Psychiatrists grossly insufficient – Minister Ramsammy

Sep 12, 2010 News

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– But measures apace to remedy shortcoming in mental health

As the saga continues to swirl surrounding the mysterious dead of 19-year-old Barama employee, Jason Fraser, of 39 Baba Man (Galaxy) Street, West Canefield, East Canje Berbice, the lad’s relatives are saying that they are not satisfied with pace of the investigation.
They say that they smell a cover up.
Fraser, whose mangled body was discovered on September 2, last, in a veneer machine at his Buck Hall work place in Essequibo, had been reported missing since August 30, last.
The relatives now plan to go all the way to seek justice for their loved one. The dead youth’s mother, Sandra Parris, speaking with this newspaper from her Canefield home, yesterday, said that she is convinced that a lot is not right and that a massive cover-up is taking place.
The distraught, distressed and upset woman, said that since the incident she has not heard one word from anyone.
“The company, the police or the Ministry of Labour, nobody ain’t saying anything and I am not going to take it just like that.”
“They came here and murder my son and now they want to cover up the issue. I want the President (Jagdeo) to intervene in this matter and even if I have to camp outside the Office of the President to get an audience with him that will be done,” she said.
The woman plans to take legal action against whoever is culpable and feels that her son was murdered and then stuffed in the machine. They feel that the government is reneging on its responsibilities.
“If the government cannot represent its citizen properly, then residents will have to take matters into their own hands”, one family member said.
“If they are saying that this was not right and that was not right, why has nobody been charged so far?”
She said that the information that the family is getting from the newspapers suggest that Barama is telling a lot of lies. “That is all you are getting from the company. Lies, lies and more lies.”
She said that her son was living in the room in which his clothes were found for close to two months and he did not abandon any room. “When my son was discovered missing my other son, James, had to force his way in the room and he found his clothes all intact.
Recounting her version of the story, the woman said that she was at work on the morning of September 1, last, when she received a call from her ex-husband, querying if Jason was by her. She said that she replied in the negative.
He then told her that Jason’s boss man had called to say that ‘he knock off Jason’ and put him off the compound and that Jason was missing.
She said that she immediately sensed that something was not right. “If he was knocked off and was put off the compound, how come the boss man know that he is missing”, she reasoned.
The woman said that she immediately called her other son, James Jr, and queried from him the status of his brother. She said that he told her that since Monday August 30, his brother was missing and that nobody seems to know of his whereabouts.
With the insistence of his mother, James enquired from the boss man about his brother, and was told a different story.
He was told that his brother had walked off the job and had left the compound. When he queried from the security if his brother had left the compound he was told no. He immediately went to his brother’s room and found it locked. When it was opened all his belongings were inside.
On Thursday morning he and the security were checking the compound when they came upon the disturbing odour near to the machine where his brother was working. They immediately called the police and informed other relatives. When the police arrived it was discovered that Jason was in the machine.
They woman is querying why was James asked to move from the scene, when the body was found. “He should have remained there to witness everything”, she stated.
She also stated that on the same day that her son was reported missing, he was removed from where he was working and told to go and work on this machine, which is in a lonely spot, all by himself, by his bosses Steve and John.
When he refused he was told that he had to go or he will be fired. He never worked that machine before.
The woman who has eight other children, four boys and four girls, stated that she allowed the two boys James (jr) and Jason to go and work with their father in the bush, since jobs were hard to come by and she thought that they would have been better off with good pay and so on.
She said that she never expected this scenario to unfold. Now she is regretting that move and wants her other son to come home. “They are working like slaves and hardly getting pay,” she stated.
She has contacted a lawyer and wants the police to do their work.
The Ministry of Labour, the Guyana Forestry Commission and the Guyana Police Force are all conducting investigations.

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