Residents say Bartica is drug gateway to interior
President promises action
Stabroek News
April 18, 2004
President Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday promised Barticians that the burgeoning drug problem in their community would be stamped out.
Bartica is said to be a major transshipment point for narcotics to the interior and residents want the Guyana Police Force to step up patrols in the area.
Speaking to this newspaper on Thursday, residents said drug traffickers, who usually arrived at Bartica on speedboats and larger vessels, were not subjected to any searches by police officers. One resident said the situation had become more serious as marijuana and cocaine were actually being sold on the streets. Residents raised the issue at a meeting with President Bharrat Jagdeo and Commissioner of Police, Winston Felix, and Jagdeo promised them that it would be dealt with.
A pastor in the community, who requested anonymity, said several young men of the area were now hooked on drugs; some of them were teenagers whose parents had been beseeching him to pray for them. The pastor said smoking marijuana was now so commonplace that some of the youths would walk through the streets smoking the drug in the same way as they would do with a cigarette.
He said the police had to do more to control drug trafficking as drugs were too easily accessible to youths.
The pastor said that apart from selling marijuana in the interior, the traffickers also had ready markets in Brazil and other neighbouring countries. He said he had observed several Brazilians who would usually collect their supplies from the marijuana traffickers and ship them off to their country.
The pastor was confident that if a police checkpoint were to be set up at the Bartica stelling the drug trade would be smashed. "Some-thing has to be done. We can't continue to say that we're going to deal with the matter and nothing is being done."
However, he pointed out that the relevant authorities also had to look at the root causes of the problem. He mentioned that unemployment was widespread in the area and that some families had disintegrated. The pastor said the church had been trying to teach its members and the community at large about the dangers of becoming involved in drugs.
Asked whether trafficking in cocaine was as widespread as marijuana, the pastor answered in the negative. But he admitted that cocaine was fast becoming popular among the youths.
Another resident called for regular patrols by the police and the arrest and detention of people found smoking the drug. She said while she was not in favour of them being charged if they were only found with small amounts, she believed that other punitive measures could be taken which would serve as a deterrent.
Meanwhile, Regional Chairman Gordon Bradford in an interview with this newspaper said the region had two other major problems - limited access to proper education, and inadequate health care for some citizens. Where the health sector was concerned, Bradford said that there was only one doctor for the whole of Bartica, and in the interior only certain areas actually had a community health worker. And in locations where there was no health worker, residents were left to the mercy of God.
He said there were problems in Region Seven (Cuyuni/Mazaruni) in particular, where there had been an increase in cases of typhoid and malaria.
The chairman told this newspaper that despite efforts to play down the malaria situation in the region, it was still of major concern. However, the regional administration had been working with the Ministry of Health and other organisations to control the disease. He said recently a health team had been dispatched to the region, and since then there had been some alleviation of the problem. He agreed that while it had not been eradicated, there was hope.
On the issue of education, Bradford said there were areas in the region where schools were not in operation. "Can you imagine there are people in some of these areas who are in their 20s and have never been to school?"
He said that the children of Kurutuku, a village in the Upper Cuyuni River had not been to school since 1996 because there was no teacher. Bradford said the community was very remote and no one wanted to work there. He said efforts had been made previously to recruit teachers for the school, but no one had been responding.
According to the Regional Chairman, they were now working with the Social Impact and Amelioration Programme to build a school in the community and to restart teaching in the September term. They were working again on trying to recruit teachers, and would be making every effort to construct living quarters for them.
Bradford mentioned that the situation was similar at Issano, in the Upper Mazaruni.
He said the region had been working along with the ministries of Amerindian Affairs and Local Government to improve the situation in these hinterland communities.
Other problems which continued to affect the community, according to Bradford, were unemployment, domestic abuse and incest.