My appeal on behalf of Mrs. Idris Chester

Oct 18, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Mr. Idris Chester will be 71 years old this month. She is building a home. It is almost complete. Windows and a few things are to be installed. I appeal to all Guyanese to assist Mrs. Chester to have a roof over her head. Please call me on my home phone or cell if you know it or make contact with Kaieteur News so we can shape the arrangement to help Mrs. Chester. How she retained her mental health is a story that is most worthy of an Oprah Winfrey interview. Had the US produced the tragedy that came upon Idris Chester, Winfrey would have highlighted her ordeal. Idris Chester is one of the world’s most courageous human beings.

KN Senior Reporter Dale Andrews, Mrs. Chester and Freddie Kissoon in happier times.

Most people in Guyana and the diaspora do not know who Idris Chester is. The story goes back to Buxton. As the madness took over Buxton from 2002, Mrs. Chester got caught in a crossfire of violence, confusion, betrayal and damnation. Who was Mrs. Chester in Buxton in 2002? How did the gunmen perceive her? How did she feel about the violent cabals operating in Buxton? Most of all, what was the reaction of the Government to the situation that Mrs. Chester was helplessly caught in at the time?
In 2002, as the Mash Day escapees took sanctuary in Buxton, the villagers were literally bewildered at the unfolding drama. Buxtonians were divided as to who these gunmen were, what they wanted and what they stood for. Enter Idris Chester. Whatever happened between Compton Cambridge and Chester’s son, Brian led to disaster for the Chester clan.
Speaking to Mrs. Chester, other Buxtonians and my media colleagues at the time, it appeared that Mrs. Chester’s traditional family values got her in trouble with Cambridge and other armed groups in the village. On many occasions, Mrs. Chester would confront the marauding youths armed with the knowledge that she taught them in primary school. It was a tragic mistake.
The gunmen felt that Brian Chester and his mother were against them. The explosive moment came, as Mrs. Chester revealed to me in those turbulent days, when she chastised some of the violent youths about a robbery they had committed on an East Indian man in the village. Cambridge and others believed that Mrs. Chester had called in the police. Mrs. Chester told me she didn’t. The gunmen were enraged that Mrs. Chester would come out in support of an East Indian. The point of no return had come for Mrs. Chester. One evening, gangs of men armed with large weapons attacked the Chester family. There were two houses in the yards and two vehicles. All were set alight.
Mrs. Chester threw one of her grandchildren through a window and she jumped afterwards. One daughter was shot in the leg and a granddaughter was shot in the hip. The cars and the houses were burnt to cinders. The Chester family lost everything. This was the turning point for Buxtonians. After the arson and the shooting, Buxtonians became desperately fearful. No one wanted to be seen talking to the members of the Chester family. It was time to flee the village after her son-in-law’s house and pig farm were set ablaze. Then came the disappearance of one of her grandchildren. Mrs. Chester told me; “The Taliban killed him.”
Dale Andrews of this newspaper who covered the arson, reported that the GDF contingent was literally yards away when the Chester family was attacked. They saw the gunmen in action but didn’t intervene. Dale wrote that when he asked the officer in charge why the soldiers didn’t stop the assault, he simply said the GDF couldn’t get involved and would have had to receive orders.
The Chester family fled Buxton. From her base in Linden, Mrs. Chester contacted me for help. I started a fund for her at Republic Bank which was given front page coverage in KN.
The initial sum stood at $35, 000. It never got beyond that. Mrs. Chester said she will always remember Glen Lall, KN publisher who gave $20, 000, former Police Commissioner, Laurie Lewis who chipped in with $25, 000 and me with my small token of $5000. Guyana turned its back on this tower of strength.
When I secretly met with Mrs. Chester, she told me the top men in the Government asked to see her and she met with the two most powerful of them. After being warned to stay clear of me, she was promised a home. Mrs. Chester informed me on Wednesday last that to this day, she hasn’t received a cent from the Government of Guyana.

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