Venezuela maintains silence on killing of Guyanese
Stabroek News
March 3, 2007
The Venezuelan authorities are yet to turn over a report to Guyanese officials on the shooting to death of a Guyanese by members of the Venezuelan army at Etering-bang in October last year.
Guyana's ambassador to Venezuela, Dr Odeen Ishmael, on Thursday told reporters in Georgetown that officials are now wondering whether there was indeed any report on the incident. "We have been asking this question of the Venezuelan authorities. Since October we sent diplomatic notes to the (Vene-zuelan) Foreign Ministry. The response we get is that there has been no report, as yet," he said. According to the ambassador the Foreign Ministry would emphasise that the matter was being dealt with by the Ministry of Defence.
Ishmael said that last month they received information that the four Venezuelan soldiers who were involved had been released, information which was new to the mission as they were not even aware that soldiers had been held in the first place. "Hearing that they had been released leads one to assume that an investigation had been conducted and no one was found culpable so they had been released. This is how we would look at it. Even so, in such case, a report ought to have been made. I have not noticed any report," he said. The ambassador said he was aware that Foreign Minister, Dr Rudy Insanally, had written a letter to the minister responsible for Latin America and the Caribbean asking him about the matter but he had also not gotten any official response.
On October 6 last year twenty-nine-year-old Parasram 'Paul' Persaud was shot and killed and his relatives have since denied claims by the Venezuelan authorities that he was smuggling fuel. The Guyana police, in a press release, had made the same allegation but the man's family had told Stabroek News (SN) that Persaud worked with his uncle, who owns a gold mining operation. Meanwhile, the man's grieving mother, Chitroutie 'Golin' Doodnauth, 57, of Catherine Side Line, Mahaicony is calling for justice to be served. The woman said that the government is not doing enough to ensure that justice is served. Recently she told this newspaper that her son was a "very loving son to me and he always had a smile on his face. It is very hard for me to deal with this since he was a strong man working to take care of his family." Doodnauth said her son also provided for her financially.
The woman maintained that her son was not transporting smuggled fuel, explaining that her brothers operate dredges on the Guyana side of the border and as the captain of a boat he was transporting the fuel legally to them and other dredge owners. Doodnauth also said that the Venezuelan government had stopped her brothers from operating their dredges in Venezuela, charging that the men were "messing up the water." The woman said she learnt that the soldiers who shot her son were reportedly drinking at a bar close by and they had asked him for money and he had refused them. She says it seems as though the soldiers wanted to kill her son as they reportedly shot at the barrels containing the fuel before they shot and killed him. Persaud was in the company of two relatives and a Venezuelan national when the incident took place.
"They (the soldiers) wilfully killed my son and all I want is justice," Doodnauth said. "They can't shoot a man like you shoot a bird and get off. If a Guyana soldier de shoot a Venezuelan how dey woulda take it?" she commented. The weeping woman reiterated "They (government officials) are not doing anything because they didn't loss; me loss. If something happens to me who gon look after the children, who gon provide them with a future?"
Doodnauth said she cares for her son's two children, eight-year-old Darshanie and nine-year-old Krisendat and she does not have access to an income to maintain their care. "Paul used to send money for me and the children now they kill him who gon look after us now? They shoot him wrongfully. Why they had to shoot him? They coulda arrest him instead if he had done something wrong," the woman lamented. The woman said she used to receive public assistance but had stopped taking that money when her son started to support her. Doodnauth said she hopes to again access public assistance as she is ill and cannot work.
Doodnauth said she is pleading for some sort of compensation for her grandchildren's sake. She said Persaud was also the father of another child, two-year-old Brittney, whose mother Carmen is Venezuelan. Doodnauth said Carmen is also from a poor family and needs help to care for the child. The woman told SN that she paid a recent visit to the Ministry of Home Affairs "to get justice for my son. But they send me to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs" however she was not able to speak with the minister. She said that just after the incident the foreign ministry had promised to provide her with $100,000 to assist with Persaud's funeral expenses but she is yet to receive the money. The woman said she is still willing to accept the money since it would help with the children's expenses.
Doodnauth also told SN that she tried to meet with President Bharrat Jagdeo but on arrival at his office she was told that she needs to write a letter requesting a meeting with him. The woman said she wrote the letter and is awaiting a reply.