Sir Ramphal permanent residence, in Barbados Disturbing-images Annandale-2-dead Coldingen-Indians
A gang of marauding gunmen created havoc in the East Coast Demerara village
of Lusignan, killing 11 persons, including five children, in one of the deadliest attacks in recent years.
The gunmen struck at
around 02:00 hours yesterday, simultaneously kicking down the doors of five
houses, slaughtering even children as they lay sleeping in their beds.
Three
persons were also injured, while at least three others escaped certain death by
hiding as the gunmen went on their rampage.
While the gunmen robbed one
family of jewellery in some cases, the motive of the attack does not appear to
be just robbery.
Remains were those of kidnapped taxi driver
ARYA-SAMAJ-Fl-Sawh Found dead Guyana Chronicle Murdered by Jagdeo men
See more child-beating saga Enmore-hanging-Lawyer Dead-Suesankar-and-Parsram
In 15 minutes of terror, the gunmen, who numbered about 20, all armed
with rifles and shotguns, massacred their victims, including an entire family
comprising a mother and her two sleeping children, in a 15-minute ordeal that
has left almost the entire East Coast Demerara in shock.
Among the dead are Shazam Mohamed;
Clarence Thomas; his son, Ron, 11; daughter, Vanessa 12; Mohandai Gourdat, 32;
her two children: Seegobind, four-years-old, and Seegopaul Harilall, 10; Shalem
Baksh, 52; Rooplall Seecharan, 56; his daughter, Raywattie Ramsingh, 11; and his
wife, Dhanrajie, called Sister, 52.
The injured are Howard Thomas, 19, Nadir
Mohamed, 48, and Roberto Thomas, five.
Most of the dead were shot in their
stomachs and were left lying in pools of blood that covered most of the floors
of their modest homes.
The Police Ballistic Laboratory has since matched some
of the spent the shells found at Lusignan as follows: Five 5.56 shells matched
5.56 shells found at the scene of Drakes's murder in Agricola. The thirty five
7.62 x 39 spent shells matched eighteen shells found at the scene of Minister
Satyadeow Sawh's murder, the murder of the MMC security guards at Two Brothers gas station, Brumell and Scott at Agricola
and the attack at Canal No. Two in 2007.
Speaking to this newspaper,
one of the survivors of yesterday’s massacre, Bibi Zalika Baksh, whose husband,
Shalem, was killed, said that at around 02:00 hours they heard the shooting
which, she said, started at a house two doors away.
The woman said that the
family was downstairs in the two-flat house, and by the time they ran upstairs
and secured themselves under a bed, the bandits, who she said appeared to be all
over the place, began breaking down doors.
According to Baksh, the men
ordered the family to open their door, but the family was too terrified to make
another move.
Within seconds, their front louvre windows were shattered and
some of the men entered.
“They pull out me husband from under the bed and
tell him, 'Give we de money and de jewellery',” Mrs. Baksh recalled.
She said
that her husband begged the men to spare his life but they shot him in cold
blood.
Baksh said that she and her daughter were also under the bed from
which her husband was pulled, but the bandits, in their haste, did not see them.
She explained that, before her
husband was shot, she attempted to come out from her hiding place to hand over
whatever valuables the family had with the hope of saving their lives.
But
her indecision probably saved her life and her 14-year-old daughter's.
She
said that the gunmen went downstairs looking for the rest of the family, but
eventually left when they did not find them.
Gaumattie Thomas, whose husband
and two children were killed, recalled that she did not see what happened but
was listening keenly from her hiding place in her house. According to Thomas,
her husband tried to push in the door even as the killers were trying to enter
the house.
However, the gunmen overpowered him and forced their way into the
house, shooting the 52-year-old Clarence Thomas dead in the process. His body
was left lying on the stairs.
“I was just hiding in the corner. Ow! Ah
couldn't talk, ah couldn't do nothing. They did not see me. Then they say,
'Watch two more deh on de bed. Kill dem! Kill dem',” Mrs. Thomas told this newspaper.
She said
that the men shot her sleeping son, Ron, and they then snatched her daughter,
Vanessa, from her bed, and although she screamed and begged for her life, she,
too, was cold bloodedly gunned down.
Another son, Howard, received a bullet
and fell off his bed, a move that certainly saved his life. She said
that
maybe if the men had discovered the switch for the light in the house, the
entire family would have been slaughtered.
She is, however, fearful of
remaining in her house, since she said that the men promised to return.
At
the home of Shazam Mohamed, his mother, Bibi Khan, told Kaieteur News that five
of them were in the house when the bandits attacked. She said that the men
kicked and shot out their front door to gain entry into the house.
“Dem
shoot, shoot. Awe nah open fuh dead. Me tell dem (family) fuh hide, sit down
easy and hide, nah come out,” she recalled.
She said that she later heard her
husband, Nadir Mohamed, groaning and came out from her hiding place, only
to see her son, Shazam, lying badly wounded in a pool of blood.
“He call out,
'Ow, mammy, give me some water fuh drink and throw some pon me skin',” Khan
recalled.
Noreen
Seecharran, whose father, Rooplall; mother, Dhanrajie; and sister, Raywattie,
were all killed, said that she was at her home in Enterprise -- two miles away
-- when she received a call that her relatives were injured.
She was not told
that they were dead.
It was only when she and another sister arrived at their
parents' home that they realised the extent of the carnage.
Rajkumar
Harilall, called Bobby, left Guyana on Thursday for Trinidad. He received the
shocking news that his wife, Mohandai Gourdat, and two sons had been killed in
the carnage. He immediately booked a flight to Guyana and returned home.
So
unbearable was the reality of what had happened to his family that he kept
slipping in and out of consciousness.
Residents were upset at the slow police
response. They said that the police refused to answer several telephone calls
even as the massacre was in progress.
This was brought to the attention of
Acting Police Commissioner Henry Greene, who visited the area early yesterday
morning and promised a full investigation into the conduct of his
ranks.
Many residents expressed horror that the children were not
spared.
“Dem nah come fuh rob. Look how dem kill dem pickney while dem
sleeping,” was one of the frequent comments.
“Dis government gat
fuh resign; dem can't protect we,” was another.
President Bharrat
Jagdeo led a team of ministers to the community to console residents, but they
were met with a high level of hostility.
Several persons called for the
government to step down since, according to them, they cannot effectively
protect the citizenry.
President Jagdeo assured that significant measures will be implemented to
ensure security for every Guyanese. He, however, urged that residents
resuscitate the defunct community policing groups in their areas.
Saturday, January 26th 2008