GHRA hoping gov’t sees need to show needed steps taken to solve West Berbice murders

-as fundraising to bring Argentine team continues

Guyana Human Rights Association ( GHRA) Co- Chair Mike McCormack believes that the government should reassess its position on the participation of a forensic team from Argentina in the investigation of the murders of West Coast Berbice (WCB) teenagers Joel and Isaiah Henry and Haresh Singh.

“We are continuing with the hope that eventually they will recognise the usefulness of having this team here, not simply to ensure conviction or these sorts of things but also an approach to this problem is that even if it has not ended in conviction but ends with a contention that the government has taken all measures necessary, gone the extra mile, that will be more acceptable to the society,” McCormack told Stabroek News yesterday during a telephone interview.

McCormack said that if the murders are treated like any other, requiring only the local expertise available, then the full dimensions will be ignored.

“…If it not resolved in a way that most people find acceptable, then it remains like a wound that is not healed,” he said.

The GHRA has launched a fund-raising drive to cover the cost of bringing the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team ( Equipo Argentino de Antropologia Forensica-EAAF) here to aid the investigation. Up to yesterday, McCormack said, $1.7 million had been pledged. He said they are hoping to secure $4 million of the total $7 million needed, with the remainder being sponsored by the government.

According to McCormack, the GHRA is not taking cash from donors but is just asking them to pledge the sums they wish to donate so that if or when a decision is taken to have the team here, the funds will be ready.

The organisation’s approaches to the Home Affairs Ministry and the Human Services Ministry have so far been ignored.

However, on Monday Minister of

Home Affairs Robeson Benn practically ruled out having the forensic team here as he said the government does not intend to go beyond its “normal lines” of engagement in trying to solve the murders.

Isaiah, 16, and Joel, 18, who worked at the Blairmont Estate, went missing on Saturday, September 5, after they left home for the Cotton Tree backlands to pick coconuts. Their mutilated bodies were found the next day, triggering days of unrest in West Berbice.

Days after, Singh, was also murdered in what is believed to be a reprisal killing.

Since the killings, a number of arrests were made but to date no charge has been laid.

More than a week ago, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) had announced a $3 million reward offer for any informaiton leading to the arrest and prosecution of the person/s responsible for the crime.

Earlier this week, several persons were arrested for questioning. They have since been released.

Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum told Stabroek News that the arrests were made based on information provided as a result of the reward being offered.

After the police announced the reward offer, the family of the Henry cousins, through their attorney Nigel Hughes, had indicated that money would be better spent paying for the services of Argentine team.

The team’s offer to aid local authorities was announced a month ago via a joint statement from the GPF, the GHRA and the law firm Hughes, Fields & Stoby.

A joint statement on October 1st said the EAAF, which has worked on high profile cases in many parts of the world, offered to send a team to Guyana, including a forensic pathologist, a forensic anthropologist, a forensic radiologist and a criminologist.

The government had promised to leave no stone unturned in its efforts to bring whomever is responsible for the murders to justice.