By Paras Ramoutar, IANS
Port-of-Spain (Trinidad) : Guyanese of Indian origin are living in a state of siege and shock ever since the weekend massacre of 12 people, including five children, in neighbouring Guyana’s Lusignan village which mostly comprises ethnic Indians.
The ethnic Indian community has launched protests, condemning the government for failing to offer them safety and security.
Swami Akshananda, vice-chairman of the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO) and a Hindu missionary, told IANS that while the Indo-Guyanese “treat the massacre as a serious, deliberate attack on us, the government led by President Bharat Jagdeo has viewed it as an isolated case. But that is not so, certainly not so”.
He said: “Despite this brutal assassination of five school children and seven adults, no concrete assurance has been forthcoming from the government as the state of the alleged murderer, or what new emergency security plans are being programmed to give assurance that the Guyanese government was on top of the murders.”
The murders occurred Saturday in Lusignan, over 15 km from Guyana’s capital Georgetown, in which a group of gunmen attacked five houses, opening the doors and shooting people indiscriminately.
Guyanese news reports quoted a survivor, who said she was lucky not to be killed when the gunmen stormed her home and wiped out her family.
“My husband didn’t open the door so they just started shooting the house. The men then kicked down the door and lined up my husband and our children and fired several shots. The gunmen mercilessly just watched them and shot to kill,” she said with tears streaming down.
Police said that there were bullet holes in the modest home – an indication that the victims were made to lie on the floor before being shot in their heads.
In a next-door home, a boy lay dead with his back facing the bedroom wall, while his mother was shot dead while trying to crawl below the bed. Another boy, aged four, lay dead hugging his mother’s nightgown.
Other residents were asleep when the gunmen confronted them at their homes.
Guyana’s security forces have launched a national manhunt for the ‘wanted’ Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins, whom they believe could be linked to the crime. Rawlins belongs to the Buxton community, dominated by Guyanese Blacks.
The community is known as the hotbed for racial strife, killings and protests against the Indian-led government.
Rawlins last week allegedly threatened mayhem if the Georgetown Criminal Investigations Department (CID) failed to find his pregnant 19-year-old girlfriend, who has gone missing.
Swami Akshananda said President Jagdeo along with some ministers had visited the affected area and “just” promised government support – the costs of all funeral arrangements would be taken care of.
The Lusigan community, inhabited mostly by East Indians, is a small farming hamlet on Guyana’s East Coast and fully supports the incumbent People’s Progressive Party/Civic government.
Over 300 villagers closed the main street in the community and burnt tyres, refrigerators and other appliances to protest the killings. They also planned the formation of vigilante groups.
“We want justice. Government can’t protect us! We want more police,” they yelled.
Swami Akshananda feels this attack on East Indians would give an additional stimulus to their quest to emigrate from Guyana.
“Guyanese have been emigrating for several years now, since the 1960’s when there was political turmoil. It never stopped, but continued slowly. This event will regenerate into a new mass exodus. They move and settled illegally mainly in Toronto and New York and remain indefinitely with any valid immigration status,” he said.
Guyana shot to International prominence in 1978 When notorious American cult leader Jim Jones exhorted 912 of his followers to drink cyanide-laced with grape punch.
“The Jim Jones murder is different to the Saturday killings. It is an attack on the people of East Indian descent,” the Swami added.
Guyana’s 760,000 population is almost evenly split between the ethnic Indian and ethnic African communities. Most of the Indians are descendants of indentured labour brought here by the British to work on the sugar plantations.