Kidnapped hotel owner
Lethem police ask family to go to Boa Vista
Stabroek News
June 29, 2003
Family members of kidnapped hotel owner Mohamed Khan were yesterday asked by Lethem police to go to Brazil to view the body of a man found at around 4:00 pm some twenty kilometres from Boa Vista, in case it was that of their missing relative.
Sources told Stabroek News that the family members had left Lethem driving at around 6:00 pm, but up to press time there was still no news about the outcome of their journey.
Earlier yesterday members of a joint police/army team searching for the businessman were prevented from pursuing the trail into neighbouring Brazil because they lacked the requisite travel documents.
Stabroek News understands that the Federal Police of Brazil stopped their Guyanese counterparts from proceeding from Bom Fin (a border town near Lethem) to Boa Vista without visas.
“Up to today [Saturday] we were trying to go over, but they [Brazilian police] want documents,” a police source at Lethem said last evening.
The 49-year-old Khan, who is the President of the Rupununi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) and owner of the Savannah Inn Guest House in the Central Rupununi, was taken off a bus while travelling in the Portuguese-speaking territory last Sunday. His three abductors reportedly identified themselves as Brazilian law enforcers.
Eyewitnesses claimed that the businessman had joined a 52-seat bus at Bom Fin to Boa Vista and at Boa Vista, he caught another bus en route to Manaus. Khan reportedly joined the second bus at 10:00 am. Stabroek News understands that three men, dressed in what appeared to be police uniforms, pulled up next to the minibus in a white car and flagged it down.
They identified themselves to the driver as police officers and after asking Khan to open his bag, immediately ordered him to disembark from the vehicle, bundled him into the car and sped off in the direction of Boa Vista.
A release from the RCCI yesterday said, “At the time of Mohamed’s disappearance, he was going on a business trip, while simultaneously representing the RCCI at a business venture in Manaus, Brazil, which (if accepted) would have created business opportunities for the Rupununi and Guyana.”
The Chamber of Commerce condemned acts of criminality, and called on the Governments of Guyana and Brazil to hasten efforts to find Khan.
“The [RCCI] strongly condemns all acts of violent crimes and crimes in general which are detrimental to the political and economic development of our country. These acts of violence and crimes seem to be taking hold of our beautiful country and the region as a whole. We therefore call on every law-abiding citizen to be vigil[ilant] and to rise up against all crimes in an effort to eradicate those elements trying to destabilize and hamper the developmental process of all hard-working people,” the release stated.
The body described Khan as an ardent, honest, dedicated and astute businessman who was endeavouring to improve and enhance the good business relationship between Guyana and Brazil.
Meanwhile, the three Brazilians and one Guyanese arrested on Thursday were up to yesterday still being held by Brazilian police in Boa Vista. Local law enforcement told Stabroek News last night that the hunt for the man had continued yesterday and searches were done at remote areas, mostly ranches.
