Stabroek News
May 9, 2001

Allegations and complaints from contiguous East Coast Demerara villages - Enterprise and Bare Root - flew fast and furious yesterday afternoon as government and the Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica) council attempted to arrest the tensions between the two.

Prime Minister Sam Hinds, accompanied by Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Harripersaud Nokta, Region Four Chairman Allan Munroe and Vice-Chairman Lachman Sammy visited both villages yesterday afternoon.

Following the concerns expressed at Bare Root, the Prime Minister asked the people to name three residents of their community who would represent them at meetings with Nokta and Munroe to sort out problems of infrastructure and social services in the community.

The community has no potable water, electricity or good roads, though at present plans are in train to build a nursery school there.

Generally, all appeared to be quiet in the other communities including Buxton, which has been the central point of recent protest actions including fiery road blockades. Armed police were very conspicuous on the Buxton Public Road - sitting on the rails of the bridge in the vicinity of Company Road and another group taking a shade from the sun under the awnings of a stall by the roadside.

The police were also evident along the coast on foot and a truckload was seen in Enterprise during the Prime Minister's visit.

Soldiers on foot were seen at Haslington coming out of the back lands.

Residents at Enterprise and Enmore said they felt safer knowing that the police were around. But in spite of the police and army's presence along the coast, residents of both Enterprise and Bare Root said that they were not sleeping well and were keeping vigil each night to guard their properties.

Meanwhile, attendance at schools from Enmore to Lusignan was reported to be poor. Stabroek News visited Enmore/Hope Primary where it was reported that classes were suspended on Monday. Parents had collected their children from the school after there were rumours of disturbances spreading to the area from the lower east coast. Parents also did not allow their children attending schools outside Enterprise to go to school.





Prime Minister Sam Hinds (second from right) in Enterprise yesterday speaking with some mini-bus operators who have had to cut back their service because of the current tensions on the East Coast Demerara. (Photo by Ken Moore)



Yesterday no child attended the Enterprise Nursery though the teachers were in attendance and many residents in Enterprise kept their children at home following rumours on Monday that persons were going to burn down the school.

Schoolchildren in Enterprise and in Bare Root related to the Prime Minister, the trauma they experienced when their angry and fearful parents converged on the Enterprise Primary and Nursery schools on Monday to take them home. The call for transfers and applications for same by some parents in Bare Root, who said they no longer wanted their children to attend school in Enterprise, provided further evidence of the tension. However, Munroe has advised that the transfers be put on hold with a view to resolving the issues.

Initially there had been talks between leaders of the two communities to normalise relations but these talks fell through. Stabroek News could not verify the reason for this, but one of the leaders of Enterprise said that the response from Bare Root/Bachelor's Adventure was not encouraging. However, they have still indicated a willingness to talk.

Residents of Bare Root claimed that members of the Enterprise Community Policing Group would constantly fire shots into their community sending people diving for cover. They said that the shots were fired constantly, even before the elections and they finally decided they would not take it any more.

Initially they said that they took the "eye pass" because some 125 children from Bare Root/Bachelor's Adventure attend school in the area and in addition they did their shopping in the shops and market at Enterprise. But some residents have now begun building stalls for vending on the government reserve along the Railway Embankment Road in Bachelor's Adventure. They said they began their own market after they were told that those who supplied them with food from Enterprise would poison them. Munroe confirmed that initially, those building stalls on the government reserve were granted permission by the local authority.

The tensions between the two communities heightened following the March 19 elections when protest actions were taken by residents of Buxton and other East Coast Demerara villages claiming disenfranchisement, marginalisation and discrimination. The protest actions along the coast coincided with the beating of two elections workers (one a resident of Enterprise) in Buxton after they had gone to remove polling materials from the area.

The tensions had eased somewhat, but surfaced again on Sunday evening following the discovery of three bodies - two residents of Enterprise and another of Non Pariel - in the east coast back lands.

The police said in a press release that the bodies of the two from Enterprise a father, Bemchand Barran and his ten-year-old son, Mervyn were found in Enterprise backdam; the third person, Dhanpaul Jagdeo, was found at Lusignan. However, Jagdeo's father-in-law said that his son-in-law - whose body he identified at the spot where it was found - never got to Lusignan or past Annandale south east.

While Hinds tried to tell some persons that investigations are continuing into the deaths of the three, there was a firm belief by many in Enterprise that they were murdered because of their ethnicity.

When Hinds visited Enterprise and Bare Root yesterday, he appealed to residents of both communities to try to live peacefully with each other so as to get on with the process of nation-building. He entered Bare Root from the back of the village and the people who were waiting on the Embankment road to meet him walked down in a large group. After venting their grievances and anger they followed him back to the main road where they saw him off.