By Dale AndrewsFriday, January 26, 2008 started like any other day. I was actually on annualised leave, tending to the arrangements for the wake of my grandmother who had died a few days earlier.Since many of my relatives had arrived from overseas, the day was hectic with me getting things together for the funeral the following day. Nothing had prepared me for what was to transpire early the following morning.Every time Roberto Thomas looks at the scar on his abdomen, he will always remember that he was luckier than his father, brother and sister.While at the wake, one of my cousins remarked, “Dale, you ain’t hear how dem boys in Buxton goin’ on?” At the time, since it was very early in the morning, he had heard the sounds of heavy gunfire and from his vantage point at Melanie Damishana, he had assumed that gunmen in the troubled Buxton area were acting up.No one knew at the time that one of Guyana’s most violent domestic events was unfolding.Gunmen were creating mayhem in the tiny community of Lusignan Pasture. When they left, 11 persons, including six children lay dead, some of them slaughtered in the most gruesome way.The gunmen struck around 01:30 hours early that Saturday, simultaneously kicking down the doors of five houses and slaughtering almost everyone they encountered.In 15 minutes of terror, the gunmen, who numbered approximately 20, all armed with rifles and shotguns, massacred their victims, in one case an entire family comprising a mother and her two sleeping children.Among the dead were Shazam Mohamed; Clarence Thomas, his son, Ron 11, and daughter,
Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping, Vanessa 12; Mohandai Gourdat, 32, and her two children, Seegobin, four years old, and Seegopaul Harilall, 10; Shalem Baksh, 52; Rooplall Seecharan, 56, his daughter Raywattie Ramsingh, 11,
Wholesale NHL Jerseys, and his wife, Dhanrajie, called ‘Sister’, 52.Three persons were also injured, while at least three persons escaped certain death by hiding while the ‘gunmen carried out their rampage.The injured were Howard Thomas 19; Nadir Mohamed, 48, and Roberto Thomas, five years old.To date, no one knows for sure the real motive for the attack, although it was reported that the now dead Rondell ‘Fine Man’ Rawlins had claimed responsibility for the attack, declaring it an act of vengeance for the disappearance of his girlfriend and their unborn baby.Now, normally, I would have grabbed my camera and rushed to the Vigilance Police Station to pick up whatever information there was to pick up, although I was on leave, but for some strange reason I found myself brushing aside the report I received from my cousin.What a shock I got when daylight arrived and the accounts of what had transpired reached my ears.Funeral or no funeral, leave or no leave, I had to get there.I did not know what to expect but when I reached the scene the magnitude of the incident struck me from the time I entered the village. A huge crowed had converged on the narrow streets, almost blocking access by vehicle to where the actual mayhem had taken place.There was more shock to be had, for when I really got to see what had taken place, I realised that not in my wildest dream would I have thought that this was what my cousin had hinted about hours earlier.Bodies lay in pools of blood in the houses that had come under attack and in one distressing scene, the bodies of two children one with his stomach open, lay next to their mother.I consider myself a crime reporter who had become immune to gruesome scenes but what I saw on January 26,2008 will remain with me until I die.Arjune Bhim, who survived by lying under a bed, with his grandmother Basmattie Boodhoo. Every year since then I recall the horror either by writing an article or relating to friends the scenes of that tragic morning.And every time I pass Lusignan, those images would flash through my mind and I would normally relate them to my children, while dropping them to school in the city from my home on the East Coast of Demerara, almost every morning.Survivors Howard and Ron Thomas have to endure the scars they sustained every time they look in the mirror, so too does Nadir Mohamed, whose son Shazad was one of the victims.Three years later and they still look at those scars which will always be there no matter how advance –plastic surgery gets.Yesterday I revisited the community and realised that while those who survived are trying to move on with their lives, but try as they might, they cannot blot out the scars that are stark reminders of the brutality and terror they endured.Although he has a clearly visible scar on his abdomen, the evidence of a gunshot wound, little Roberto Thomas could not recall what happened-he was too young at the time to comprehend what really transpired.However, he was clear in his mind that he lost his father, brother and sister in that mayhem.He participates in every me
