Bandits terrorise remigrant couple on the Corentyne - but fail to enter home By Daniel DaCosta Stabroek News January 15, 2000 Three armed bandits on Thursday morning terrorised a remigrant couple at their Number 36 Village, Corentyne home for almost two hours, but failed to gain entry to the two-storey building because of reinforced doors and windows. The early morning attack followed an attempt by a lone bandit to enter the home on January 4. According to Radika Bedessee, at around 11:30 pm on January 4, she and her partner Kedar Maharaj were aroused by the sound of a window pane breaking on the first floor, which is about ten feet from the ground. "The next thing we knew, a man was attempting to enter the house from the verandah." Kedar, she said, used a cutlass and successfully prevented the man from gaining entry. According to the woman, who had lived in England for some 30 years, "the bandit then sprayed something at us which had a burning effect on my skin." A neighbour, who was awakened by the noise, fired a shot in the air which scared the bandit away. However, she said, the man returned at around 2:00 am and was again confronted by Maharaj who was injured during the ensuing struggle. Bedessee, who is a member of the recently established remigrant group, told Stabroek News that the incident was reported to the police at Number 51 Police Station and a description of the bandit given. "On January 6, a senior officer in New Amsterdam who I reported the matter to, instructed that the suspect should be held for questioning. To date the man has not been arrested, instead the police at Number 51 are now telling me that I should furnish them with the name of the suspect." The woman said she did not know the bandit's name, but was able to give a detailed description of him, because she had seen him before that in the village on more than one occasion. On Thursday morning at around 1:15 am, three men succeeded in opening a steel door to the garage and shattered the windscreen of her car with gun shots. "They then attempted to enter the house through the front door, but were foiled by the fact that it is made of steel," she said. The men then fired four shots through the front windows which she said passed through the rear of the building. According to Bedessee, the men were in the yard from around one until 3:00 am. The remigrant said she recognised the voice of one of the men as that of the lone bandit who had attempted to enter the house on the previous occasion. She said the second incident was also reported at the Number 51 Police Station and this time officers visited the scene and promised to return to take fingerprints. Bedessee was born at Number 36 Village and left for England in 1968. A © page from: Guyana: Land of Six Peoples