Little Diamond residents demand burial ground be weeded

Jan 26, 2012 News

“More of a haven for bandits, than one for the dead,” is what one resident of

Little Diamond residents want authorities to intervene by having this cemetery cleaned.

Little Diamond, East Bank Demerara, described their community’s burial ground to be like.
Complaints of sloppy work not only about the burial ground but almost all the work being done in the community as well, poured in as Kaieteur News visited the area on Saturday.
The burial ground borders Little Diamond and Diamond communities, including the squatting settlement known as ‘Skull City’.
“We paying rates and taxes and them just giving them junkies two to three hundred dollars fuh weed the burial ground lil bit, this can’t wuk, that place needs heavy machinery,” said Ernest Persaud, a resident.
“I’m scared to leave my kids home alone because you never know who or what could come out from that forest behind we house and harm them. Luckily, I was home when we found both the snake and alligator in our backyard,” Persaud revealed.
He added that despite him making numerous complaints to the Chairlady of the Neighbourhood Democratic Council, no concerted effort was made to address the concerns.
Kaieteur News was told that the last time the burial ground was cleaned was two years ago.
“The bushes three times longer than the people, we can’t find we relatives in deh, and we got to pay to bury we dead, and I want to know how them gon find space fuh bury other people dead, because even if it get, we can’t find it in this jungle,” said one elderly woman.
Persons in the area explained that while they want to come out, they are scared of being victimized by the NDC official.
This newspaper was verbally abused by the said Chairlady during an attempt to elicit a comment from her on the burial ground in question.
Residents said that when an MTV Channel 14/ Cable 65 camera crew visited the area to feature it on the channel’s weekly “Village Talk”, they were prevented from going anywhere near the deplorable burial ground.
Meanwhile, the residents are calling on the higher authorities to look into not only the condition of the burial ground, but the management of the Little Diamond/Herstelling Neighbourhood Democratic Council as well.