| Children of 2005 Buxton uprising.... |  |  |  |
| Written by Parvati Persaud-Edwards |
| Saturday, 16 June 2012 12:34 |
| Kidnapped and murdered fathers - Still hope their dads will return one day Through the corridors of time the expectation of beloved fathers and husbands walking through the door to pick up the threads of lives shattered seven years ago by their kidnap and presumable murder during the ‘Buxton Uprising’ has never waned.  A father who dreamt dreams for his son, Avinash, the birthday boy in the picture  Hardat and Avinash Businessmen lost their entire life’s work to looters/arsonists, and various ‘slo’ fiah, mo’ fiah strategies; and females of an ethnic persuasion were sexually molested in and out of their homes. The opposition has used this strategy to wrest power in the land throughout Guyana’s short history, even forcing a truncation of Mrs. Jagan’s term in office, and this continuity of mayhem and murder is their strategy of choice. But the agony does not only end with the cessation of the life of those murdered; but the victims expand to include children, wives, mothers, fathers, siblings, extended family members, all of whom never recover from the tragic loss of loved ones inflicted by the bestial perpetrators and the callous architects of the murderous and destructive forays in the country. In May and September of 2005 four GuySuCo workers disappeared in the Buxton backlands, never to be seen again. All that was left for their families were their bicycles and lunch bags.  Avinash and chandrika hardat They have attempted to put their shattered lives together, with scant success. Seven years ago Avinash Hardat was a happy, secure 16-year-old whose proud father, Hardat, exulted at his success at the CSEC exams and dreamt big dreams for his son, whom he planned to enrol at UG for the next semester to pursue both their dreams.  Loving couple: Hardat and his wife in happier times, on their wedding anniversary shortly before he disappeared. But that dream was thwarted when Hardat failed to return home from work on the morning of 24th Sept 2005. Avinash had accompanied his elder brother to the wharf to purchase fish when his worried sister-in-law, elder brother Chandrika’s wife called to tell them that their father had not returned home; but that Guysuco workers had found his abandoned bicycle and lunch bag at his work site. Hardat was a conscientious worker whose commitment to his job had earned him GuySuCo’s Champion Worker for two consecutive years; as well as a Medal of Service conferred on him by then President Hoyte; so everyone was fearful that something untoward had happened to him. That morning their pet dog had inexplicably died.  Hardat’s grieving wife and son today. Notice the woman’s haggard visage from the anniversary pix, taken seven years ago. Mrs. Hardat explained that, despite her husband knowing the hideouts and the members of the gangs, he never had the courage to inform anyone because he was warned that they had access to every information provided to the police, and that they were well protected by the police. He was instead forced to provide them with food and drink.  Mom Sherry with her grieving children immediately after their husband and father went missing. Once they took away his bicycle because they needed transportation to and from the Buxton backlands, forcing him to purchase another one. Until one day they threatened to kill him because he had told someone of his plight and somehow word had reached them. His terrified family begged him to give up the job, but he had dreams for his son and he needed a steady income to fulfill those dreams, plus he was committed to his job so he took the risk to continue working. Subsequent to his disappearance his teetotaller, very responsible elder son started drinking until today he is an uncontrollable alcoholic. Avinash was given a scholarship by the Government and was promised a stipend to enable him to attend UG, where he majored in med tech and did computer science as a minor. He did this for two years, but his brother’s condition became worse, his vibrant mother had gotten very ill, GuySuCo had long discontinued the financial assistance promised the bereaved families, and the stipend had ceased; so Avinash was forced to drop out and help his brother in his fish-vending business, subsequently accepting employment at Qualfon, a job he left to work at the Survival supermarket because of a slightly higher income. Avinash would love to continue his studies but he is sole support of his very ill mother and himself and has been forced into the kind of life that his father, who had provided Avinash with everything that he wanted, had swore would never be the fate of his adored younger son.  The grief is still palpable seven years later. This was also the fate of the children of Hardat’s former partner, Sookram (Rohit) Dhanai, who had also disappeared when Hardat did. Dhanai’s wife, Padmawattie (called Sherry), said that despite former Minister of Social Services Priya Manickchand instructing that the children of the four GuySuCo victims be given Public Assistance until they reach eighteen, the service was discontinued when eldest daughter, Shelly was thirteen, and only son, Terry, was 14. Public Assistance was also discontinued for the youngest child, Sharon, whose education is being facilitated by the CIOG, until September of this year, when the Islamic Institute in Enmore closes its doors. After that it is hardly likely that Sherry would be able to continue sending her youngest daughter to school.  Chronicle captures a family’s despair one month after husband and father went missing Because Sherry could only find work as a maid in Providence on the East Bank of Demerara, which pays her $2,000 per day for a full day’s work and incurs transportation costs, she was forced to withdraw her two older children from school. She said that every time she tried to speak to the resource person in charge of Public Assistance in her area, the woman became highly-abusive, making her (Sherry) afraid to approach her After her father’s disappearance eldest daughter Shelly has fallen mysteriously ill, with severe bouts of headaches and other ailments, while for all these years Terry has been getting a ‘small piece’ while he learnt motor engineering. Despite now being very adept at this trade, Terry still earns a ‘small piece’, which he cannot complain about because of his lack of education and difficult circumstances.  Kamini and her daughters seven years later. Because Sherry could only find work as a maid in Georgetown, which incurs transportation costs, she was forced to withdraw her two older children from school. She said that every time she tried to speak to the resource person in charge of Public Assistance in her area, the woman became highly-abusive, making her (Sherry) afraid to approach her. At 6 am on 21st May 2005, in Enterprise Village on the East Coast of Demerara, young housewife Kamini Taranauth said goodbye to her husband, Guysuco employee Sampersaud Taranauth, as he left for work in the backlands of the neighbouring village, Buxton, during a very turbulent period in Guyana’s history. He never returned home, neither did another associate with whom he worked,.  Kamini and her husband in happier days Kamini became worried when her husband did not return home for lunch at midday, which he never failed to do, and she called her brother-in-law, Mr. Kamo Persaud, who, together with other Guysuco personnel, mounted a search for the missing man, with no success. Only his bicycle and breakfast bag were retrieved from the scene of his disappearance; but highly visible were drag marks leading into the bushes of the Buxton backdam. Kamini recalled that she stood on the street outside of her home that very afternoon and witnessed a huge fire aback of Buxton. Until today, because no body was found, there is no legal resolution to her plight and she is left alone to fend for her three little girls, who were ages five years, three years, and six months when their very loving and hard-working father, who always tended their needs, disappeared from their lives.  Father who had big dreams for his family, Mikeram and son Dharmo Sawh. The two older girls, Sunita and Elizabeth, still have memories of their father and are still anguished over his loss. When this newspaper ran an article on the 7th anniversary of their father’s disappearance, the two older girls cried bitterly, as did their mom. Little six-month-old Divya had cried inconsolably for months when her daddy failed day after day to come home, throw her up in the air, and play with her, even to feed and bathe her as he loved to do. Today she has no recollection of the loving and doting father whom she had adored. Mikeram Sawh was another loving father who went missing in May of 2005, and daughter Monica said that they saw the same huge fire aback of Buxton that Kamini saw, three days after their husbands and fathers went missing.  Doting grandfather, Mikeram Sawh with his grandchildren She is convinced that the fire was so huge that it was seen for miles around and that if the police had traced the fire they would have been able to see and/or rescue at least the bodies of her father and that of Taranauth. She fluctuates between the hope that he is really dead and cannot anymore suffer whatever tortures the criminals had inflicted on her adored father; and the hope that he will one day return home. Her brother Dharmo has parked a bus which was meant to be operated by himself and his father after the latter’s retirement. The family had urged Sawh to leave the job because of the dangers inherent during that critical time but he was hesitating to do so and lose his benefits when his retirement was due within a couple of year. The tears still flow copiously, and Jaswantie Sawh’s agony is still fresh and pours down her cheeks like a rivulet. Sawh was the most loving grandfather who spent all his spare time with his adored and adoring grandchildren; and little Vidya, who slept with him, still remembers her grandfather. She was inconsolable, like all the children of all the families. Everyone of the families had expressed that irrepressible hope – that their loved ones would one day walk back into their lives. No bodies; no benefits Unable to prove their husbands’ deaths because their bodies were never recovered, the wives of these victims were deprived of NIS and other benefits; and although GuySuCo and the NIS (National Insurance Scheme) stand on legal ground on this issue, these were circumstances out of the norm, and should have been exempted from the stipulated framework. However, one hopes now that the mandatory seven years have expired for the first two victims, with the families of the other two slated to receive their dues in September of this year, that their husbands would be declared legally dead and the women will receive all that was due them and their children, retroactive to seven years prior. And, given the travesty that often passes for justice, these four women should get legal counsel from some caring lawyer, who does not place money above human considerations, to ensure they receive their due. These women are simple, uneducated women who can only find jobs as maids. All of them said that the transition from beloved housewives who ran their own homes, for which their devoted husbands adequately provided, to cleaning other people’s homes was very painful and traumatic, as was leaving their children alone for the first time - rendering them, for all practical purposes, fatherless and motherless. Today, justice needs to be served to these bereaved families, and the children of these loving father finally receive the rights that their fathers have earned for them through, not just hard work, but with their lives. |
