The Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Lindo Creek massacre which was scheduled for Monday, February 19 was again postponed.
The initial public hearing was postponed last Thursday when Commissioner, Justice (ret’d) Donald Trotman reported that there were some internal prerequisites and logistical issues that caused the postponement.
When reporters turned up at the Ministry of the Presidency’s Department of Citizenship in Waterloo Street, Georgetown, they were informed that all public hearings were “postponed until further notice.”
When asked why, the Commission’s Public Relations Department related that the initial reason remains valid.
This publication was informed that the lack of willingness on the part of witnesses to come forward is being blamed for the delay to commence the public hearing.
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.
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 People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has expressed skepticism about participating in this CoI, highlighting that it was constituted along along partisan lines, with the sole Commissioner being the father of, Government Minister and Leader of the AFC, Raphael Trotman.
President Granger has described Lindo Creek as a “massacre of the innocent”, saying 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 PPP/C had even said that the inquiry should have started from the 1998 period.
