| Revelations in a New York court may have brought some relief to the lives of four East Coast Demerara families who for four years were anxiously awaiting definitive answers to the disappearance of their loved ones.US attorney Robert Simels told the court on Wednesday that an informant who was planted among the Buxton gang had reported that the headless bodies of sugar workers were removed by army personnel from the front and taken to the backlands of Buxton.While the names of the sugar workers were not mentioned during the testimony, the families of Maikhram Sawh, Sookram Dhanai, Sampersaud Taranauth and Hardat, called Joegee, are now convinced beyond a shadow of doubt that their loved ones are dead.Indeed there was some hope, though distant, that one day the men will surface and there will be a fairytale ending to the saga that began on May 21, 2005.On that day, Sampersaud Taranauth of Enterprise, and his colleague Maikhram Sawh of Non Pareil had left their homes for work in the backlands.At the end of the day when they did not return alarm bells began ringing since it was in the midst of a crime wave that had gripped Guyana with bands of marauding gunmen, mainly from the village of Buxton, roaming the East Demerara backlands.A massive search of the area where the men were working was launched by the Joint Services but after days it turned out to be unsuccessful.And just when things began to cool down, a few months later in September it was déjà vu. Two more sugar workers mysteriously disappeared under similar circumstances.This time they were two watchmen Sookram Dhanai and Hardat called Joegee.During the initial search for them, only their bicycles, lunch bags and a few personal belongings were recovered in their guard hut.Their disappearance also led to a massive combing of the Buxton backlands by hundreds of Joint Services personnel.Homes in the Buxton and neighbouring communities were also searched and again there was no trace of the men.For four years the families consoled each other and waited anxiously for any news of their fate.Speculation was also rife when another sugar worker who disappeared was later found hiding out in Suriname, after running away from a domestic dispute.Then there was the discovery of a set of human bones last year which to date investigators have been unable to identify, although they were ruled out as belonging to any of the missing sugar workers.But all the while, the families of the four missing sugar workers were quietly convinced that their fates were much more sinister.But yesterday when the revelations in the New York court was publicized, they resigned themselves to what they had suspected all these years and although they have no immediate way of confirming the information they appreciate the subtle closure it brought.Kamani Taranauth, a mother of four, had already resigned herself to that fate.As she remembered her husband, she could not hold back her tears.“From since he get kidnap, I know they killed him. But I had to still hope that he alive. Even his parents were hoping that he alive,” she told this newspaper yesterday.The reports coming out from the trial in New York have brought some vivid images of what might have happened to her husband.Padmattie Singh with two of her three children Vidya, nine and Ashley, 13.“He must be beg fuh he children and wife sake before them chop off he head,” she cried.One of her relatives recalled something that was seen on the day of his disappearance that may have provided them with a clue about Taranauth’s fate.“That afternoon when we look towards Buxton, we see thick black smoke coming from the backdam side. We think that they kill dem and burn dem in de backdam,” the relative said.There were reports that what appeared to be a burnt heap of old tyres was found in the Buxton backlands, however there were no bones.Padmattie Singh, wife of Sookram Dhanai, who was left to fend for her three children when her husband disappeared in September 2005, said that the revelations have brought her some amount of relief also.“I never give up. Me been pon half and half. Sometimes you think he go come home. Sometimes you think that he go come at de door and knock and we met face to face.Now we feeling like he nah go come back because of what we hearing now,” Singh said.She said that the wait has been agonizing since, the uncertainty about her husband’s fate has significantly affected the way she plans to move on with her life.“Which day me went fuh see fuh he NIS card and dey seh me can’t get it because he got to sign fuh it. So me tell de girl, if he nah deh how he go sign? She seh because he nah deh and me nah gat proof dat he dead, he could deh Suriname or anyway.“She tell me after seven years me can come back with some paper seh dat he die,” Singh said.“Even with this now, dem still go want fuh get proof dat he dead,” she added.Over at the home of Maikhram Sawh, his wife Jasmattie, broke into tears when his name was mentioned and she hardly wanted to speak about him.She too believes that her husband would not return home like in the fairy tales.Only recently the police, acting on a tip, searched the Buxton backlands for graves of missing persons,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys, shortly after the mysterious disappearance of an American who had visited the village.But should any graves be found, the expensive DNA testing will have to be employed to determine which belongs to whom.And of course that is a tedious exercise for the Guyanese authorities as is being witnessed with the Lindo Creek example. |
