Witnesses dodge Lindo Creek CoI’s first public hearing

…hearing postponed due to poor planning, logistics

The first round of public hearings for the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Lindo Creek massacre was postponed due to logistical issues and the unavailability of witnesses on Thursday.
One hour after the scheduled time for the start of the first public hearing, the lone Commissioner, retired Justice Donald Trotman, announced that the hearing would be cancelled for the day.
Trotman appeared before the media to inform journalists of the postponement, and

said it was beyond the control of the Commission and its staff.
“We were expecting relatives of the deceased whose deaths are being inquired into at Lindo Creek, but some of them have been unable to come. Some may arrive late, and the uncertainty of their presence is one of the factors that would make the hearing impossible,” Trotman said.
He did not share the opinion that the unavailability of witnesses is because of their reluctance to testify, but he informed the media that other “prerequisite arrangements” for the functioning of the Commission have not been put in place, and until such time, no public inquires would be done.
These “prerequisite arrangements” were described as internal matters. When questioned to define these arrangements, Trotman said, “We would not wish to have them announced at this stage.”
Trotman hinted that the hearing may be fixed for next Monday.
The Lindo Creek CoI is the first of what the coalition Government has said would be a series of inquiries into the hundreds of killings which occurred during a crime wave that began in 2002.
The CoI, established two weeks ago, will inquire into the circumstances surrounding the killings of eight miners, and to report its findings and recommendations to President David Granger.
Sometime between June 12, 2008 and June 24, 2008, miners Cecil Arokium, Dax Arokium, Compton Speirs, Horace Drakes, Clifton Wong, Lancelot Lee, Bonny Harry and Nigel Torres were shot and killed, and their bodies burnt at the Upper Berbice River mining camp which was being operated by Leonard Arokium.
The Lindo Creek massacre, which has been dubbed a “kangaroo commission”, is being headed by Justice Trotman, 80, who is the lone commissioner selected for the job.
President Granger has described Lindo Creek as a “massacre of the innocent”, saying that his Government believed the way the investigation was handled indicated that there was a high level of collusion. He had also rejected suggestions to extend the CoI’s focus to several years before 2008, when other major criminal activities had plagued the country.
The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has expressed scepticism about participating in this CoI and supporting the work of the Commission, as the Party believes that given the manner in which the CoI was dragged and constituted, and the commentary from senior Government officials, it is designed to achieve a political outcome and continue the Government’s programme of witch-hunting Opposition personalities.
That party has also highlighted that the Commission was set up along partisan lines.
The PPP has said that, given the nature of the Commission’s establishment and the decision to start an inquiry with the incidents at Lindo Creek, as opposed to a more comprehensive review of the crime wave, the Party would find it difficult to participate in any of the events.
The PPP/C has even said that the inquiry should have started from the period 1998, when the real wave of ethno-political violence commenced. The PPP/C thinks this would assist in addressing the root cause of the violence.
The CoI hearings were set to take place at the Ministry of the Presidency’s Department of Public Service on Waterloo Street, Georgetown. According to reports, another set of public hearings is set from February 19 to 22. The hearings will commence from 09:00h and end at 16:00h.