Revelations in a New York court may have brought
some relief to the lives of four East Coast Demerara
families who for four years were anxiously awaiting
definitive answers to the disappearance of their loved
ones.
Kidnapped sugar
workers (cane cutters)
(David Clarke,
Gordon Benn and Edward
Collins were involved
in removing of the decapitated
bodies of slain
cane cutters)
US attorney Robert Simels told the court on Wednesday
that an informant who was planted among the Buxton
gang had reported that the headless bodies of sugar
workers were removed by army personnel from the front
and taken to the backlands of Buxton.
While the names of the sugar workers were not
mentioned during the testimony, the families of
Maikhram Sawh, Sookram Dhanai, Sampersaud Taranauth
and Hardat, called Joegee, are now convinced beyond a
shadow of doubt that their loved ones are dead.
Spy-equipment-Greene
David-Clarke-Jagdeo
Indeed there was some hope, though distant, that one
day the men will surface and there will be a fairytale
ending to the saga that began on May 21, 2005.
On that day, Sampersaud
Taranauth of Enterprise, and his colleague Maikhram
Sawh of Non Pareil had left their homes
for work in the backlands.
At the end of the day when they did not return alarm
bells began ringing since it was in the midst of a
crime wave that had gripped Guyana with bands of
marauding gunmen, mainly from the village of Buxton,
roaming the East Demerara backlands.
A massive search of the area where the men were
working was launched by the Joint Services but after
days it turned out to be unsuccessful.
And just when things began to cool down, a few months
later in September it was déjà vu. Two more sugar
workers mysteriously disappeared under similar
circumstances.
This time they were two watchmen Sookram
Dhanai and Hardat called Joegee.
During the initial search for them, only their
bicycles, lunch bags and a few personal belongings
were recovered in their guard hut.
Their disappearance also led to a massive combing of
the Buxton backlands by hundreds of Joint Services
personnel.
Homes in the Buxton and neighbouring communities were
also searched and again there was no trace of the men.
For four years the families consoled each other and
waited anxiously for any news of their fate.
Speculation was also rife when another sugar worker
who disappeared was later found hiding out in
Suriname, after running away from a domestic dispute.
Then there was the discovery of a set of human bones
last year which to date investigators have been unable
to identify, although they were ruled out as belonging
to any of the missing sugar workers.
But all the while, the families of the four missing
sugar workers were quietly convinced that their fates
were much more sinister.
But yesterday when the revelations in the New York
court was publicized, they resigned themselves to what
they had suspected all these years and although they
have no immediate way of confirming the information
they appreciate the subtle closure it brought.
Kamani Taranauth, a mother of four, had already
resigned herself to that fate.
As she remembered her husband, she could not hold back
her tears.
“From since he get kidnap, I know they killed him.
But I had to still hope that he alive. Even his
parents were hoping that he alive,” she told this
newspaper yesterday.
The reports coming out from the trial in New York have
brought some vivid images of what might have happened
to her husband.
Padmattie
Singh with two of her three children Vidya, nine and
Ashley, 13.
“He must be beg fuh he children and wife sake
before them chop off he head,” she cried.
One of her relatives recalled something that was seen
on the day of his disappearance that may have provided
them with a clue about Taranauth’s fate.
“That afternoon when we look towards Buxton, we see
thick black smoke coming from the backdam side. We
think that they kill dem and burn dem in de backdam,”
the relative said.
There were reports that what appeared to be a burnt
heap of old tyres was found in the Buxton backlands,
however there were no bones.
Padmattie Singh, wife of Sookram Dhanai, who was left
to fend for her three children when her husband
disappeared in September 2005, said that the
revelations have brought her some amount of relief
also.
“I never give up. Me been pon half and half.
Sometimes you think he go come home. Sometimes you
think that he go come at de door and knock and we met
face to face.
Now we feeling like he nah go come back because of
what we hearing now,” Singh said.
She said that the wait has been agonizing since, the
uncertainty about her husband’s fate has
significantly affected the way she plans to move on
with her life.
“Which day me went fuh see fuh he NIS card and dey
seh me can’t get it because he got to sign fuh it.
So me tell de girl, if he nah deh how he go sign? She
seh because he nah deh and me nah gat proof dat he
dead, he could deh Suriname or anyway.
“She tell me after seven years me can come back with
some paper seh dat he die,” Singh said.
“Even with this now, dem still go want fuh get proof
dat he dead,” she added.
Over at the home of Maikhram Sawh, his wife Jasmattie,
broke into tears when his name was mentioned and she
hardly wanted to speak about him.
She too believes that her husband would not return
home like in the fairy tales.
Only recently the police, acting on a tip, searched
the Buxton backlands for graves of missing persons,
shortly after the mysterious disappearance of an
American who had visited the village.
But should any graves be found, the expensive DNA
testing will have to be employed to determine which
belongs to whom.
And of course that is a tedious exercise for the
Guyanese authorities as is being witnessed with the
Lindo Creek example.
Friday,
August 07, 2009
