The killing fields of Guyana

Jun 03, 2018 Features / Columnists, My Column

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Eighteen years ago, a man hacked another because the other man objected to the relationship the assailant shared with his daughter. The assailant went even further; he hacked three dogs then he fled the jurisdiction.
Reports are that he went to Venezuela. His relatives were aware of his whereabouts but as the saying goes, blood is thicker than water. They kept the assailant’s whereabouts secret. Nearly two decades were to elapse before the local police could arrest this man.
There have been many such instances, but I cannot recall a case where a killer in Guyana was able to escape justice for such a long time.
Indeed there are other fugitives from justice. There was the man who killed his wife at Blankenburg then picked up their child and headed east to Suriname. He is still at large and is showing no intention of returning home.
Sometime later I met one of his relatives, who said to me that she helped send money to him. I asked her whether she did not feel guilty and from appearances, she did not.
There was another man who killed his mother-in-law in Stewartville and fled. To the best of my knowledge, he was arrested after some time.
Then there was the man who killed his estranged wife when she was with another man with whom she had started a relationship. This was a horrible act, because the man managed to flee, but the killer’s son was at the scene and he held on to the man until his father arrived to kill him. They are both awaiting the decision of the court.
These are all cases of the work that the police must do in the face of a lack of support from the wider society. They were able to effect arrests because the very society has people who want to see justice done.
There is the other case of the rich fellow who is languishing in a New York prison awaiting extradition to Guyana. Local lawyers have been teaming up with their counterparts in the United States to avoid this man being brought to justice.
The reverse is being played out in Guyana. A man is alleged to have killed another Guyanese in the United States and fled to Guyana where he hid for a number of years until his hiding place was exposed. As is the case with the man in the United States, there is a challenge here to avoid extradition.
This case is of interest, because the local laws allow for Guyana to prosecute this American because he killed a Guyanese, albeit in another country. I am not sure why this line is not being pursued. There was a soldier who killed a colleague when a team of soldiers was sent overseas on one of the hurricane relief efforts. Then again, it might have been a mission to Haiti in the wake of the devastating hurricane there.
He came home to be court martialed and he is currently serving his time in a prison at Camp Ayanganna.
These are killings that expose the base nature of some people in the society. It would seem that they have no regard for human life, so they commit the most deadly sin according to the Christian teachings.
It is not that such killings are unique to Guyana. They occur in just about every country, but less in some than in Guyana.
There is the view that the absence of the death penalty is prompting people to become extremely violent. Killers are happy to spend some time in jail, because they also have little value for their freedom.
However, one judge seems bent on making killers pay. He sends them to jail for a very long time. He actually said to me that killers should not be allowed to live among decent people in the society, and I agree with him.
I know killers who are now dying to get out. They are fed up with being in jail. They talk about developing illnesses; about wanting to see relatives and to walk the streets again. Stiff jail sentences do work.
For those serving long sentences, going to the hospital is a treat. They enjoy the chance to go outside the prison walls, if only for a brief period.
There was Sherene Khan who organized the killing of a girl in Canje. She was handed the death sentence and while she never mounted the gallows, she died in prison. One of her wishes was to see her grandchildren, if even once. She spent her last days trying to imagine what it would have been like to live with them.
And so I return to the killer who remained at large for eighteen years. He went to Venezuela, but came back home when difficult times befell that country. I can imagine the decision he had to make. It was a case of living a life of suffering. He chose to come home where he thought he would live unrecognized.
The witnesses are alive, and while the events may be clouded, they would remember enough to send the man to jail. I am sorry that I cannot say to the gallows.
Man’s brutality knows no bounds. Friends sit over a drink and somebody is killed. People get into simple arguments and somebody ends up dead. I have not mentioned the gunmen who go after hapless victims and kill them.
It is as if parents are not doing a good job bringing up their children. I was at my aunt’s funeral on Thursday when the pastor spoke about the declining church population. He noted that women make up the bulk of the population and it’s a fact that they are less likely to go about killing people.
Indeed there was the woman who strangled her drunk husband.
Can the society do something about the killings? I do think so, but then again, with declining academic standards in some communities and with the lawlessness that prevails, there will always be murders.
Yet I hope that what passes in Jamaica and Trinidad does not come to Guyana. Our policemen already have too much on their hands.

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