AT LEAST 15 Guyanese nationals are missing and feared dead following the terrorist attacks on the famed twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center (WTC) and the Pentagon in Washington DC last Tuesday.

As the number of people believed buried beneath 450,000 tons of World Trade Center rubble approached 5,000, New York officials vowed yesterday to carry on the search for survivors, three days after anyone was last pulled out alive.

Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Rudy Insanally, yesterday told the Chronicle that based on information he has received so far from Guyana’s Consul General in New York Mr. Brentol Evans, those Guyanese missing are:

Ronald Singh and his sister Kamini Singh, who both worked in a restaurant on the 107th floor of the WTC;

Shiv Shankar of Richmond Hill;

Anette Dataram, of South Ozone Park, New York who worked as an Accountant at the WTC on 107th Floor;

former Guyana middle order batsman, Nizam Hafiz, who also worked on the 107th floor;

Patrick Adams, a former Guyana Defence Force officer and John Charles who worked as Security Officers at a Japanese Bank at the WTC;

Babita Guman and Sita Sewnarine who worked on the 97th Floor of the southern tower and were both seen on the ground floor, but have not been heard from since;

Joyce Stanton and Patricia Stanton.

It is also understood that Adams telephoned his wife and left a message for her on the answering machine, telling her that he was trapped in the WTC.

Navy Information Systems Technician, Kris Romeo Bishundat, 23, who is of Guyanese parentage, was stationed at the Pentagon when one of the four hijacked planes smashed into it. Bishundat resided in Maryland and relatives fear that he is dead.

Two other Guyanese, Gregory John and Shevonne Mentis, who worked in the twin towers of the WTC and were said to be in the buildings at the time of Tuesday’s gruesome tragedy are also missing.

Reports reaching the Chronicle late yesterday evening state that members of the Mentis family, both here and in the US, have given up hope of finding her alive and are preparing for a `wake’

John reportedly lived at David Street, Kitty, prior to migrating while Mentis, of 365 Marian Street, Brooklyn, New York, once lived at 167 Vryheid’s Lust, East Coast Demerara.

Ms. Hardai Parbhu, 42, who is originally from Lot 5, Area CC Ogle, East Coast Demerara, who resides in Bronx for the past 10 years, is also reported missing by relatives.

According to her brother, Kenneth Persaud, his sister, who was employed by AON Financial Group Inc. on the 100th Floor of the WTO, left for work on Tuesday morning but did not return.

Sources confirmed that hundreds of Guyanese and other Caribbean nationals worked in the World Trade Centre, with quite a number of them employed on the 107th Floor.

Despite this, news about the fate of Guyanese and other CARICOM nationals is sketchy, and this has been a source of concern for nearly all of the overseas-based Guyanese with whom this newspaper has spoken.

Also, five days after the attacks, relatives of missing Annette Dataram, also called Priya, a Guyanese from Patentia who worked as an Accountant at the World Trade Center, say they are now convinced she is dead.

Fighting desperately to hold up as he spoke with the Chronicle yesterday, her father Madan Rajkumar, a Field Foreman attached to GUYSUCO’s Wales Sugar Estate on the West Demerara, said there is now nothing to convince him that his daughter is alive.

“It’s been five days now, and my wife who is in New York has not even received a phone call from her (Priya). She is not the kind of person who would do that,” her father said.

But even worse, he said, was the fact that Priya had worked on the 107th floor, and the terrorists’ aircraft struck the building below that level, which means that there was no chance of survival for those who would have come crashing from the top.

Rajkumar said that ever since Tuesday’s harrowing events, his two sons, Robert, 21, and Anand 23, living with their mother and Priya in the United States, have been searching frantically for their sister.

“They checked at the site of the disaster and several hospitals as well. And now that my wife has begun to recover a little, she joined them in the search yesterday, but they found no trace of our darling, Priya,” he said.

Anette, 24, is the eldest of five siblings. She migrated to the US with her mother, Mahadai and two brothers about eight years ago, when she was just 16. She was planning to get married early next year.

Her other sister, Giada, 16, and brother Rommel, 14, are reported to have taken the news very badly.

Her mother was expected home on October 8, and her father, Dataram, was to join her on her return trip to New York to help finalise arrangements for the wedding.

It could not be ascertained whether her fiance had also given up hope, but her relatives in South Zone Park had begun keeping the traditional West Indian “wake”.

Back at home in Guyana, Rajkumar said he has already kept three nights of wake.

He is making arrangements to travel up to New York as soon as possible, to join his wife and sons.

Meanwhile, the Office of the President has advised that when Cabinet convenes for its weekly statutory meeting on Tuesday, September 18, one minute’s silence will be observed in memory of the victims.

President Jagdeo will be signing a book of condolence for the victims of the terrorist attacks at 10:00 hrs tomorrow at the United States Embassy.