Children are being trafficked at Port Kaituma

Aug 21, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
In Port Kaituma, they say, it’s the gold and the money that talks. A person can buy anything, and I mean anything, once you have gold and money. When a person has gold and money that causes officials to turn the other way to trafficking in persons.
I know what I’m about to say is extremely harsh, critical, controversial and most people in our society don’t want to hear it. But it’s the truth; it’s a fact that some people in our country don’t want to hear that 10 years old Amerindian girls in Port Kaituma are being trafficked because it’s not their children.
Editor, most people reading this letter who live in Georgetown would deny and wouldn’t believe this is happening in our society because Port Kaituma is so far away from Georgetown. In Port Kaituma, men can do whatever they like to underage girls. And the sad part is that some of the people in Port Kaituma are aware it’s happening. I was there three days, only and I saw it. It’s not a secret; it’s not being done only in the dark but in the light, too.
Until I saw it myself, I wouldn’t have believed it was happening. It’s difficult for me to imagine some mothers forcing their underage innocent girls to sell themselves to grown men for gold and money. And it’s even more unimaginable for me to comprehend how a community is aware of it happening and says and do nothing about it. I’m not sure which one is worst: the mothers trafficking their daughters or a community turning a blind eye and remaining silent.
Editor, I didn’t go to Port Kaituma to look for sex trafficking. I went to Port Kaituma to visit Jonestown, a dark place in our nation history. I went to Jonestown to see where over 900 Americans died. What happened in 1978 at Jonestown was horrible and tragic, but what I witnessed presently happening at Port Kaituma is also tragic and horrifying.
At Port Kaituma, there is no movement to protect the little girls from sex trafficking. The girls are being destroyed physically, emotionally and sexually to get gold and money. Who is remembering them during their suffering and struggle? Who is caring for them? Who is providing for them?
Editor, I’ve been in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I’ve witnessed horrific, terrifying and frightening things so I’m not a person who gets shocked and heart- broken easily. However, watching underage girls being taken advantage of sexually just because they’re poor breaks my heart. How can men take advantage of little girls like this? And how can we as a community watch it happen and remain silent? Aren’t we suppose to be our brothers and sisters keeper? Do we not have a moral obligation to protect these girls? What if they were our daughters would we have remained silent?
Editor, what I witnessed in Port Kaituma, would remain forever etched within me. Wherever life takes me, a part of me would always remain in that Port Kaituma. I saw many little girls on a truck going in the mining fields; I saw them with their rucksack, so cumbersome, so heavy. I saw them and an immense tenderness sweeps over me. Never will their innocent smiles fade from my soul. Never will their glances cease to sear me.
Editor, recently President Granger promised to strengthen law enforcement in indigenous communities and bringing an end to the exploitation of people particularly in trafficking in person (TIP). In order to eradicate TIP, the president has to make some changes at the top. President Granger was elected on promises to root out corruption, but trafficking in person is still raging. Trafficking in person is a form of corruption. And to eliminate TIP, President Granger should replace the head of the police force with a new leader carefully vetted and selected on the basis of merit and not seniority.
Anthony Pantlitz

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