-mother of jailed MV Barima captain in tearful plea for his release
Tempers flared yesterday outside President Irfaan Ali’s Model Village consultation in Melanie Damishana as angry residents remonstrated with police over barricades and there was a heated confrontation between government MP James Bond and APNU MP Terrence Campbell.
Tensions rose sharply after the consultation ended and Bond approached protesters gathered near the Melanie Nursery School. He was greeted by loud boos and chants of “shame on you”.
“This is my village,” Bond told the crowd.
Bond then confronted Campbell, telling him: “You look like a pussy,” and repeating, “You’re a pussy.”
Campbell responded: “You’re a house slave.”
The two men moved face-to-face as the verbal clash escalated, prompting bystanders, inclusive of APNU MP Saiku Andrews, to intervene and separate them. Protesters followed Bond as he left the area, continuing to boo and shout “shame on you”.
Earlier, the mother of MV Barima Captain Kevin Price wept bitterly as she appealed for her son’s release and questioned why the government was not accepting responsibility for the maritime disaster.
Price, she said, was both her family’s breadwinner and her caregiver as she underwent cancer treatment. She had attended the cancer institute for therapy yesterday morning—a journey for which Price would usually provide transportation before he was charged and remanded to prison on 73 counts of murder.
“What this government doing with my child?” she asked through tears. “What this government really doing? Why they don’t take the blame for themselves? Just because you poor, they try to take their eyes to pass people. Oh God.”
She said she last spoke to her son on Friday and could not believe that he had been imprisoned for performing his duties.
The atmosphere around the consultation was tense from early yesterday morning. Police placed barricades on streets surrounding the nursery school ahead of Ali’s arrival and questioned persons seeking to enter the area.
“Where are you going? Where are you from?” officers asked some of those approaching the barricades before telling them: “You can’t pass here.”
Residents reacted angrily, questioning why they were being barred from moving freely within their own village. Some said they lived only a few streets from the school but were prevented from reaching their homes.
The media was also initially prevented from passing the barricades. Approximately two hours later, after protesters insisted that residents wanted to attend the consultation, police allowed some persons, including members of the media, to proceed to the venue.
One woman was arrested after holding and shaking a barricade. She was taken to the Vigilance Police Station.
Electric bicycle
Police also seized an electric bicycle belonging to a man at the protest. Assistant Commissioner of Police Errol Watts informed the owner that he would have to produce the documents for the bicycle before it would be returned.
Attorney-at-law and PNCR member Ronald Daniels appealed to the police to return the bicycle, but it remained in their possession at the time.
The protest brought together residents, relatives of Price and representatives of APNU and We Invest in Nationhood (WIN). They demanded the release of Price and two other MV Barima crew members, along with the resignations of Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill and Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation Deodat Indar.
“Who must go?” one protester called.
“Edghill and Indar—and free Kevin and crew,” the crowd responded.
The demonstrators remained beyond the police barricades, chanting and displaying placards while the President and government officials met residents inside the school.
Buxton/Foulis Neighbourhood Democratic Council Chairman Walston Martins was also prevented from attending the consultation, although he said he and other councillors had been invited.
Martins told Kiskadee Watch that police initially allowed him beyond the barricade. He and several others stood outside the school compound while awaiting the President’s arrival, but officers subsequently ordered them to move behind the barricades.
Martins said he was positioned directly opposite the meeting venue when police began clearing residents from the area.
He said that the Chairman of the Region Four, Regional Democratic Council Clemsford Belgrave gestured to the police for him to be turned away.
“I see Mr Belgrave show the police like this with his hand to turn me away from entering the meeting,” Martins said. “And they were telling us that we need to go beyond the barricade and we can’t stay here.”
According to Martins, residents became angry when officers attempted to remove several women who had been allowed into the area. He said he intervened and informed the police that the women had permission to attend the meeting, but officers insisted that everyone leave.
“We were invited into this meeting because this Model Village that you’re talking about is within my jurisdiction,” he recalled telling them.
Martins said he explained that the meeting had not yet started and that the group was waiting to enter. He was nevertheless escorted behind the barricades.
“Just imagine, this is my jurisdiction and I’m not allowed to attend a meeting I am invited to,” he said loudly. “They escorted me beyond the barricades. I am the Chairman of the Buxton/Foulis NDC. If they are doing a Model Village, then I need to know what is happening.”
Martins said he planned to seek legal advice and possibly challenge the police action in court, contending that laws governed the conduct of such public meetings.
Divert attention
He described the outreach by the President and ministers as an attempt to divert attention from the MV Barima disaster. The objectives of the protest, he said, were the release of the three crew members, compensation for affected families and the resignations of Edghill and Indar.
Price, 40, of Melanie Damishana; Chief Mate Rondell Dwayne Roberts, 42, of Meadow Grove Public Road, East Bank Demerara; and Goods Superintendent Delon Granderson, 33, of Fellowship, West Coast Demerara, have been charged with murder in connection with the deaths arising from the July 18 capsizing of the MV Barima.
The three men have been remanded to prison.
Ali’s meeting in Melanie was one of a series of consultations being held across the country on the government’s Model Village Initiative. Residents admitted to the meeting were invited to comment on proposals for roads, drainage, walkways, lighting, public spaces and other community improvements.
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