Cavalier attitude towards law enforcement and criminal investigations

Sep 05, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
August 11th – the bodies of Jainarine Dinanauth and Henry Gibson were discovered on their badly damaged boat near Hog Island. Ten-year old Ricky Jainarine went missing – still not found. Post-mortems concluded both men died from blunt trauma blows to their heads as well as drowning.
August 20th – 24-year-old Dweive Kant Ramdass, a gold dealer had taken his seat on a water taxi at Parika Stelling, bound for Bartica with $17 million when his boat was commandeered by three Coast Guard soldiers; he was abducted and murdered; his body was found on August 22nd. The trio of Coast Guard soldiers has since confessed to the abduction and murder of Ramdass.
Together these two murder cases (because of the proven involvement by soldiers in one case and their suspected involvement in the other) rise to the level of the highest priority for attention by the President and his Cabinet. Yet both cases and in particular the first are almost pooh-poohed as if they are routine criminal matters – and it is because of this lackadaisical approach that the first case is not only not yet solved, but worse this nation of 700,000 people are totally in the dark.
It is almost as if the Government. made a decision to impose a news blackout on the investigations, if any is going on at all. Neither Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee nor Commissioner of Police Henry Greene has called a single media conference to deal specifically with this murder investigation. These criminal events of August 11th and 20th are almost the equivalent of the 9/11 attacks on the United States. The latter was handled with the highest priority – and the senior spokesmen at all levels of the U.S. Government gave detailed updates daily and were available to answer questions by media personnel. In this Guyana case, the people are treated with contempt – they don’t deserve to know. The behaviour of Mr. Rohee and Mr. Greene epitomizes and illustrates their cavalier attitude towards law enforcement and criminal investigations. An almost callous attitude and a case study in lack of accountability to the nation.
(1) Could Mr. Rohee and Mr. Greene provide details of all police work done between August 11th and 20th: Had a crack team of CID sleuths been dispatched to inspect the condition of the bodies of Dinanauth and Gibson and examine the badly damaged boat? If they observed clues that a green-painted boat had rammed Dinanauth’s boat, what did they do with this information? What leads did they pursue?
(2) Only after the Ramdass’ kidnap and murder (nine days later) did we read in the press of the tell-tale green-paint left on Dinanauth’s boat and also of the three-day-absence of the Coast Guard vessel for repairs, and its reappearance on the fourth day displaying fresh paint at what may appear to be the points of collision. Why didn’t the Minister reveal this information to the public on the first or second day after the murders – August 12th or 13th?
(3) Did the CID sleuths follow their leads to the Coast Guard station at Fort Island in a timely manner (within three days)? Did they observe the Coast Guard vessel being repainted? Did they interview the operators of the Coast Guard vessel?
(4) Why wouldn’t Mr. Rohee and Mr. Greene make themselves available to media and answer some of these questions?
There is an overwhelming preponderance of suspicions that have taken hold of this nation of 700,000 people at home and over 500,000 abroad, – and these suspicions are not without foundation – but rather based on reports in the newspapers and sound reasoning – that had the police done their job with professionalism and in a timely manner, Dweive Kant Ramdass would have been alive today. Yes, hundreds of thousands of Guyanese people today believe that the same Coast Guard vessel used in the commissioning of the kidnap and murder of Ramdass had also been used to ram Dinanauth’s boat.
There is a deep and abiding perception across this nation that the Government is incapable of carrying out the law enforcement function. The reputation of the Government is haemorrhaging. This nation demands that President Jagdeo makes himself available to answer questions about the Government’s failure to investigate the Hog Island murders in a timely manner.
Salimoon (Sano) Rahaman, whose husband Dinanauth was murdered on the Hog Island boat, and her 10-year old son, Ricky Jainarine still missing, is unable to find closure and peace.
Mike Persaud

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