Remembering the slain Kaieteur News pressmen

Aug 10, 2015 News

Sunday marked the ninth year since five employees of our newspaper were brutally slaughtered by a marauding gang at our printery which was operating in Eccles Industrial Site.
Every year on August 8 the memories of that dreadful night keep haunting those of us who are still around to talk about it.
For some of us, losing five people who you interacted with on a daily basis, was like losing family members.
Today we remember our colleagues through a touching article which was first printed in this newspaper in august 2013, seven years after the massacre at Kaieteur News.
“That thing ruined my whole life”-surviving security guard

By Rehana Ashley Ahamad

Seven years have passed, and some families of the slain Kaieteur News pressmen seem to be holding their ground and moving on. But, this is not the case of Julius De Grace, one of the two survivors of the attack.
It is not the case where he just did not recuperate, his wife said, noting that her husband’s mental state has deteriorated.
Ever since the fateful night of August 8, 2006, the woman explained that De Grace who was once a fearless man has become scared to the extent where even sleeping has become a task.
Her words came as no shock to me, because as I spoke to Mr. De Grace, he was literally shaking like a leaf. He seemed very fragile.
The now 74-year-old man was the only security personnel on duty that night, and the first to be shot in the head by one of the fully armed youths who wasted no time in scouring the premises for those who were inside, executing five of the six pressmen who were hiding in the toilet.
“Right now, I don’t remember anything. You underrate the shock I been through? I still feel stupid to this day. Only people who been through it can understand young lady, you wouldn’t. That thing ruined my whole life,” De Grace said.
He added that ever since the killings, he has not been able to work any longer. And out of fear that tragedy might once again strike in his path, De Grace said that he does not leave his home very often.
The man even pleaded that I not accompany this article with his photograph, as he heard that the accused were released, and are currently roaming free.
Meanwhile, Ramchand Harripersaud, also known as “Harry”, the only surviving pressman has been able to move on to some degree. Although the events of that night would still make tears fall, he has commenced working to provide for his family. “Harry” is currently employed in the printery of another newspaper.
Recalling that night, he said that just minutes after he and his colleagues reported for work at around 22:00hrs, the sound of gunshots filled the air.
He explained that they did not put much thought into it, because it was during the crime wave, and such sounds had become a norm, especially on the main road which was “a good way” from where they were working at the Eccles Industrial Site.
Usually, the workers, he said, would climb on a few roles of news print, and peep through a small window close to the ceiling of the building, to see what was happening out on the road, but on that fateful night, the men had just started working to get the press up and running, so they did not bother.
Just then, Harripersaud said that Bhena Lall, wife of Kaieteur News’ Publisher, Glenn Lall, had called to warn them that they should secure the place, since she heard gunmen were in the area.
But before the men could do anything those sounds grew nearer. By that time, De Grace was about to padlock the gate, when some “li’l children with guns” managed to overpower him.
Upon hearing his colleague, De Grace scream-”gunmen coming”, “Harry” said that he and other pressmen rushed to the back where they hid in a toilet.
Harripersaud noted that the youngest of the cold-blooded youths was just about 13-years-old, while the eldest did not seem to have passed age 19.
Harripersaud recalled that one of the men was “cussing” that if them (the pressmen) don’t come out, they will riddle the place with bullets.
His five colleagues thought that their attackers just wanted to rob them, so they exited the toilet. But as the youths ordered the men to lie face down, “Harry” said he knew that the men were there to kill.
Harripersaud survived by not coming out of the toilet like the men ordered. “I don’t know who mek da decision fuh me da night. Maybe was God. Me curl up and stay in that toilet till everything, and place get back quiet,” the West Coast Demerara resident related.
Harripersaud said that he watched helplessly through a crease in the door and saw his colleagues’ “feet jumping”, with each passing gunshot as life was snuffed out of them.
Found lying face down with bullets to the back of their heads, were Chetram Persaud called “Boyo” who was 46 years old at the time of his death; Eion Wegman, 47, who resided at Lot 51 Fourth Street, Alberttown, Georgetown, which is now known as the Pet Shop; Richard Stewart, 24, of Lamaha Park, East La Penitence; and the youngest of them, 22-year-old Mark Maikoo (Marko) of Company Park, Yarrow Dam, La Penitence.
Year after year, Kaieteur News would feature articles in remembrance of fallen colleagues who were ruthlessly executed by a group of misguided and cold-blooded youths. This year, I opted to take up the task of penning a few lines in memory of the fallen members of the Kaieteur News family.
I am not among those who have vivid recollection of that night, but from what has been related to me from some of my most senior colleagues, I also felt a sense of loss. On Friday last, I ventured off to meet with the families of those who were killed.
Many of them had changed their telephone numbers and addresses, but, I was able to meet with Dhanesh and Dwijesh Persaud, sons of senior pressman Chetram Persaud. They lived not very far away from the printery, so as the sounds of gunshots spread, they took precaution, clueless that those bullets were being fired at their loved one.
“We know the sounds did coming from that direction, but we didn’t think much about it, because we say that them men wouldn’t go in till at the back there,” Dhanesh Persaud, 20, related.
The man added that just minutes after the sounds faded, a man was heard screaming that the printery was attacked.
He said that he, his brother, and mother, Malwantie Persaud wasted no time in rushing over to his father’s workplace to make sure he was okay.
But what they saw was their father’s lifeless body lying face down alongside others in a pool of blood. Less than a year after, Malwantie Persaud died.
“She take things on until she died. She had breast cancer, but she was still going strong. But after daddy die, is like she give up on life. She stop taking medication and so,” Dwijesh Persaud, 20 said.
The mother of Richard Stewart also passed away due to similar stress, and his father noted that he is, so far, being able to cope with the loss of his wife and child. He could not say much.
Meanwhile, relatives of Mark Maikoo said that the man’s wife, in searching of closure, along with their four month old daughter at the time, left the couple’s home to live elsewhere.
Unfortunately, despite much effort, I was unable to locate her, as well as relatives of Eion Wegman and Shameez Mohamed, since they too changed their addresses and telephone numbers.
Indeed, after seven years, this has remained the harshest blow to the media fraternity. The deaths of these pressmen have been considered as an attack on press freedom; we therefore consider them martyrs. May their souls rest in peace.
(Incidentally, while three persons were charged for the murders, none of them is still facing the court.
In February 2013 Dwight Da Silva, the last man accused of killing the five pressmen was freed of the charge. Da Silva, along with Quincy Evans and Jermaine Charles called ‘Skinny’ now deceased, were charged for the murders of Eion Wegman, Richard Stuart, Mark Maikoo, Shazim Mohamed and Chetram Persaud. Evans was previously freed in the Magistrate’s court, while Charles was killed in a shootout with police after he had escaped from lawful custody.
The matter against DaSilva was discharged because of the lack of evidence.)