State duty-bound to ensure independent int’l probe of West Berbice murders - APNU+AFC

The main opposition APNU+AFC yesterday pressed for an independent, international investigation into the killings of West Coast Berbice (WCB) youths Isaiah and Joel Henry and Haresh Singh, while saying that state is duty-bound to deliver.

“The Henry families deserve justice and no stone must be left unturned and no affect must be spared in ensuring that justice is delivered,” the party said in a statement issued yesterday, while adding that the families of the teens have reported that the investigative team is refusing to answer their telephone calls.

The teenaged cousins and Singh were almost two months ago and the Guyana Police Force ( GPF) has been under immense pressure to find their killers.

Recently, after DNA samples which were sent to St. Lucia for analysis were returned to the GPF.

Stabroek News was reliably informed that the results were submitted to the police for official review on Wednesday.

The findings are unknown and authorities, including the police, remain silent.

Asked by Stabroek News yesterday whether the findings will be made public, GPF spokesman Assistant Commissioner Royston Andries-Junor said that this will be done in “due course”.

Late last month, President Irfaan Ali had announced that forensic evidence obtained by the police in the murders of the teenagers was sent to St. Lucia for testing.

The police had previously said that DNA samples collected from the suspects who were arrested for questioning in relation to the murders were sent for a comparative analysis to be conducted against the forensic evidence collected from the secondary crime scene.

Isaiah, 16, a student at the Woodley Park Secondary School, 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.

After they did not return home, relatives lodged a missing-persons report with the police and subsequently launched a search. It was while searching that the bodies of the teens were discovered. The discovery of the bodies sparked days of unrest in West Berbice.

Autopsies performed on the bodies of the teenagers showed that they both died from haemorrhage and shock due to multiple wounds.

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

Ali then took a decision to request assistance from the Caribbean Community’s Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (CARICOM IMPACS) and the Regional Security System (RSS) after dozens of ranks combed the backlands of No. 2 and No. 3 villages, WCB and

found nothing of “evidential” value for the investigation into the murders.

Earlier this week, Ali told the media that the RSS team that visited to aid in the investigation recommended additional work be done.

The police had announced that a second team were scheduled to arrive here from Argentina to assist with the probe.

In its statement, APNU+AFC yesterday claimed that it has recently received “credible” information that Ali has “refused” for the state to stand the cost for the team visit.

The cost for the visit, according to the coalition, amounts to approximately US$35,000.

“The ANPU+AFC coalition demands independent, international investigations into the killings of Isiah and Joel Henry and Haresh Singh and that the state does not withhold its duty-bound support in this regard,” the coalition said.

The claim prompted a response by the government, which said it has already promised a Commission of Inquiry into the killings and that the conduct of both Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon and the APNU+AFC will be the subject of scrutiny.