Residents abandoning homes surrounding Buxton
-as gangs attack with impunity
By Nigel Williams
Stabroek News
January 21, 2003
Residents living near the villages of Buxton and Friend-ship are starting to abandon their homes preferring to dwell with relatives rather than endure almost daily attacks by marauding gangs.
On the Strathspey em-bankment more than 13 houses have been abandoned by residents who are fleeing repeated attacks by youths coming out of Buxton. Some cash crop farmers have been forced to leave their fields untended and seek refuge at the homes of their relatives deeper in the village or elsewhere.
When Stabroek News visited the area yesterday many recently abandoned homes were seen. They are now sealed with galvanised sheets and boards. Since the unrest which started last February a number of residents of Annandale have told this newspaper they were moving out. The villages have been under siege from bandits coming out of Buxton who continue to beat, rob and at times kill residents with impunity. The government and the joint services have made several pledges to step up security in the villages, but nothing has changed.
Yesterday was a rare day of peace for residents of Annandale, Strathspey, Vigilance and Bladen Hall.
Unlike the past four days when they were forced to keep vigil around the clock, yesterday some residents said that they were able to go about their daily lives with some amount of confidence because of the constant police and army patrols. Stabroek News toured some of the villages and reports coming out of Annandale indicated all was quiet. But residents were still apprehensive saying that when the criminals did not strike in the morning they would strike in the evening.
At least two army patrols were seen in the area yesterday and some of the businesses that had closed their doors and were doing business only at their gates were open. Across at Vigilance, villagers have succeeded in removing a number of bridges which were erected a year ago over a trench that separates Vigilance from Brusche Dam, Friendship. Most of the residents there were still uneasy and according to one man they never felt safe even when the police and soldiers were around.
“You see as soon as they gone, the bandits does come. Like these men studying de police and soldiers.” Many of the established businesses in the area have now put grills on their windows. At Strathspey, villagers were seen peering through their windows at any strange vehicle or individual which passed.
Non Pariel and Coldingen were calm and residents were comforted by the constant presence of the army and police.
From as early 6 am the police and army erected barricades on the Lusignan Public Road and were carrying out checks on vehicles and on individuals as part of Operation Saline Solution II. Yesterday’s operation continued throughout the day and up to late last evening the lawmen were still on the road. The operation was launched earlier this month by the Joint Services and is aimed at flushing out criminals from Buxton. On the first day of the operation, Police Constable Nankumar Mohabir was gunned down while on a patrol on Brusche Dam.
Things got worse later in the week when an Annandale teacher Jainarine Singh was fatally wounded in the head by a gang who had robbed a grocery.
Another businessman, Ralph Bassoo was killed on Sunday at Better Hope.
On Saturday, a large gang of teenage gunmen had raided several homes in Vigilance, holding guns to housewives’ heads and robbing them of jewellery and household items.
