Suspected human remains inclusive of feet, bones and skulls among other body parts were found. “Assistance in processing the crime scene was provided by members of the Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago and the Major Investigation Task Force of the Jamaica Constabulary Force. The investigators advised that the identification of the persons murdered could only have been determined via DNA analysis. As a result, samples of the human remains recovered from the crime scene were taken by the Jamaican team (which included a forensic pathologist) to the Jamaican Forensic Laboratory for analysis, while the remainder was stored at the Lyken’s Funeral Parlour. According to Rohee, the Jamaican Force Constabulary submitted a report of a partial analysis that was conducted and promised to submit the full report by the end of January 2012.
Rohee said the remains stored at the Lyken’s Funeral Parlour form a vital part of the evidence collected. He said it is usual for remains of deceased persons in murder investigations to be disposed of after a post mortem examination is concluded by handing over the body to relatives of the deceased for funeral. However, in the Lindo Creek case, which is an exceptional one, the remains were not identified, and therefore could not have been handed over to anyone nor disposed of by the state due to emotional issues normally associated with relatives of murder victims. “The result is that apart from the samples taken to Jamaica, the remainder is still stored at the Lyken’s Funeral Parlour at the expense of the state.”
The minister said because of the controversy surrounding the Lindo Creek incident, the Guyana Police Force sought to exercise caution in the storage of the remains of the victims. He said there was no viable option available at the time to facilitate storage of the remains; neither did the Guyana Police Force anticipate that it would have taken a long period of time to obtain the results of the DNA. Meanwhile, the Home Affairs Ministry also slammed a Kaieteur News report regarding payment for storage of the Lindo Creek remains, contending that the story carried by the newspaper is flawed.
The ministry said none of the financial regulations was breached and the expenditure was charged to the correct line item”6294-Other”-in the current allocation of the Guyana Police Force.
This line item caters for payment of expenses relative to cases of unnatural death where the force have to intervene, which invariably leads to situations where they have to engage the services of funeral parlours for the transportation and storage of dead bodies prior to the disposal, by way of burial by relatives of the deceased or the state. “The Ministry of Home Affairs wishes to reiterate that at all times appropriate efforts are made to ensure that money allocated to the ministry and its departments be expended in such a manner that value is received for such expenditure.”
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