Guyana’s air and river transport disasters

…volumes of ‘cold cases’ as families still seek closure

Guyana compared to the rest of the countries in South America is small in size and in comparison to its sister Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries has a negligible transportation air and sea fleet. But it’s not without its fair share of air and river disasters.

In 2009 Prometheus Resources Guyana had a plane conducting aerial surveys as part of a mineral mapping programme.

That plane has disappeared along with its crew and despite valiant searches is yet to be found.
The following year the ‘Captain Sunil’ went down with its crewmembers in the Atlantic.
They included, 44-year-old Teserdeen Lochan, called ‘Paulin’ of Lot 70 Madewini, and brothers, Jairam Surujpaul, 42, and ‘Foman’ Surujpaul, of Lot Five Bladen Hall, East Coast Demerara.
Fortunately, the crew on this vessel was discovered two weeks later some 123 nautical miles from the location where the boat was believed to have met its ill fate.

The GDF Coast Guard had played an instrumental role in rescuing the fisherman.
In 2009, the cargo vessel, ‘Island Princess,’ and its crew went missing.
The bodies of its captain, Titus Buckley Nascimento, 46, and the engineer, 25-year-old engineer Mahendra Singh, were found at Zeelandia, Wakenaam, and on the Hamburg Island seashore respectively.

A third body, identified as that of 23-year-old Ryan Chin, was found near the Queenstown, Essequibo foreshore.

All the bodies were degutted and bore bullet wounds. Still missing is 46-year-old crewman Rickford Bannister.

The vessel was found some time later off the cost of Grenada.
Piracy has also been one of the key problems facing local fishermen with dozens being murdered while at sea.

The bullet-riddled bodies of the slain have washed up from as far away as the Pomeroon to the Corentyne.
Some of the victims have never been found and most of the perpetrators remain at large and seem not to be fazed by the July 2008 introduction of the Hijacking and Piracy Bill that prescribes the death penalty.

On October 12, 2007, a fishing trawler, the Captain Jewel, with its six-man crew, departed from the Meadowbank wharf, with the intention of fishing between Guyana and Suriname.
But after setting sail, the vessel and crew disappeared.

In late October, the decomposed bodies of three of the crew were found in the Corentyne River.
It was clear that they had been murdered, since two of the dead men were bound hands and feet.
The victims were identified as Patrick Parboo, 20, the captain, Mahendra Gangadin, called ‘Bready’ of Annandale Sand Reef, both of East Coast Demerara and 29-year-old Mark Sylvester Persram, called ‘Buddy’ of Good Hope, East Coast Demerara.

Still missing are the captain’s 20-year-old brother, Navinda Gangadin, called ‘Dar’, Davindra Persaud, 21 and Christopher Rooplall, 20.
The ill-fated Captain Jewel has never been found.
In December 2007, the bodies of three Guyanese men, Paul Da Silva, Rudolph Da Silva and Junior Gomez, were found in Suriname after they had left for a trip to Venezuela, where they had operated a passenger boat service earlier that month.
The killers were never identified.

In March, 2009, the bullet-riddled bodies of Romeo De Agrella, 41, and his son, Clint De Agrella, 21, of Grant Hope, Pomeroon, were found at Shell Beach in the Barima-Waini Region.
Their boat, which also bore bullet holes, was also found, but the vessel’s 250 hp engine was missing.

The two men were reportedly slain while heading home from a trip to Venezuela.
Romeo De Agrella was the uncle of Rudolph Da Silva, one of the three men who turned up dead in Suriname waters in 2007.

According to local police officials, the killings were believed to be drug-related.
Police have since charged Jerome Parkes, a 24-year-old dredge owner of the Lower Pomeroon, Tyrone Da Silva and Lloyd Roberts with the murder of the De Agrellas.

In June, 2009, Fazal Hoosain, a well-known businessman from Number 69 Village, Corentyne, was travelling with other passengers in a Suriname ‘back-track’ vessel when five masked men with rifles and handguns approached.

After firing warning shots to force the passenger boat to stop, some of the gunmen boarded the boat, disabled its engine and relieved the passengers of their cell phones.
They then forced Hoosain, who was reportedly carrying millions in cash, to accompany them in their boat. Hours later, the crew of a fishing vessel found Hoosain’s bound and battered body in the Corentyne River.

Police detained three men for Hoosain’s murder, but they were never charged.
On August 11, 2009, Jainarine Dinanauth, his 10-year-old son Ricky, and boat captain Henry Gibson were heading to Hogg Island when their boat was reportedly struck by another vessel.
Dinanauth and Gibson’s bodies were found drifting in the damaged boat just off the eastern side of Hog Island.

However, ten-year-old Ricky Dinanauth’s body has not been found.
There is suspicion that their vessel was rammed by a Coast Guard vessel. Green paint that was suspected to have come from a Coast Guard vessel of similar colour was also found on the wreck.
That suspicion escalated when three Coast Guard ranks were implicated in the abduction and murder of 24-year-old Bartica resident Dweive Kant Ramdass.

On August 20, 2009, Ramdass, who was employed with a gold and diamond buyer, was travelling to Bartica with $17M in cash for his employer when the ranks allegedly took him off the vessel in the vicinity of the Parika Stelling. After relieving their victim of the cash, the Coast Guard ranks allegedly killed Ramdass and dumped him in the Bonasika Creek.
The Guyana Defence Force subsequently mounted an investigation into the possible involvement of Coast Guard ranks and the Hog Island crash.

However, the army has since stated that its findings were inconclusive, while the Guyana Police Force is still to complete forensic tests on the two vessels.

3 March 2012

http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/03/03/guyana%E2%80%99s-air-and-river-transport-disasters/