Army radio link leads to soldiers’ arrests

Jun 05, 2009 News

A massive radio communications network, linking the Police and stakeholders in the gold and diamond mining sector, has contributed to an increased sense of security among miners, at this time, one year after the Lindo Creek massacre.
Executive Director of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA), Tony Shields, said that the recent arrests of Guyana Defence Force (GDF) officers on allegations of theft from a mining camp could be seen as one example of the efficiency of the communications network.
“This rapid communications system is one of the security responses to the Lindo Creek massacre. It works and this connectedness has done much to improve the sense of security of people in the various scattered areas in the hinterland,” he said.
The arrests to which he referred to were those of a Guyana Defence Force (GDF) officer and three ranks who allegedly robbed a mining camp in Region One (Barima/Waini) last week and were found with a large amount of cash and a quantity of gold in their possession.
Shields said that the radio network, fine tuned in the aftermath of the massacre, links miners, the Police, the mines officers in the field, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, the GGDMA and even players in the forestry sector.
According to a release from the GDF the discovery of the cash and gold was made by members of a GDF investigative team who traveled to the area after receiving reports that the ranks had robbed a mining camp at Five Star.
The release said that the ranks were handed over to the police who are investigating the crime.
“We at the GGDMA have had reports of “shakedowns” in remote mining camps by rogue patrols on quite a few occasions in the past,” Shields said, “ but many times too late to take effective action.”
He said that improved radio communications had played a role in the rapid response and arrests in this case.
“That this response and arrest happened is another factor which increases the sense of security among miners out there,” he added.
Shields said that what now matters most to the GGDMA one year after the Lindo Creek massacre, is the absence of a sense of closure among relatives of the deceased.
Those who were killed at the site were Dax Arokium, Cedric Arokium, Compton Speirs, Horace Drakes, Clifton Wong, Lancelot Lee, Bonny Harry and Nigel Torres.
Leonard Arokium, owner of the camp where the eight miners died and who discovered the remains of the men, including his son and his brother both had accused the joint services of being responsible for the men’s deaths.
The joint services had strongly denied this and had instead blamed the now dead infamous Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins and his gang for the brutal slaying of the men.
A DNA examination of the bones of the dead is yet to be completed almost a year later.
Last month, reports indicated that the Police and relatives of the Lindo Creek eight would have to wait much longer for the DNA results of the samples taken since the Jamaican laboratory where they were sent is non-operational.
Deputy Commissioner of Police of Jamaica Charles Scarlett, who was in Guyana attending the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP) conference, said that his country’s forensic laboratory is being improved and could give no time frame for completion of the promised DNA examinations.

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Army radio link leads to soldiers’ arrests

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