Kaieteur News

Monday January 28, 2013

Kaieteur News

Merundoi takes war on gender based violence to schools The Ministry of Human Services and Merundoi Incorporated have taken the fight against gender based violence to several city schools in an attempt to ‘nip the problem in the bud’.

The two agencies have embarked on an enlightenment programme to show cause and effect of the problem. They said they are seeking to help youths understand the issue and the manner in which it should be dealt with.

Derwin Humphrey, Project Manager at Merundoi Inc. said that the programme which is being funded by United States Agency for International Development, is designed to deal with gender based violence and its effect on the community. He stated that the agencies are targeting the schools and dealing with issues that may affect children when they are exposed.

Since Merundoi’s focus is on public education with an aim of bringing about behavior change, Humphrey said that the programme should influence the students and, “plant the seed that would encourage them to stay away from gender based

violence.”

While gender based violence itself seems to be on the rise in the society, the project manager said that the goal is to deal with the issue before it reaches the crisis stage.

Humphrey pointed out that the programme will encourage students to branch out and look at their life skills and how they deal with various issues that may, in the long run, contribute to gender based violence.

The programme is based mainly on discussions, but the children will also get the opportunity to watch plays, drama and then ask and answer questions on the matter. Discussions fall on various issues that contribute to gender based violence, including actions that can be taken to prevent or soothe violent situations between the two sexes.

What Humphrey highlighted as the driving force behind the activities is the change and awareness which the programme is intended to promote. He added that apart from the five schools they have already visited and have attained positive feedback, during this

week, more schools will benefit from the program.

Minister of Human Services Jennifer Webster has continuously indicated her concerns in relation to the growing number of gender based crimes. She has also pointed out the negative impact the issue could have on youths living in a home with domestic violence.

The Minister highlighted the need for supporting and monitoring families facing such problems.

She said, “The home is the first and most formative frame of reference on which a child models his or her life.”

‘It is imperative that values and virtues are instilled in the lives of children since it is of paramount importance that they are given equal opportunities and treatment.”

Apart from the home it was highlighted that training and awareness could be taken to the schools where students could learn about dealing with the issue on a more collective basis.

They would have the opportunity to ask the experts burning questions while witnessing first hand scenarios that can possibility befall them.

Page 3

Rohee to eextend xtend security plan to private sector and diplomatic community

By Zena Henry Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee has indicated his intention to meet with members of the private sector and the diplomatic community to discuss in detail, plans outlined in his security initiative. Rohee said late last week that he thought it would be useful to narrow the various audiences which would be affected by the new security implementations.

He said he wants to discuss in a more focused way the measures put in place and its effects on the various stakeholders. For the private sector, Rohee said he hopes to meet with them sometime later in the year to discuss their concerns.

With the private sector already indicating their support for the security plan, Rohee said it would seem that a lot of their concerns are common. He insisted that they would have an interest in the changes to come since the initiative was highlighted in a context of a wide audience.

“The idea,” he reiterated, “is to meet with the various stakeholders to discuss with them, in a more particularized manner”.

Home Affair Minister Clement Rohee The Security Minister, on December 31, outlined an elaborate security plan that would see among other things, significant changes within the Guyana Police Force and other entities under the purview of his Ministry.

He detailed his five-year plan that would see a name change for the Police Force, the Guyana Prison Service as well as the Guyana Fire Service; the employment of specialist civilian professionals within the Police Force and the possibility of international police officers as consultants.

He also promised to take

the fight to criminals, including those involved in narco-trafficking.

Opposition Leader David Granger had however said in a report last week that neither the private sector nor the opposition members had seen the security plan which the minister had drafted. Granger charged that while he supported reform and improvement, the opposition is not willing to conform to plans that they had not seen.

The APNU head was at that time speaking on the cost that private persons pay by having to hire their own security.

He said that there is a g r e a t c o n c e r n o ver the country’s security situation, since the p r i v a t e s e c t o r contributes immensely to the growth of the nation.

Granger insisted that, “They (private persons) have to spend too much on their own security and that is cutting into profits and the earnings of the country.”

He continued that, “We feel that there is a heavy burden that is borne by business persons which ought not to be, since their security is the business of the state.”

Page 4

Kaieteur News Printed and Published by National Media & Publishing Company Ltd. 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown, Guyana.

Publisher: GLENN LALL Editor: Adam Harris Tel: 225-8465, 225-8491. Fax: 225-8473, 226-8210

Dealing with Rape In India, PM Manmohan Singh had established a panel under Justice JS Verma to consider possible amendments of the criminal law in response to public anger after the rape and subsequent death of the student, who was assaulted with metal bars and dumped bleeding on a highway in New Delhi. Remarkably, the three person committee wrapped up its work within 29 days and submitted its report to the government after receiving around 80,000 suggestions and submissions. There is much that Guyana can learn from the report.

Intriguingly, in view of the public rage provoked in India and other countries over the brutal gang rape, the report insisted that India needs to implement existing laws, not introduce tougher punishment such as the death penalty, to prevent rape. This recommendation was in line with the opinions of rights organisations concerned harsh new laws would not solve the rising number of reported sexual assault cases in India.

Even though officially titled, “The Report of the Committee on Amendments to Criminal Law”, the committee did not confine itself to criminal law relating to rape and sexual assault. In a groundbreaking departure, it comprehensively outlined the constitutional framework within which sexual assault must be located. Perhaps more importantly, it also draws out the political framework within which non-discrimination based on sex must be based and focuses on due diligence by the state in order to achieve this as part of its constitutional obligation, with the Preamble interpreted as inherently speaking to justice for women in every clause.

If capabilities are crucial in order that people realise their full potential, this will be an unattainable goal for women till such time as the state is held accountable for demonstrating a commitment to this goal. Performance audits of all institutions of governance and law and order are seen as an urgent need in this direction. The focus of the entire exercise is on protecting the right to dignity, autonomy and freedom of victims of sexual assault and rape — with comprehensive reforms suggested in electoral laws, policing, criminal laws and the provision of safe spaces for women and children.

Entering the debate that is raging in many countries right now, including Guyana, the Report argued that “cultural prejudices must yield to constitutional principles of equality, empathy and respect”. It brings sexual orientation firmly within the meaning of “sex” in the constitution, and underscores the right to liberty, dignity and fundamental rights of all persons irrespective of sex or sexual orientation — and the right of all persons, not just women, against sexual assault.

Reviewing leading cases and echoing the critique of Indian women’s groups and feminist legal scholars, the committee observes: “…women have been looped into a vicious cycle of shame and honour as a consequence of which they have been attended with an inherent disability to report crimes of sexual offences against them.”

In terms of the definition of rape, the committee recommends retaining a redefined offence of “rape” within a larger section on “sexual assault” in order to retain the focus on women’s right to integrity, agency and bodily integrity. Rape is redefined as including all forms of nonconsensual penetration of sexual nature.

The offence of sexual assault would include all forms of non-consensual, non-penetrative touching of sexual nature.

Tracing the history of the marital rape exception in the common law of coverture in England and Wales in the 1700s, the committee unequivocally recommends the removal of the marital rape exception as vital to the recognition of women’s right to autonomy and physical integrity irrespective of marriage or other intimate relationship.

Marriage, by this argument, cannot be a valid defence, it is not relevant to the matter of consent and it cannot be a mitigating factor in sentencing in cases of rape.

In rejecting the death penalty and castration, which had been suggested by some, the nature and quantum of punishment were not ignored. Treading this issue with care, the committee enhances the minimum sentence from seven years to 10 years, with imprisonment for life as the maximum.

Kaieteur News

Monday January 28, 2013

Letters... Where your views make the news

Industry residents are at environmental risk DEAR EDITOR, I’m a resident of Industry Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara, residing on the western side of the Ogle Community Centre Ground.

There has been frequent burning of dried grass which causes thick smoke and grass ashes to pollute the atmosphere, resulting in severe discomfort for residents living in the surrounding area.

We the residents have

made several reports to the local Neighbourhood Democratic Council, the Local Government Ministry, Environmental Protection Agency and also the current management of the Community Centre and to date no action has been taken.

While our reports and concerns are being ignored by the relevant authorities, the action of the management of the Community Centre continues. No one is

accepting responsibility for the operations of the Community Centre, yet fundraising activities continue to take place with the relevant personnel pocketing the revenues, neglecting the comfort of the residents of Industry.

There seems to be some sort of reluctance by the Local Government Ministry to take the necessary action with the Management of the Centre.

This seems to be for a certain reason.

Calls to the fire service are also being ignored and at times the operators have been very arrogant.

We hereby invite all to take a firsthand look at the issues I’m raising in this letter by visiting the Community Centre Ground, as we the residents will be very happy to have the issues highlighted.

N. Singh

Monday January 28, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 5

Letters... Where your views make the news Letters... Where your views make the news

Adam right about the values of village life

DEAR EDITOR, “It takes a village to raise a child” is an old African proverb with some people also attributing it to Greek origin. It was made popular

by Hillary Clinton during her campaign for the Presidential nomination. Whatever the source, in Guyana, we know the treasured value of being raised in a village – a closeknit community where everyone looks out for every child to nudge him or her towards success and a right path in life. Adam Harris, in

“the village raises a child” (KN Jan 20), caused many of us in New York to reminisce about growing up in the countryside. In the rural area, you cannot escape doing anything wrong, not even a minor offense without being admonished if not getting a good cut arse or both.

And in the village, youngsters didn’t hate the people who reprimanded you or whipped your behind because you know they were right and you are sure not to repeat those wrongful acts.

And you were lucky to be whipped by the neighbour or stranger because if your parents knew you did wrong, the beating would be manifold because parents didn’t take kindly to having children embarrassing them with their wrongful acts.

Yes, Adam is right in stating that the whole village raised the child. When one child succeeded, the entire village celebrated, as Adam rightly noted. Everyone looked out for each other and everyone helped each other

I am sorry but I cannot apologize DEAR EDITOR, I came home Saturday evening very tired but had to open my mail because I had to send an urgent reply to Tyrone Talbert of the People’s Parliament. I found a very disturbing e-mail sent from New York. I will publicly reply to that person because I care about all of my readers and I care about every human being that sees something useful in my activism. After letting me know that he is a real person by providing verifiable information, this New York based Guyanese has informed me that I have let him down and he cannot believe that I practice double standards like Guyanese politicians. He ended by saying he cannot have the same respect and admiration for me.

Look, you win some, you lose some. I cannot please everyone with the type of public commentaries I make.

The complaint was about a column I did months ago when I wrote about a restaurant owner who for one year viciously deceived me that he was making ice cream with a wide variety of local fruits.

I found out that it was manifestly untrue and that he was using synthetic essence imported from the Stuart Brothers Company in Trinidad.

The New York based Guyanese told me that he was part of a discussion on my politics and someone said that I was a hypocrite because I defend the rights of small people but I endangered a poor man’s business by exposing him. I was told that it was not necessary to write about what the guy did because I have much more things to write on in relation to the big criminal (his word) companies in Guyana.

I did not name the restaurant. A guard in the National Park asked me to identify the owner and I refused. I would not have done a commentary on this business place if the owner

did not show terrible deceit in his character and which directly caused me to in turn deceive a visitor who is a personal friend of Malcolm Harripaul.

First, I would have ignored him on finding out that he was using synthetic essence. I would have shrugged my shoulders and just stop buying his bogus ice cream. What was terrible was when I enquired about awaara ice cream, he picked up the phone in front of me and said; “Send a half bag of awaara.” He lied. He spoke to no one. He did not and does not make ice cream using the awaara fruit. This guy is a compulsive liar who finds it nice to fool people.

Why couldn’t he just drop it?

That he had to persist and barefacedly fool me like that meant this guy is a very deceitful person.

There was much more in that column that I could have put it. For example, he told me and Mark Benschop that he has seven thousand sour sop trees.

I investigated and found that this was far, far from the numbers he has. I did not mention that in the original column.

Now for the Malcolm Harripaul incident. One Saturday evening, a visiting relative of Harripaul from New York came to the People’s Parliament. She told me she was desperate for local ice

cream and she needed it right that minute because she was leaving to go back to New York hours after (in the wee hours of the morning). I directed her to this place and she and Malcolm took off to eat local ice cream on my recommendation. In reality I recommended bogus ice cream. Why did this restaurant owner tell people for years that he was selling a type of product that was a downright lie?

I am sorry but I cannot apologize. I don’t see how I can. I don’t think I did anything wrong. I think this person from New York needs to see things in context. I did not set out to hurt the business of a poor man. And I want him to know that I will never accept to be intimidated in exposing the criminal behaviour of large Guyanese companies In closing let me say that after I wrote the column, I wanted to return to buy more of the ice cream because even though it was synthetic, it tasted good.

I have not gone back because when you total up five half pint cups of his ice cream it is more expensive that the two litre bucket of foreign ice cream. And that ice cream is really, really good. Please forgive my chauvinism but my wife will tell you I am a bit of an expert on ice cream.

Frederick Kissoon

Is this a new start?

DEAR EDITOR, Yes, after 13 year of waiting for payment from the government, after its destruction of Norman Trotz’s business property, Trotz will finally be reimbursed. As a relative living in Sweden, I have followed Norman´s struggle over the years to be paid for this economical loss, solely caused by the governmental lack of efficiency. Hurrah,

hurrah.

Does this indicate a new start for the Guyanese government to become more honest and transparent? I hope so. Guyana is a hidden treasure just waiting to be discovered by the rest of the world. I love your country and will come with loads of tourists the day true democracy is installed.

Catharina von Ungemoore

to lead a better life. I remember, when GCE or Common Entrance results came out in the papers, all eyes looked for the names of youngsters from the village.

It was big news and talk of the village for days when only a handful of us took and passed Common Entrance in 1972 making us eligible to attend Multilateral High School in New Amsterdam (I opted for Chandisingh because my Aunty Bethlyn, insisted that is where she wanted me to be schooled and my parents acquiesced) and a few others (lower passes) made it to Belvedere and Manchester.

Everywhere you walked, people would say “Dem boys bright” and you smiled in shyness.

In the village of my time growing up, people nudged you to success and the pressure is on you to be the best and achieve noting short of your potential. And God helped you if you got caught committing a wrongful act like stealing genips or mangoes or tamarinds from the neighbour’s trees – licks like peas. If you did wrong, everyone chastised you. And when you got home, there was further reprimand. In my classes in NY, Guyanese students often told their peers that in Guyana when someone saw them do wrong, the person would whip (slap or box) them and then go to the home to inform their parents that their child did something wrong. The parents would then put an additional whipping on them. The village of the past encouraged a straight society with little tolerance for wrongs. And that is why people like me, Adam, and others came out straight and we serve society well without looking back for rewards. And whenever, I visit Guyana, which is often,

I visit the village and reward those who helped to make me what I am and I donate generously to institutions and community events in other villages.

I have noticed that the village of today is not what it was in years gone by; honesty, decency and integrity are no longer there.

People don’t want to serve community without rewards.

And today, you can’t tell a kid he is wrong or put a whipping on him for wrongdoing. You are likely to get into trouble for child abuse, or corporal punishment, etc. The child may end up beating the adult and the family would pick a fight if you dare reprimand a child for wrongdoing. And in the city, it is even worse.

No one wants to be told he or she is wrong and some parents cover for the criminal acts of children. The youngster may have a gun or a razor brandished to cut you up.

For our children to become successful, an entire community must have a stake in raising them. In NY, a few of us continue to subscribe to “it takes a village to make a kid succeed”. In my community of greater Richmond Hill, I volunteer to help youngsters with tutoring and organizing activities for them.

My teaching colleagues and I had tried so many times to organize tutorial sessions to help students with their exams so they can score high to gain admission in prestigious colleges. And we even dream of having our own school looking at various ways on how we can improve our immigrant community.

Most Guyanese immigrants don’t subscribe to our core belief of “it takes a village”, committing time and energy to change others. But they have lived a decent life with

the values they brought from Guyana. And I salute them for their successes. As Adam pointed out, Caribbean immigrants have transformed entire communities. He is right about Jamaica, a once druginfested and crime-prone area.

Guyanese and others have transformed it. Ditto parts of Cypress Hill, Bushwick, East N.Y, Richmond Hill, Ozone, and several parts of the Bronx.

Over the weekend I visited a community in Bushwick where I taught during the late 1980s. You would think WW II was fought there. It had the highest incidence of murder and other crimes. I could not believe the area was transformed with beautiful homes and then I noticed Jhandis fluttering in front of homes. And I noticed the same in several parts of the South Bronx where I lived during the late 1970s. It shows the power of a village upbringing where people are proud of their values. You have to show pride in yourselves by beautifying your neighborhoods and be thy brother’s keeper.

As Adam rightly stated, we need to return to those old values that help to breed success. Very few of us give back to the community or to people who helped to make us what we are. We should encourage children to succeed and celebrate their achievements as a form of encouragement to reach for the stars. I go all out to applaud the success of Guyanese American children and my community in general by penning their activities and featuring them in community newspapers. Like Adam, I will not trade my experiences in the village for any others for it has made me who I am. We all have a stake in the right upbringing of every child.

Vishnu Bisram

Page 6

Kaieteur News

Monday January 28, 2013

Agricola man stabbed Enterprising and Independent Women: while visiting girlfriend Cosmetologist Fnita Small is

one shrewd businesswoman

Haslyn Richards

A 39-year-old man who went to visit his ex-girl friend in Agricola, East Back Demerara (EBD) was stabbed three times by one of the girl’s male relatives.

Haslyn Richards of Lot 302 West Ruimveldt is now nursing stab wounds to his abdomen, head and one of his hands.

In his hospital bed, the

father of two recalled receiving a phone call from his female associate who asked him to visit her at home.

“When I reach we talk a little and then her uncle wake up with an attitude and he was very disrespectful, he was cursing…,” Richards said.

“I was the one who get the place for them so after he start

behaving like that, I go to the landlord and tell him to put out this man if he is going to behave so.”

“He get more mad and he come towards me with the knife and my friend was trying to part but he still stab me,” the wounded man said.

Richards’ attacker is said to be still at large.

Students weave a customer’s hair Even as a young girl, Fnita Small loved to style her own hair and that of her friends.

Then she used to do it for free- it was just a hobby. But it didn’t take Fnita long to decide that that was what she wanted to do when she grew up.

Today she is a grown woman with a family, and she is living her dream, as the proprietor of the “Excellent Touch Hair Salon” on Burnham Drive.

“At school after we finished exams, and we had nothing to do I would corn row my friends’ hair, and wrap them in all kinds of style,” she confessed during a recent interview.

“And I loved doing it, so I decided that I wasn’t going to be anybody’s secretary or employee, after I finished school, I would open my own salon, and be my own boss.”

With her career determined, Fnita enrolled at GB’s cosmetology school in Georgetown when she left school.

On weekends during her tenure at the institution, she would work at her craft in her mother’s kitchen.

Then as her clientele grew, she was forced to build a salon below her mother’s house.

Later, after graduating from GB’s as an A grade cosmetologist she would venture full-fledged into the business of glitz and glam.

That necessitated the removal of her salon from her Blue Berry Hill location, to Burnham Drive, for easier accessibility. By then, her clients were now coming from all across Linden to seek her services.

Fnita now trains young women in the art of hair dressing and cosmetology, at her salon which is located on the bottom flat of her house.

That move, she said, was inspired by a few of her clients, who loved her work so much that they asked her whether she would consider training their daughters in the art of cosmetology.

She has now been training girls in the field for over twelve years.

DIVERSIFYING However this shrewd businesswoman is more than just a hairdresser. One visit to her salon, which more closely resembles a variety shop, would tell you that.

Fnita stocks up on clothing, cosmetics and costume jewelry, floral arrangements and household effects.

Then there is the glass

Fnita in her salon case with snacks like eggballs, channa, roti and curry and cold beverages, for clients having their manicure/ pedicure or hair done.

And Fnita does it all— the floral arrangements, snacks and everything.

Astonishing, considering that she still has her husband and three children to take care of!

So I guess you’ll agree when I say her last name is a big misnomer, for there is nothing ‘small’ about Fnita Small!

(Enid Joaquin)

Monday January 28, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 7

Page 8

Kaieteur News

Monday January 28, 2013

Guyana Prize Committee Farmer crushed by tractor hosts workshops for writers - seeks entries for 2012 awards

Ruel Johnson

Pauline Melville

Jan Lowe Shinebourne

The Guyana Prize Committee and the University of Guyana are continuing a series of workshops aimed at helping aspiring local writers to improve their craft.

Participants will be tutored by Guyana Prize winners Ruel Johnson and Jan Lowe Shinebourne.

The first session started in November, 2012 and was conducted by Pauline Melville. The London-based Melville has won numerous literary awards, including the Commonwealth Writer ’s

Award, Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guyana Prize for Literature.

The second session will be held at 17:00 hrs today at the National Library Annexe.

This two-session workshop on poetry and fiction will be conducted by Ruel Johnson, who won the Guyana Prize for Literature in 2002 (First Book of Fiction category) for his self-published collection Ariadne and Other Stories.

Today’s first segment will focus of ‘The Physics of Poetry, The Mechanics of

Poetry and Poetry in the Popular Culture.’ The second, also being held today, will deal with ‘The mechanics of short fiction.’

On Wednesday at 17:00 hrs, Mr. Johnson will continue his training session which will focus on Short Fiction and Analysis.

On February 18 and February 20 there will be another workshop and these sessions will be held by Jan Lowe Shinebourne (author of Timepiece, which won the Guyana Prize First Book of Fiction). The sessions will focus on ‘Turning experience into writing’, ‘Turning geographical background into fiction’ and ‘Editing of Creative Work.’

That is described as a master class.

Another workshop on drama and editing will follow on a date still to be scheduled.

Meanwhile, the Guyana Prize Committee is urging writers to submit entries for the Guyana Prize 2012 awards. The deadline for submissions is February 28.

Dialnihal’s tractor-trailer which ended up in a nearby ditch A 58-year-old farmer was crushed to death at around 07:30 hrs yesterday after falling from a tractor that was travelling near Friendship, on the East Bank Demerara, Public Road.

The victim was identified as Bissoon Dialnihal, also known as “Nylon” of Buzz Bee Dam, Craig, East Bank Demerara.

A woman who witnessed the accident said Dialnihal was driving south on his tractor-trailer when a white Allion slammed into the trailer which resulted in Dialnihal falling from his tractor.

One of the rear wheels then crushed the farmer’s head.

The still moving tractortrailer ended up in a roadside

ditch several feet ahead.

“I watch his body jerk three times before it stopped,” the eyewitness recalled.

The woman told Kaieteur News that residents rushed to lend assistance, and after observing that the driver of the motor car had suffered minor injuries, attempted to give him a thrashing.

“They did going and beat he, but he come in we yard and we locked the gate and told them that they can’t do that. The man seemed distressed.

Accidents happen, and is not like it was premeditated. It just happened,” the woman said.

The driver was eventually taken into custody while Dialnihal was pronounced dead on arrival at the Diamond

DEAD: Bissoon Dialnihal Diagnostic Centre. He was said to have been a wellknown farmer in the GroveFriendship area.

He leaves to mourn his wife and three children.

Monday January 28, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 9

A MAN’S OWN TO KEEP A man gets up early. He quickly does his sanitary rituals, has his breakfast, kisses his family goodbye and sets off to work.

He has his problems but he does not burden the world with them. He wants to work hard and honestly so that he can provide for his family. His family is important to him and even though he may be barely making ends meet and just only covering the bills, he knows that day in day out, he has to rise for work so that he can take care of his family.

Over time, he may have accumulated some assets. He may have over time been able to buy a car or some piece of expensive jewelry through his hard work. That is a product of his labour. They belong to him and not to any other. He should be entitled to those things.

Yet while this man is busy making his daily bread, there are others who are plotting to deprive him of what he has worked for. They will try to either rob him or steal his assets. Some even go as far as plotting to extort money from the poor fellow.

These criminals are not interested in making an honest living. They are interested in taking what others have worked hard for.

Sometimes what a poor man has takes many years to accumulate and therefore he

deserves to enjoy the fruits of his labour.

The criminals who deprive other people of their hard earned savings and assets deserve no mercy. They should feel the full brunt of the law. Many of these criminals when they are caught, attempt to cover their faces so that they would not be shamed in public.

But have they ever considered what they have done to those whom they rob? Among the many victims, of carjackings, for example, are taxi drivers. Most of these guys are working class individuals who are forced to work late hours just to make some money to take care of the bills and to take care of their families.

Many of them have repayment plans for their vehicles. When these guys are carjacked what happens is that their whole life is turned upside down. The bank or credit agency still has to be paid and you can wail from now till doomsday about being robbed, you still have to pay back what you had borrowed. The bank may say there are sorry but they still have to be paid.

One man whose vehicle was recently carjacked said that the parts stripped from the vehicle were valued at some $400,000. Now that is a lot of money and this man

Dem boys seh...

Jagdeo and Bar Bee scared Ever since de Waterfalls paper begin fuh talk bout corruption Jagdeo and Bar Bee start fuh get frighten. Dem try all kind of things fuh shut up de paper because dem believe that once dem get de people at de paper fuh stop talking dem coulda continue wid dem scampishness.

When things get hot fuh dem, dem start wid all kinds of madness. Jagdeo pull out some Wikileaks report and report how de Waterfalls boss man was a snitch. He and Bar Bee believe that dem woulda get people fuh hurt de boss man.

Now dem bring back old news.

Dem bring back de Wikileaks report how de Waterfalls boss man was a snitch and how he visa get tek way because he stop. Three years pass and Jagdeo decide fuh bring back old news. He talk how de Waterfalls boss man get back he visa and fuh that to happen he had to start talking to de Americans again.

But dem boys know that de man visa never get tek way and if he was a snitch he woulda done talk bout Jagdeo and Bar Bee and by now de two of dem woulda deh in jail. Dem trying everything fuh get de Waterfalls paper fuh stop looking at de thiefing that tekking place. But nothing dem try gun mek de Waterfalls paper stop talking bout de thiefing because dem thieves got to stop. Dem tekking poor people money.

Imagine dem talk bout Fine Man calling de paper. Dem boys seh that it wasn’t a secret. Jagdeo call de same Waterfalls boss man and ask he wha Fine man tell he because he was scared. That is why he use to run out de country almost all de time. De Boss man never tell he and Jagdeo decide to run some more. He ain’t writing how de Waterfalls boss man prevent more madness.

From wha dem writing it clear that dem don’t mean to stop thiefing. And de Waterfalls paper ain’t gun stop looking at dem and if de Feds come de waterfalls paper gun even help arrest dem.

Talk half and know that de binocular gun stay pun dem thieves

now has to work all over just to replace what he has lost.

There are individuals who work hard to buy a cell phone for the children or their partners and then someone likes what they see and decides to deprive the beneficiary of the phone.

They go up to you and rob you of what you have. There is nothing that is more humiliating than knowing that someone can simply take from you what you have spent years accumulating. How can this be right?

And guess what, whenever the culprits are caught, they try to conceal their faces so that they will not be recognized. They hide their faces in their shirts, they pull their jerseys over their heads; they use their hands to cover their faces because they do not wish to be publicly embarrassed.

But have they ever stopped to think what they have done to someone else, to another man who when deprived of what he worked for does not know how he is

going to put a meal on his family’s table or how he is going to continue to earn an income?.

These crimes whereby persons are deprived of their hard-earned property happens everyday.

But the crimes that make the sensational headlines are the large robberies. There are also other personal crimes in which the impact is greater for the victim than some of those larger crimes and therefore when persons are found guilty of these crimes, their

identities should be made known so that others will be cautious around them and avoid falling into the same trap as the victims.

Page 10

Kaieteur News

Monday January 28, 2013

Five years later…

Are the Lusignan massacre survivors moving on?

Rajkumar Harilall shows the damages caused by the bullets when his wife and two sons were killed.

By Rehana Ahamad

Ashley

Year after year, articles are featured in the media to highlight the extent of which the Lusignan Massacre survivors are recovering.

This year, I took up the responsibility of going to the still troubled village.

Friday last was my first visit to the area where 11 persons, including five children were murdered in cold, if not frozen blood as they slept in the comforts of their own homes five years ago on Saturday last (January 26), and I was nervous.

As I stood at the beginning of the street and stared into the short lane which had just about a dozen humble homes, I started getting flashbacks of the scenes which were repeatedly aired on the television. I was about 13 years old at that time, and like many others, I too was traumatized.

I wanted to talk to the families, but I was scared; scared of making them remember that fateful night

with all the horrible emotions that I imagine came with it.

Nonetheless, I tried to put my thoughts behind, and my first step was the Thomas household.

It was the first of the five homes to be attacked that night. Theirs was the first house located just at the head of the narrow street corner up ahead. Soon enough, I was having a chat with the surviving members of the Thomas family. According to Gomattie Thomas, the wife and mother of the late Clarence Thomas, 11-yearold Ron and 12-year-old Vanessa Thomas, every memory of that night would cause her to have intense headaches.

Coming on to this time of the year, Thomas said that she cannot help but recall the events.

Mrs. Thomas said that upon hearing the gunshots, her husband, Clarence Thomas opted to take a look.

And as he tried to push in the door as the killers were trying to enter the house, the gunmen riddled the door with

bullets. The 52-year-old man’s body was left lying on the landing atop the stairs. There were about 20 men armed with weapons. The killers drove around the village in a minibus.

Mrs. Thomas recalled during that the attack, when she wanted to come out from her hiding and have the gunmen shoot her too, but she could not do so. She said that she just froze. She could not scream, cry, or move.

She instinctively curled up at the side of her bed next to a curtain which was the only thing that separated her from the ruthless gunmen.

“I just sit there by the curtain looking at the man’s boots while he stand there shooting my children,” Thomas recalled. “I wanted to come out and let them shoot me too, but I couldn’t move or do anything.”

She noted that it was only after she heard her son Howard who was 19 years old at the time answering to a neighbour’s call that she felt as though she could move.

“Is when I hear he talk

Survivor, Shazeda Baksh speaking with Acting President Samuel Hinds shortly after the inter-faith ceremony last Saturday then I feel like I get something to live for. Suddenly I could have move,” Mrs. Thomas said.

She added that when she switched on the light in her house, and it was then that she saw her two children, 11year-old son, Ron and her 12year-old daughter Vanessa slaughtered in their beds. Ron was shot in his sleep while Vanessa was pulled from her bed, and despite begging and screaming for her life, she was cold bloodedly gunned down.

Mrs. Thomas recalled seeing her son Roberto who was just five years old at the time, crawling to her, with his entrails protruding.

By that time neighbours started to rush in to lend assistance and both Roberto and Howard Thomas were rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital where they were admitted for a few months.

Hers was a happy family, she said. Mrs. Thomas recalled just hours before the tragedy when she was surrounded by her husband and four children. They were all laughing and chatting in the bottom flat of their small home. They were also talking on the phone with her eldest son who had been staying in Bartica at the time.

“The night before everybody was happy. Them children bin playing fight, fight over them father, saying who love he the most, and they was hugging he up, so I said that is me husband and that I love he to, and I hug he.

And the children hug we, and we laugh so hard that night that it even disturbed the neighbours,” a sad Mrs. Persaud recalled.

She said that like the others, nothing could have prepared her for what was about to happen next.

Nonetheless, as far as recovering goes, the Thomas family said that while they can never truly recover from such

an incident, things have become better in the last five years and the family is trying to cope. There are still times when they would remember that night and cry, but they are thankful to be alive and to still have the strength to make it through each passing day.

Mrs. Thomas said that the residents have become more vigilant, as they would enquire from every stranger visiting the area as to the purpose of their visit to the area. She noted that had she been the owner of a gun that night, she would have definitely ensured that she had killed at least one of the men who ruined her peace and stole the lives of her husband and two very innocent children.

Meanwhile, when Kaieteur News visited Rajkumar Harilall, the man who lost his wife, 32-year-old Mohandai Gourdat, and their two children; four year old Seegobin, and ten-year-old Seegopaul Harilall, it seemed as though he is attempting to move on.

After five years, Rajkumar Harilall has finally found himself a female companion.

She is currently living with him in the same house that his family was killed.

Last Saturday Mr. Harilall showed me around his home.

There were still pictures of his wife and children taken in their happier times hanging on the walls and in cabinets.

To maybe feel closer to his family, everything in his house has remained the same; even the bullet holes and the damaged furniture remain. The bullet-riddled cabinet and wardrobe are till there. Harilall has left everything as it is.

His new companion said that although it has been five years after, and Harilall has moved on with his life a bit, he would still breakdown at times when he remembers his family. Apart from their

birthdays and death anniversary, Harilall becomes distraught during the time of the court proceedings on the matter. She explained that sometimes to deal with the pain, Harilall would consume alcohol before appearing in court. He does not want to go to court anymore. The families collectively agreed that the court hearings have only been causing them tremendous grief.

Harilall, called Bobby, had left Guyana for Trinidad just a few days before the carnage.

“I wake up to cook and prepare for work and they called me and told me that I had to travel to Guyana right away, that my wife and children were wounded and were being taken to the hospital. At the time, I was thinking that nothing really serious had happened to them,” he recalled.

Nevertheless, he immediately secured a flight.

While there, he got the news that his entire family had been wiped out.

“They were showing it on the television over there, and right away I collapsed. The officials at the airport assisted me and asked me if I could travel, and I told them that I would manage,” Harilall said.

“The life just went out of me. I had just left less than a week ago. It was them I was living for,” he added.

Had he been home during that time, he would not have opened the door for the men to enter. He said he would’ve made sure that they were properly hidden.

Also in the house at the time was Gourdat’s nephew who remained under his bed as his cousins rushed out to assist their mother. He was five years old at the time. He is still troubled by the incident.

By the time I had reached the Mohamed’s household, (Continued on page 15)

Page 12

Kaieteur News

Lucky escape

Fortunately no one sustained any life threatening injuries after this minibus overturned on the Linden/ Soesdyke Highway last

evening. According to eye witness accounts the car and the minibus were both heading towards Georgetown when the car struck the back

of the minibus, causing it to topple. The driver and his family escaped with minor injuries as was the same for the occupants of the car.

Monday January 28, 2013

Monday January 28, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 13

Families of missing seniors seek end to mystery Almost three months after her mother mysteriously vanished from the Barnwell North Mocha East Bank Demerara area, Claudette Pancham said that relatives have not given up hope.

On November 17, 2012, 82 year old Margaret Harris, a broom vendor in the community, left for the lands aback of the Mocha village around 13:30 hours but never returned.

Two weeks after Harris’ disappearance, another elderly person vanished without a trace. This time it was 74-year-old Morris John.

Despite efforts by local law enforcement officers, relatives, friends and community members to locate

Margaret Harris

Morris John

the two missing persons, no trace of the senior citizens has surfaced.

“For the past several weeks we have been frantic

looking for our missing mother and it has not been easy we get help from some persons who helped search… we send out fliers

Ganja-smoking soldiers accused of robbing mining camps - local miner vows to file complaint with Chief of Staff Brazilians working in Guyana’s interior have long been the shakedown target of some unscrupulous local law enforcement ranks; now it seems that even the soldiers are taking advantage of the situation.

Reports reaching this newspaper indicate that a gang of heavily armed rogue soldiers on Friday swooped down on the mining community of Devil’s Hole in the Cuyuni and beat and robbed several miners of a large quantity of raw gold, using the uniform of the state as a cover for their nefarious activity.

From all indications, the soldiers who carried out the attack, one of whom was positively identified, are based at the Guyana Defence Force’s Eteringbang location a few miles away.

Speaking with this newspaper yesterday, one irate local miner who will be seeking an audience with Chief-of-Staff, Commodore Gary Best, related that the soldiers, five in number, have tarnished the name of the Guyana Defence Force.

He related that on Friday, the ranks landed at the Julian Ross Landing, Devils’ Hole, Cuyuni and appeared to have one purpose in their mindsbanditry.

“They did not come with any police, no Immigration, no GGMC personnel,” the miner told Kaieteur News.

According to the miner, upon arrival at the landing, the soldiers confronted some small time drug pushers, seizing their drugs, which they consumed in the full view of the public.

This seemed to spur the soldiers on to greater heights, for they began harassing persons including women, who voiced their objection to their actions.

The miner related that the soldiers became even more determined to carry out their mission, and they managed to force the owner of an allterrain vehicle to transport them to an area where several Brazilian mining operations are taking place.

There they allegedly relieved several camps of raw gold before making their way

back to their camp.

“What I saw was like the Congo Republic/Sierra Leone-style. This needs to stop. We in the mining sector are already facing several other hardships and to have rogue soldiers running around robbing mining camps is compounding the situation,” the miner told this newspaper.

He indicated that although he will be seeking an audience with the army’s top brass, he sought to engage the media first because he does not want the matter to be swept under the carpet.

“This is the only medium we have that we can trust to highlight the plight we are facing,” he said.

There have been several reports of local law enforcement preying on the gold mining sector, especially Brazilians.

These actions had prompted the late Commissioner of Police Henry Greene to issue a stern warning to his ranks to desist or face prosecution if they are caught.

and people keep promising to be on the lookout so that if she turn up anywhere we gon know”, Harris’ daughter Claudette Pancham told Kaieteur News yesterday.

Pancham said that ranks from the joint services also assisted her in the search for her 82 year old mother.

“A member of the joint services who knew my mother organized a team and they used a helicopter to scour the area where she was last seen.”

The woman however expressed dissatisfaction on the administration’s stance on such issues.

“I think if the government had put a proper system in place we had at least had clues on how to locate two missing senior citizens I think things like having dogs trained to track missing persons would be useful in

such cases but we don’t have these resources. The police could only use what they have”.

Pancham stated that all the family needs now is closure.

“We long for closure on the issue even if she turns up dead”.

She noted that it is quite strange how these two well known community members and easygoing elderly people could have gone missing in this manner.

Harris was last seen wearing a blue dress, black shoes and a straw hat. She ventured in the farmlands aback of Mocha having her cutlass and two dogs with her. The dogs had however returned home without their master.

Meanwhile, Morris John who lives in the farming area

was last seen clad in grey jeans, long boots and a blue cap. He had in his possession his lighter, a torch light and a knife.

However his relatives have since lost hope of finding him. A woman who identified herself as Lorna Richards, John’s daughterin-law, said that the families have exhausted their resources in their attempts to find him.

“We glad to find he but right now we fed up we can’t do nothing really, police help we lil bit we want know what happen wid he but we can’t do nothing now.”

Persons knowing the whereabouts of these two missing people are asked to contact 674-0638 or 688-2277 for John and the Harris family on telephone number 2170338.

Page 14

Kaieteur News

Monday January 28, 2013

Monday January 28, 2013

Kaieteur News

Are the Lusignan massacre...

Residents of Lusignan gathered for the IAC’s Inter-faith service for those killed in the massacre five years ago From page 10 the third of the five houses to be attacked, it was evening, and an inter-faith service was being conducted by the members of the Indian Arrival Committee. Both his parents were there. I observed as his mother wept all through the ceremony. She seemed to have been just as distraught as she was when I saw her on the television shortly after the killings.

Theirs was the only house that the gunmen did not manage to gain entry to. Bibi Mohamed Khan who had been staying with her parents while her husband was away on business, said on Saturday last that although many things have changed the hurt that they feel is still there.

She said that even holidays and birthdays are no longer the same in their home.

“Usually around holiday time, especially the Muslim religious holidays, my mother would cook up nice things and invite some relatives and friends, but after that night she no longer does that,” Khan said.

Theirs was the only of the five homes that the gunmen did not break into. Instead, the gunmen sprayed the wooden building with bullets.

Khan explained that while everybody had gone to bed, her brother, 22-year-old Shazam Mohamed was in the living room watching television when his car alarm went off.

On realizing that something was wrong, Khan said that her brother warned them not to come out from the bedroom.

“He tell we not to come out, and like he walk go into the kitchen to peep the car from the kitchen window. I think they must have seen he shadow and then we just start hearing gunshots nonstop. I

grab me little brother and we run into my parents’ room. A couple seconds after we stop hearing the shots, me father said how he get shoot. Then we hear a groaning coming from outside, so me and me mother rush out. Is then I see my big brother lying on the floor in the kitchen in a pool of blood,” Khan recalled.

She noted that her brother, taking his final breaths, asked his mother for some water to drink and for her to sprinkle some on his face. As soon as she did so, he died. He was a budding accountant.

Meanwhile, his father, Nadir Mohamed, a farmer, had his feet badly damaged by the bullets. While he can no longer do many of the things that engaged him, Mohamed is thankful to God that he could still walk. Although he can no longer do his farming, Mr. Mohamed provides for his family by driving a taxi.

Khan explained that her other brother is currently doing well in school. It was also a surprise to them that he did well at his National Grade Six Assessment Examination which was shortly after the terrifying ordeal.

“My big brother Shazam used to push him a lot when it comes to his books and studies, so we really happy that he doing well,” Khan said.

The next house in line was the Baksh residence. Shalim Baksh was the man who came out from his hiding place under the bed to save his family.

It has been five years, and as far as moving on goes for this family, Baksh’s wife Bibi has remarried, and his daughter, Shazeda now holds a job.

During a brief chat, Shazeda explained that while they have somewhat moved

on, there are days when they would remember those few minutes of terror, and would feel crushed all over again.

She explained that till today, her mother would still contain her grief. She was 14 years old at the time of the incident.

She remembers calling out to her mother who was with her father in the bottom flat of their home, after waking up to the sound of gunshots.

Her parents, who had also heard the shots, joined her on the upper flat of their house as the men ordered the family to open their door, but they were too terrified to move, and within seconds their front louvre windows were shattered and some of the men entered.

“I went into the last room and we hid under the bed. My mother first, me, and then my father. He was so big that he did not fit comfortably under the bed. When they (gunmen) came in, they saw his foot and told him to come out. They asked for the rest of us and he told them that we were downstairs,” Shazeda had said.

The gunmen went downstairs and sprayed the apartment with bullets before returning upstairs.

When the killers put the first bullet into her father’s body, which was lying inches away from her, Shazeda could see his body twitching as the slugs penetrated his flesh.

Her father had begged the killers to spare his life, but after pumping him with bullets, they fired several shots under the bed, none of which found the intended target.

“While I was under the bed, I knew they would kill my father. After they left, my father was trying to say something but no words came out of his mouth. He came out (from under the bed)

and saved us all. If he didn’t, they would have checked under the bed and found us and kill us,” Shazeda said.

The last house to be attacked was the one belonging to 56-year-old Rooplall Seecharan who was shot while he sat in a chair in his living room watching television along with his wife, 52-year-old Dhanrajie called “Sister” and a relative’s daughter, 11-year-old, Raywattie Ramsingh. As of last Friday evening, no one was home. I later learnt that no one lives at the house at present.

The community of Lusignan, following the attack, became a household name; that too, for all the wrong reasons. It became the centre of attention for Guyana and the Caribbean.

Residents say that persons from foreign countries, would, from time to time, visit the area and look around at the houses that were riddled by bullets by heartless criminals.

To date, no one knows for sure the real motive for the attack, although it was reported that the now dead gunman Rondell ‘Fine Man’ Rawlins took responsibility for the attack, declaring it an act of vengeance for the disappearance of his girlfriend, and unborn baby.

The carnage immediately went down in Guyana’s history as one of the most brutal events to have ever occurred here, along with the Jonestown massacre.

The survivors all say that while “Fine Man” has been killed, they do not feel that they have received full justice. “We don’t even know if was really “Fine Man” we just hear that he said is he, and that he dead,” one resident said.

Page 15

CELAC-EU summit addresses new strategic partnership

President Donald Ramotar meets President of Chile Sebastián Piñera Echenique at the First Summit of the Community of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC Heads of Government in Latin America and the Caribbean met behind closed doors in Santiago, Chile a few hours after host President Sebastián Piñera Echenique called for a new strategic partnership in light of a phenomenon that left Europe in crisis and Latin America gaining prominence in exports of goods to the continent.

According to a GINA statement, he told Heads of Government gathered in Chile for the First Summit of the Community of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the First CELAC-European Summit that a 13 percent increase in exports per year in Latin American countries is a clear sign of a revival.

G u y a n a ’s P r e s i d e n t

Donald Ramotar, who is in Chile for the Summit, shared a photo opportunity with the Chilean President who in 2010 gained worldwide praise and recognition for overlooking the successful rescue mission of 33 miners who were trapped for more than two months underground in northern Chile.

The Summit is scheduled to conclude on January 28 with Cuba assuming the protempore Chair of the First CELAC Summit.

It is a highly anticipated moment for the Summit and the island that has endured years of sanctions from Western powers. CELAC was established in December 2011 by the 33 independent countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Page 16

Kaieteur News

Monday January 28, 2013

Graduate school managers urged to put training into practice Fifty- eight teachers in the Berbice area, last Friday, graduated through the National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD’s) sixth Education Management Course (20102012). In addition to the skills learnt, the school managers now have an eight- point advantage for senior promotions any time in the future for their jobs.

The course, originally a 12- month programme, was first piloted in 2001 in Region Two. It was conducted under the Guyana Basic Education Teachers’ Training Project (GBET). The Ministry of Education (MOE) through NCERD, then continued the programme. The course, primarily for school administrators, saw the participation of headteachers, deputy head teachers, senior masters and mistresses and heads of departments of various Berbice schools.

The course was done through Distance Education mode and consisted of nine

modules. To maximize its quality, the course was also extended to 18 months, with the final weeks of the course having assessors from the MOE visiting the participants in their respective schools and assessing their performances as school managers. The course started in Region 6 in 2002, producing over 200 graduates in the system, with 5 master trainers.

Regional Education Officer of Region Six, Ms. Shafiran Bhajan, at the event, stated that the course was appropriate, “in equipping our school administrators across the country with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to perform their tasks efficiently and to improve school administration because the course spans the entire gamut of school administration and curriculum transactions, and even extends to all aspects of school life”.

The course, one of many being offered by NCERD to teachers across Guyana, is being constantly upgraded

The graduads at the ceremony and modifications are being made to make it more effective for teachers. One of the immediate changes is that it will be extended to two years for the next 2013 batch. The 8- point advantage, she stated, will “help them when they vie for supremacy when contesting for promotions….I

know in our region, we have seen much difference in school administration as a result of this course”.

Dr. Amanda K. Russell— Coordinator of the Education Management Programme of NCERD, who delivered the charge to the graduands, instilled in them, five

essential points and qualities to embody: vision, trustworthiness, a sense of humour, and being someone who is approachable.

“Without a vision—we will all perish! It would be a nightmare, a disaster if all you want to accomplish—or your purpose or aim is just to be

promoted and to have a higher salary! I think everybody wants a better salary, including me! But that is not the aim or our major purpose or goal in life!”

Dr. Russell asked who would want to come to the teachers if they are not approachable. “if education is to go forward in this country, we have to first change our mindset and certain traits that we have in ourselves—and we can make Guyana a better place”.

“I am charging you today, to be people of trustworthiness—this will make you an excellent school manager! Be open up to new visions, policies, new procedures and experiences”, she charged them.

The Best Graduating teacher was Mr. Dayaram Dhanraj. He gave an inspiring message to his colleagues as well. The programme was chaired by Master Trainer, UG Lecturer, Mr. Rajkumar Sookraj and saw attendance of senior officers within the Department of Education in Region 6.

Monday January 28, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 17

Page 18

Kaieteur News

Monday January 28, 2013

Russia says Assad’s prospects fading MOSCOW (Reuters) Russia said the chances of Syrian President Bashar alAssad staying in power were growing “smaller and smaller”, as fighting yesterday in southwestern Damascus shut a main highway from the capital.

Assad has long counted Moscow as an ally and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s remarks were the most vocal Russian statement yet that his days may now be numbered, although they come after predictions from France, an avowed enemy, and from neighboring Jordan that the Syrian president’s downfall is not imminent.

“I think that with every day, every week and every month, the chances of his preservation are getting smaller and smaller,” Medvedev said, according to the transcript of an interview in Russian with CNN that was released by his office.

“But I repeat again, this must be decided by the Syrian people. Not Russia, not the United States, nor any other country,” said Medvedev, whose administration has criticized Western, Turkish and Gulf Arab support for

Syria’s rebels.

“The task for the United States, the Europeans and regional powers ... is to sit the parties down for negotiations, and not just demand that Assad go and then be executed like Gaddafi or be carried to court sessions on a stretcher like Hosni Mubarak.”

After Egypt’s veteran president Hosni Mubarak was toppled, Russia withheld its veto on a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing Western and Arab powers to provide military help to the rebels who overthrew Muammar Gaddafi in neighboring Libya.

Moscow has since accused the West of breaching sovereign rights and has vetoed U.N. action against Assad. Medvedev warned that removing Assad by force would mean “decades” of civil war.

Russia has been Assad’s most important ally throughout the 22-month-old Syrian conflict, which began with peaceful street protests and evolved into an armed uprising against his rule.

Moscow has blocked three Security Council

Dmitry Medvedev

Bashar al-Assad

resolutions aimed at pushing him out or pressuring him to end the bloodshed which has killed more than 60,000 people. But Russia has also distanced itself from Assad by saying it is not trying to prop him up and will not offer him asylum.

The mainly Sunni Muslim rebels have seized territory in the north of the country, including several border crossings, and have challenged Assad’s control over Syria’s main cities.

But Assad’s air power and army, whose senior ranks are dominated by his Alawite

minority, have stemmed rebel advances.

France said on Thursday there was no sign Assad was about to be overthrown, reversing previous statements that he could not hold out long, and Jordan’s King Abdullah said Assad would consolidate his grip for now.

“Anybody who is saying the regime of Bashar has got weeks to live really doesn’t know the reality on the ground,” Abdullah said in Davos on Friday. “They still have capability, so I give them a strong shot at least for the first half of 2013.”

Activists said rebels clashed with forces loyal to Assad in southwestern Damascus on Sunday, seizing a railway station and forcing the closure of the main highway to Deraa in the south.

Footage posted on the Internet showed what activists said was a rebel attack on the station in Qadam district. One clip showed gunmen taking cover as gunfire could be heard.

Another showed gunmen inspecting buildings by the track after what the narrator describes as the “liberation” of the station.

Another video showed black smoke billowing above concrete buildings, the result

of what activists said was an air strike by Assad’s air force near the railway terminal.

Syrian media did not comment on the fighting around Qadam and restrictions on independent media make it difficult to verify reports from activists.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britishbased opposition group which monitors the violence in Syria, said jets and artillery also struck targets in rebel strongholds to the east and south of the capital after fierce clashes there.

The fighting came as United Nations humanitarian chief Valerie Amos visited Syria ahead of a U.N. aid conference in Kuwait which aims to raise $1.5 billion for millions of people made homeless, hungry and vulnerable by the conflict.

On Wednesday, Amos said Syrians were “paying a terrible price” for the failure of world powers to resolve the conflict, pointing to 650,000 refugees who have fled the country and the millions affected inside Syria.

“Four million people need help, two million are internally displaced and 400,000 out of 500,000 Palestinian refugees have been affected,” she told an economic forum in Switzerland.

The United Nations and aid groups inside Syria, including the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, could not keep pace with the rising number of people in need, she said.

“We must find ways to reach more people, especially in the areas we are still unable to get to, and where there is ongoing fighting,” she said.

Last month, the United Nations withdrew 25 of its 100 foreign aid workers from Syria as fighting intensified around Damascus, but Amos said it remained committed to maintaining aid work.

Most of the money from

the Kuwait conference will go to support neighboring countries hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees, while $519 million is earmarked for aid inside Syria.

The fighting has alarmed neighboring Israel, where Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom said that any sign that Syria’s grip on its chemical weapons was slipping could trigger Israeli military strikes.

Should Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas or Syrian rebels obtain Syria’s chemical weapons, “it would dramatically change the capabilities of those organizations,” Shalom said.

Such a development would be “a crossing of all red lines that would require a different approach, including even preventive operations,” he told Israel’s Army Radio.

Assad has vowed to defeat rebels he describes as terrorists. In a speech three weeks ago he repeated his readiness for a national dialogue, but ruled out talking to “extremists who don’t believe in any language but killing and terrorism”.

State television said yesterday that Syria’s highest judicial council had suspended legal cases against Syrian opposition members so they can take part in talks - a proposal roundly rejected by most of Assad’s opponents.

Medvedev said Assad did not appear to be ready for a negotiated solution to the crisis.

“He should have done everything much faster, attracting part of the moderate opposition, which was ready to sit at the table with him, to his side,” the Russian premier said. “This was his significant mistake, and possibly a fatal one.”

But he also warned of consequences if Assad is thrown out by force. He said: “Then the civil war will last for decades.”

China carries out anti-missile test BEIJING (Reuters) - China tested emerging military technology aimed at destroying missiles in mid-air after an initial test in 2010, state media said yesterday, in a move that will unnerve its neighbors.

A brief report by the official Xinhua news agency said the military carried out a “land-based mid-course missile interception test within its territory”.

“The test has reached the pre-set goal,” the report quoted an unnamed Defence Ministry official as saying. “The test is

defensive in nature and targets no other country.”

It did not specify whether any missile or object had been destroyed in the test.

“Although no other detailed information about the test was released from the military authorities, weapon system experts said such a test could build shield for China’s air defenses by intercepting incoming warheads such as ballistic missiles in space,” the report added.

People’s Liberation Army officials and documents in

recent years have said developing anti-missile technology is one focus of defense spending, which has grown by double-digits over many years.

The latest flexing of China’s maturing military hardware comes as Beijing is involved in increasingly bitter territorial disputes in the East China Sea with Japan and in the South China Sea with several Southeast Asian nations.

Beijing says its military spending is for defensive purposes and the modernization of outdated forces.

Monday January 28, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 19

Lawmakers see immigration Clegg slams EU vote, overhaul this year polls show boost for PM

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican and Democratic lawmakers were cautiously optimistic yesterday that a long-sought overhaul of the nation’s immigration system that includes a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the country will clear Congress this year, the result of changes in the political landscape shown in November’s election.

“We are trying to work our way through some very difficult issues,” said Illinois’ Sen. Richard Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate.

“But, we are committed to a comprehensive approach to finally, in this country, have an immigration law we can live with. We have virtually been going maybe 25 years without a clear statement about immigration policy. That’s unacceptable in this nation of immigrants.”

Sen. Robert Menendez, who along with Durbin and Sen. John McCain, is part of the six-member, bipartisan Senate group working on a framework for immigration legislation to be announced this week, said current politics dictate that a pathway for citizenship must be included.

“Let’s be very clear: having a pathway to earned legalization is an essential element. And I think that we are largely moving in that direction as an agreement,” said Menendez, D-N.J. But the package “will have the enhancement of the border security,” he said, nodding to Republicans’ priority to tighten borders to

prevent future illegal immigration.

He also said the package would have to crack down on employers hiring undocumented workers.

Arizona Republican McCain has returned to the issue after having led a failed push to fix the nation’s broken immigration system ahead of his 2008 bid for the White House.

McCain said: “What’s changed is, honestly, is that there is a new, I think, appreciation on both sides of the aisle — including, maybe more importantly on the Republican side of the aisle, that we have to enact a comprehensive immigration reform bill.”

Despite making little progress on immigration in his first term, President Barack Obama won more than 70 percent of the Latino vote, in part because of the conservative positions on immigration that Republican nominee Mitt Romney staked out during the GOP primary.

Asians, who immigrated to the U.S. in higher numbers than Hispanics in 2010, also overwhelmingly backed Obama. Latino voters accounted for 10 percent of the electorate in November.

Obama is to press his case for immigration changes during a trip to Las Vegas Tuesday: a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants that includes paying fines and back taxes; increased border security; mandatory penalties for businesses that employ unauthorized immigrants; and

improvements to the legal immigration system, including giving green cards to high-skilled workers and lifting caps on legal immigration for the immediate family members of U.S. citizens.

In an opinion piece published online Sunday in the Las Vegas ReviewJournal, Sen. Marco Rubio, also a member of the bipartisan Senate group, laid out his proposal to address the issue. The Florida Republican, son of Cuban immigrants, wrote that “significant progress” on enforcing immigration laws must be certified before unauthorized immigrants now in the country are allowed to apply for residency and “get in the back of the line.”

Rep. Paul Ryan, the 2012 Republican candidate for vice president, said he backs Rubio’s proposal.

“Immigration is a good thing. We’re here because of immigration. We need to make sure it works,” Wisconsin’s Ryan said.

If Republicans fail to act, they will pay the price in elections for generations, McCain warned.

“Well, I’ll give you a little straight talk: Look at the last election... We are losing dramatically the Hispanic vote, which we think should be ours for a variety of reasons,” McCain said.

McCain and Menendez spoke with ABC’s “This Week,” Durbin appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and Ryan was on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

LONDON (Reuters) - Nick Clegg, leader of the junior party in the ruling coalition, denounced David Cameron’s pledge to hold a referendum on quitting the European Union, as polls yesterday indicated the prime minister’s move may gain him votes.

“It is not in the national interest when we have this fragile recovery,” said Clegg, whose Lib Dems strongly favour closer EU ties, in contrast to many members of Cameron’s Conservative party. “I don’t think it helps at all.” He dismissed as “implausible” Cameron’s plan to take back powers from Brussels before a referendum on a new treaty by 2017 that would let voters take Britain out. EU leaders have shown little wish to grant Cameron concessions and Clegg said EU talks would distract ministers from efforts to revive the economy.

Cameron, he told the BBC, would damage economic growth if he spent “years flying around from one European capital to the next, fiddling around with the terms of Britain’s membership”.

Nick Clegg The Lib Dems are languishing in the polls and are unlikely to leave the coalition before an election in 2015, but the EU issue has added to strains. Cameron, who says he wants Britain to stay in the EU, last week promised a referendum if he is re-elected. It is less clear what may happen if treaties remain unchanged.

The first opinion polls published since he made his pledge of an “in-out” vote, however, showed that the prime minister may be

succeeding in reversing a drift from the Conservatives to a party which campaigns for Britain to leave the European Union. A Survation poll in the Mail on Sunday, which showed Labour unchanged and in the lead on 38 percent, put the Conservatives on 31 percent, up two points, while the UK Independence Party was down by the same margin, on 14 percent. UKIP’s surge from just 3 percent in the 2010 election has raised the prospect of a split on the right that could condemn Cameron to defeat.

Another poll, by ComRes in the Independent on Sunday, showed an even more marked “Brussels bounce” for the prime minister, with the Conservatives gaining five points from last month to 33 percent and UKIP losing four points to be on 10 percent. Again, ComRes put Labour in the lead, down a point on 39 percent.

Cameron’s European move worries the United States and EU allies, which want Britain to stay in the bloc. Many business leaders say it creates dangerous uncertainty.

Page 20

Kaieteur News

Monday January 28, 2013

Berlusconi defends Mussolini, draws outrage from political left (Reuters) - Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi triggered outrage from Italy’s political left yesterday with comments defending fascist wartime leader Benito Mussolini at a ceremony commemorating victims of the Nazi Holocaust.

Speaking at the margins of the event in Milan, Berlusconi said Mussolini had been wrong to follow Nazi Germany’s lead in passing anti-Jewish laws but that he had in other respects been a good leader.

“It’s difficult now to put yourself in the shoes of people who were making decisions at that time,” said Berlusconi, who is campaigning for next month’s election at the head of a coalition that includes farright politicians whose roots go back to Italy’s old fascist party.

“Obviously the government of that time, out of fear that German power might lead to complete victory, preferred to ally itself with Hitler’s Germany rather

than opposing it,” he said.

“As part of this alliance, there were impositions, including combatting and exterminating Jews,” he told reporters. “The racial laws were the worst fault of Mussolini as a leader, who in so many other ways did well,” he said, referring to laws passed by Mussolini’s fascist government in 1938.

Although Mussolini is known outside Italy mostly for the alliance with Nazi Germany, his government also paid for major infrastructure projects as well as welfare for supporters.

Berlusconi’s comments overshadowed Sunday’s commemoration of thousands of Jews and others deported from Italy to the Nazi death camps of eastern Europe.

They were condemned as “disgusting” by the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), which is leading in the polls ahead of the February 24-25 election.

“Our republic is based on the struggle against Nazi fascism and these are

intolerable remarks which are incompatible with leadership of democratic political forces,” said Marco Meloni, the PD’s spokesman for institutional affairs.

Antonio Ingroia, a former anti-mafia magistrate campaigning at the head of a separate left-wing coalition, said Berlusconi was “a disgrace to Italy”.

Faced by the onslaught of criticism, Berlusconi later issued a statement saying he had always condemned dictatorships and regretted not having spelled that out in his earlier remarks.

“There can be no misunderstanding about the fascist dictatorship,” he said, accusing the left of capitalising on his earlier comments for cheap political gain.

However, it was not the first time Berlusconi has defended Mussolini, whose status in Italy remains deeply ambiguous 67 years after he was executed by communist partisans while trying to flee to Switzerland in April, 1945.

Many Italian politicians, including the speaker of the Lower House of parliament, Gianfranco Fini, come from the ranks of the old Italian Social Movement (MSI) which grew out of the fascist party, although Fini and others have renounced the far right.

Others, including Francesco Storace, Berlusconi’s candidate for president of the Lazio region, have stayed true to what they see as the “social-right” tradition of the fascist movement.

Monuments to Mussolini, who came to power in 1922, still dot many Italian cities, including Rome, where a column to Il Duce stands close to the city’s main football stadium, within a stone’s throw of the foreign ministry.

Although never as fervently anti-semitic as his Nazi allies, Mussolini’s government persecuted Italy’s Jewish population, which was then estimated to number about 40,000,

Silvio Berlusconi according to the Jewish C o n t e m p o r a r y Documentation Centre in Milan.

The 1938 laws imposed oppressive restrictions on Jews and some 10,000 are estimated to have been deported from Italy between September 1943 and March 1945. Most of them died in the Auschwitz c o n c e n tration camp in Poland.

While anti-semitic behaviour has not been as

prominently reported in Italy in recent years as in neighbouring countries such as France, acts ranging from anti-Jewish graffiti to chants at football matches occur periodically.

“We m u s t b e v e r y careful to ensure that these sparks, which recur every now and then, cannot bring back tragedies which humanity should not suffer again,” outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti said yesterday.

Monday January 28, 2013

Kaieteur News

Belize/Guatemala territorial dispute heads to World Court SANTIAGO, Chile - CMC - The Organization of American States (OAS) says its Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza, met with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs from Belize and Guatemala on the protracted territorial dispute between both countries.

“The meeting’s main objective was to exchange information on the tasks that both countries are committed to carry out in preparation for the referenda concerning recourse to the Court of the Hague Convention on the territorial issue,” said a statement from the OAS. In the tripartite meeting, which took place within the framework of the European (EU)-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Summit here, the OAS said both officials “explained the situation in each country, with a view toward finalizing the consultation agreed and renewed the commitment of their governments to carry it out.”

José Miguel Insulza During the discussion, the OAS said Wilfred Elrington – the Foreign Affairs Minister from Belize and and Guatemala’s Foreign Affairs Minister Luis Fernando Carrera “thanked the efforts of the hemispheric body, particularly those of Secretary General Insulza, for accompanying the process.”

Insulza, who was accompanied by Ambassador Hugo de Zela, his chief of staff, said “our organization will continue supporting all efforts made by Belize and Guatemala to comply with the agreements

they have reached.”

Guatemala and Belize, have signed an accord agreeing to let their territorialdispute,whichisnearlytwo centuries old, be settled in the InternationalCourtofJustice(ICJ)in The Hague, otherwise known as the Court of the Hague or the World Court. The signing of the accord came after the recommendation made last year by Insulza that the parties turn to the United Nation’s top judicial entity after the negotiations the two countries restarted in 2005 failed to bear fruit.

The OAS said it has monitored the dialogue process between the two countries since 2000, when they began making efforts to work out the controversy, which dates back to 1821, when Guatemala gained independence from Spain and Britain was occupying what is today Belize. Guatemala continues to press its claim to some 12,700 square kilometers (4,900 square miles) of Belizean soil, which amounts to more than half of the former British colony’s territory.

That expanse represents a

Opposition Leader says no apology necessary

CASTRIES, St Lucia CMC – St Lucia’s Opposition Leader Stephenson King has taken a tough stance in ongoing controversy with House Speaker Peter Foster by insisting that no leader of the opposition should ever have to apologise for doing his duty.

King made his position clear in a letter to Foster’s Attorney Michael Gordon, who had written to him demanding an apology “within 48 hours” for remarks he made about an alleged conflict of interest on Foster’s part in the ongoing public inquiry into the St. Lucia Fire Service.

King also raised the issue in a letter to Prime Minister Kenny Anthony in which he said his concerns were based on several infractions of the law as it relates to the delay in the commencement of proceedings of the Commission of Inquiry.

The letter stated the delay appeared to have resulted “out of conflict of interest on the part of the Speaker who also a member of the House of Assembly and legal counsel for a local media house, against whom the Fire Chief has filed cases for defamation of character,” King noted. Gordon had claimed that King had libeled

Stephenson King Foster and called for the apology to be aired by media houses which published King’s “defamatory statements.”

He also acknowledged that Prime Minister Anthony had contacted Kim St. Rose, a lawyer in Foster’s Chambers to act as Counsel to the Commission, but added that any discussion between the government and St. Rose “were exploratory and were never finalised.”

Gordon added, “in light of the potential conflict that may have arisen in the event of St. Rose’s appointment as Counsel to the Commission, St. Rose declined the invitation to sit as counsel to the Commission.” But King wants to know exactly when did St. Rose become aware of

the potential conflict since, according to him, the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister, caused the appointment of St. Rose to be published in local newspapers.

The opposition leader is claiming that St. Rose’s “appointment” as announced could not have been made without the knowledge and consent of Foster.

He contends that while the Prime Minister would not be expected to know of Foster’s involvement in the defamation matter that could not have been lost on Foster or St. Rose. As to Gordon’s claim of libel, King wrote “I wish to assure you that I did not intentionally or recklessly libel your client. I was merely doing my duty as Leader of the opposition for which no leader should ever have to apologise.”

King said he was still awaiting a reply to the issues which he raised from Prime Minister Anthony. He said he felt Dr. Anthony’s silence on the matter was doing harm to himself, the Governor General and Foster and in exposing the office of Governor General to ridicule in that, it did not appear capable of concluding even a simple contract despite an array of paid legal officers at her service.

logging concession granted to Britain by the Spanish Crown in the 17th century.

Insulza had stressed that both countries take “a very important step for the solution of the problem” by acknowledging that the dispute “is essentially of a juridical character” and agreeing to take the case to the ICJ. Even so, voters in the two neighboring countries must still ratify the accord in referenda. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Kimoon has saluted the progress made by Belize and Guatemala under the OAS’ auspices.

A UN spokesperson noted that Belize and Guatemala have requested financial support from the international community for the referenda and possible eventual legal proceedings.

Established in 1945 under the UN Charter, the ICJ settles legal disputes between States and gives advisory opinions on legal questions that have been referred to it by authorized UN organs or specialized agencies.

Page 21

Antigua to launch first renewable energy project ST. JOHN’S, Antigua CMC – The Government of Antigua and Barbuda has successfully partnered with several international groups and countries through the regional Caribbean Renewable Energy Development Programme (CREDP) project in launching the first renewable energy project on the island.

The 6-kilowatt photovoltaic power system at the Nelsons Dockyard Shirley Heights Lookout was aided by the Organization of American States (OAS), the European Union, and the governments of the United States of America and Germany. A report yesterday said the project is expected to provide electrical power “to cover certain elements of the operations” at the Lookout, one of the island’s premier tourism entertainment centres.

General Manager at the Shirley Heights Lookout, Valerie Hodge, said “the project constituted an important asset for the location, which was not connected to the existing light and power company the Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) grid and was totally dependent on costly generator power to supply the various electricity needs.”

Hodge said the initiative received financial and technical assistance from the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA) through the OAS office. “The solar system is installed along the southerly slope of the Shirley Heights, and is an element of the government’s efforts to promote the sustainable use of renewable energy in Antigua and Barbuda,” the statement said.

Page 22

Kaieteur News

Monday January 28, 2013

232 die in smoke, stampede in Brazil club fire BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — A blaze raced through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early yesterday, killing 232 people as the air filled with deadly smoke and panicked partygoers stampeded toward the exits, police and witnesses said. It appeared to be the world’s deadliest nightclub fire in more than a decade.

Witnesses said that a flare or firework lit by band members may have started the fire.

Police Maj. Cleberson Braida Bastianello said by telephone that officials counted 232 bodies that had been brought for identification to a gymnasium in the city of Santa Maria, at the southern tip of Brazil near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay.

Another 117 people were being treated at hospitals, he said, and President Dilma Roussef arrived to visit victims after cutting short participation at a Latin American-European summit in Chile.

Bastianello said the recount lowered the toll from 245 earlier believed killed.

A crowd stands outside the Kiss nightclub during a fire inside the club yesterday. (AP Photo/Roger Shlossmacker) Television images showed smoke pouring out of the Kiss nightclub as shirtless, young male partygoers joined firefighters in wielding axes and sledgehammers, pounding at windows and walls to break through to those trapped inside.

Teenagers sprinted from the scene desperately trying to find help. Others carried

injured and burned friends away in their arms.

“There was so much smoke and fire, it was complete panic and it took a long time for people to get out, there were so many dead,” survivor Luana Santos Silva told the Globo TV network.

Silva added that firefighters and ambulances

responded quickly after the fire broke out, but that it spread too fast inside the packed club for them to help.

Michele Pereira, another survivor, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that she was near the stage and that the fire broke out after members of the band lit flares.

“The band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward. At that point the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak but in a matter of seconds it spread,” Pereira said.

Most of the dead apparently suffocated, according to Dr. Paulo

Afonso Beltrame, a professor at the medical school of the Federal University of Santa Maria who raced the city’s Caridade Hospital to help victims.

He said survivors, police and firefighters told him a flare set off by a band member set the ceiling’s soundproofing ablaze. “Large amounts of toxic smoke quickly filled the room and I would say that at least 90 percent of the victims died of asphyxiation,” Beltrame told The Associated Press by telephone.

“The toxic smoke made people lose their sense of direction so they were unable to find their way to the exit.

At least 50 bodies were found inside a bathroom.

Apparently they confused the bathroom door with the exit door.”

“In the hospital I saw desperate friends and relatives walking and running down the corridors looking for information. It was one of the saddest scenes I have ever witnessed,” he added.

Rodrigo Moura, identified by the newspaper Diario de Santa Maria as a security guard at the club, said it was at its maximum capacity of between 1,000 and 2,000, and partygoers were pushing and shoving to escape.

Beltrame also said he was told the club was filled far past its capacity during a party for students at the university’s department of agronomy. The

event featured a group called Gurizada Fandangueira, which plays a driving mixture of local Brazilian country music styles. It was not immediately clear if the band members were among the victims.

Santa Maria Mayor Cezar Schirmer decreed a 30-day mourning period due to the nightclub disaster and Tarso Genro, the governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, said that all possible action was being taken.

Santa Maria is a major university city with a population of around a quarter of a million.

A welding accident reportedly set off a Dec. 25, 2000, fire at a club in Luoyang, China, killing 309.

At least 194 people died at an overcrowded workingclass nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2004.

Seven members the band were sentenced to prison for setting off the blaze with pyrotechnics.

A blaze at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia, broke out on Dec. 5, 2009, when an indoor fireworks display ignited a plastic ceiling decorated with branches, killing 152 A nightclub fire in the U.S. state of Rhode Island in 2003 killed 100 people after pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproofing foam on the walls and ceiling.

Crime taking on toll on Caribbean economies WASHINGTON - CMC – The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) says several commissioned studies have revealed that crime and violence have had a dramatic impact on women, youth and the economic wellbeing of families in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The new studies “underscore the more hidden dimensions of the cost of crime” on regional economies, by looking at issues such as women’s health and property values” said a statement issued by the organisation.

The studies were the result of a call for proposals to academics and other experts to use innovative and appropriate methodologies to measure the cost of crime and violence in the region, the IDB said. Out of a total of 117 proposals received, eight were presented by their authors at a January 24–25 seminar at the IDB

headquarters here.

“The children of women who have suffered from domestic violence have a greater risk of being born underweight, and grow up with more feeble health, with less chance they will be vaccinated and more likely to suffer from diarrhea,” said the IDB about one of the studies.

The Washington-based financial institution said Latin American and Caribbean citizens cite crime and violence as their top concern, above unemployment, healthcare and other issues.

It said the region suffers from some of the world’s highest homicide rates, stating that 20 of the world’s most violence cities are located in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“Crime has tangible direct costs, such as the cost of funding a private and public security infrastructure to prevent and combat crime,” said Ana Corbacho, sector

economic advisor of the IDB’s Institutions for Development (IFD) Sector, which covers citizen security at the IDB. Gustavo Beliz, an IDB specialist, said “a better understanding of the economic costs of violence and crime is vital for public-sector decisionmaking in the citizen security sector. “It allows for a discussion more grounded on hard information, among officials in ministries who deal with the areas of s e c u r i t y, p l a n n i n g a n d budgets”.

The IDB said it aims to support the efforts of public institutions to better prevent crime and violence with actions that include social initiatives focused on the creation of opportunities for young people, strengthening management of police and penal justice, and with better rehabilitation.

Monday January 28, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 23

Barbados policyholders to sue CLICO directors

Barbados Nation Thirteen Directors of the insolvent CLICO and British American Insurance Company (BAICO), including former CLICO executive chairman Leroy Parris and president of CLICO Holdings Barbados Limited, Terrence Thornhill, are facing B$128 million in negligence lawsuits.

The action has been initiated by the Barbados Investors and Policyholders Alliance (BIPA), whose lawyers have served the directors with pre-action protocol letters, giving them two weeks to respond with either “plausible reasons” why the action should not be maintained or a convincing settlement offer.

Failing that, the court action to recover B$76 million from the CLICO players and

B$52 million from those accused of negligence in the BAICO matter will be triggered.

The SUNDAY SUN was told that attorneys at law Alair Shepherd, QC, and Esther Arthur sent off the January 17 correspondence along with a draft statement of claim to CLICO directors Parris, Thornhill, Anthony Ellis, Woodbine Davis, QC, Leslie Haynes, QC, Elridge Thompson, Adrian Lorde, Basil Springer, Edrick Griffith and Vishnu Ramlogan.

The BAICO claim named former CL Financial chairman Lawrence Duprey and directors Brian Branker and Robert Fullerton.

The other defendants named in both claims were accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers,

the auditors of BAICO and CLICO; the Supervisor of Insurance; and the Attorney General, as the representative of the Crown.

BIPA has contended that the loss suffered by its members was a direct and/or indirect result of the negligence and breach of duties by the defendants.

President June Fowler said their actions “individually and collectively contributed to the unnecessary demise of the two companies and the consequent massive losses to policyholders”.

“It is with a heavy heart that BIPA has instructed its attorneys at law to proceed with these actions,” she said.

“Having pursued various other more conciliatory avenues over the past two

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan authorities yesterday finished evacuating inmates from a prison where 61 were reported killed in one of the deadliest prison clashes in the nation’s history.

Penitentiary Service Minister Iris Varela said in a message on Twitter that the evacuation of Uribana prison in the city of Barquisimeto was completed yesterday morning. Inmates were loaded aboard buses and driven to other prisons.

Varela posted photos of inmates filing out led by authorities, and said that what will come next for the prison is “now the reconstruction!”

Two days after the violence, government officials had yet to provide an official death toll from the fierce gunbattles, which pitted armed inmates against National Guard troops.

D r. R u y M e d i n a , director of Central Hospital i n t h e c i t y, t o l d T h e Associated Press on Saturday that the death toll had risen to 61, while about 120 were wounded in the violence.

Medina said that nearly all of the injuries were from gunshots and that 45 of the estimated 120 people who were wounded remained hospitalized.

Relatives wept outside the prison during the violence, and cried at the morgue as they waited to identify bodies.

The riot was the latest in a series of deadly clashes in

Venezuela’s overcrowded and often anarchical prisons, where inmates typically obtain weapons and drugs with the help of corrupt guards. Critics called it proof that the government is failing to get a grip on a worsening national crisis in its penitentiaries.

The gunbattles seized attention amid uncertainty about President Hugo Chavez’s future, while he remained in Cuba recovering and undergoing treatment more than six weeks after his latest cancer surgery.

Government officials pledged a thorough investigation, while some critics said there should have been ways for the authorities to prevent such bloodshed.

The riot was the deadliest in nearly two decades.

In January 1994, more than 100 inmates died in the country’s bloodiest prison violence on record when a riot and fire set by inmates tore through a prison in the western city of Maracaibo. In 1992, about 60 inmates were killed in a riot in a Caracas prison.

Va r e l a s a i d t h a t t h e violence erupted on Friday when groups of inmates attacked National Guard troops who were attempting to carry out an inspection. She said the government decided to send troops to search the prison after reports of clashes between groups of inmates during the past two days.

“No one doubts that inspections are necessary procedures to guarantee

prison conditions in line with international standards, but they can’t be carried out with the warlike attitude as (authorities) have done it,” said Humberto Prado, an activist who leads the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory, a watchdog group.

“It’s clear that the inspection wasn’t coordinated or put into practice as it should have been. It was evidently a disproportionate use of force,” Prado said.

In 2011, when Chavez had been in office for 12 years, he created a Cabinet ministry to focus on prisons and appointed Varela to lead it.

The president made that decision following a deadly, weekslong armed uprising at the prisons El Rodeo I and El Rodeo II outside Caracas.

Chavez at the time acknowledged that his government’s previous initiatives to improve the prisons hadn’t worked, and he pledged changes including building new prisons, improving conditions and speeding trials. Since then, Chavez has approved funds to repair and renovate prisons.

But opponents and activists say the government hasn’t made real progress at penitentiaries where hundreds continue to die each year.

Venezuela has 33 prisons built to hold about 12,000 inmates. Officials have said the prisons’ population is currently about 47,000.

Inmates moved after bloody Venezuela prison riot

years without success, BIPA has been left with no alternative but to represent the best interests of its members by taking this action,” Fowler added.

She said that many Government promises had gone unfulfilled and neither of the judicial managers had taken the route of legal action to recover the funds.

In the case of BAICO, the alliance said its members had lost out on B$52 million, while the higher amount of B$76 million was lost by the CLICO investors.

The statements of claim detailed where BIPA believed each defendant fell short.

Among dozens of accusations made against the directors were that they did not properly manage the affairs of the companies; rubber-stamped management decisions; recklessly funded acquisitions of investments regardless of whether they could yield any dividends, thereby exposing the company to insolvency; blindly relied on the reputation of Duprey and the CL Financial group of

companies; and failed to recognize that the course of conduct embarked on by the companies could only result in their insolvency.

The Supervisor of Insurance was accused of failing to perform his statutory duties by ensuring that BAICO was only able to carry on as an insurance company if it both maintained the required Statutory Fund and complied with restrictions on the use of assets representing that fund.

As for the auditors, the claim further contended that they failed to carry out their work to uncover the companies’ risk of not maintaining the liquidity needed to meet their obligations; plan and carry out their work to uncover potential deficits in future cash flows of the companies; and to carry out their work so as to show that the returns on investment for high interest rate products were substantially lower than the returns guaranteed to the policyholders.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has already responded to the

correspondence from BIPA’s lawyers. In a January 23 letter, territory leader Marcus Hatch said the company was in the process of seeking to appoint attorneys who would respond after an investigation of the matter. It promised a full, written response within a month.

Fowler said that while BIPA campaigned for the rights and restitutions of funds to all 35 000 CLICO and BIPA policyholders in Barbados, only the 424 members of the alliance had been named in the court action.

BIPA’s action comes ahead of the four-year anniversary of the collapse of CL Financial, the parent company of BAICO and CLICO, and amid efforts by judicial managers – Deloitte Consulting represented by Oliver Jordan and Patrick Toppin in the case of CLICO, and KPMG’s Lisa Taylor and Michael Edghill for BAICO – to find a resolution.

Both have indicated that policyholders would not get back all the money they invested.

Page 24

Kaieteur News

Monday January 28, 2013

Monday January 28, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 25

Bauxite sector makes ambitious - amid calls to ensure projections for 2013 communities benefit

Bauxite sector executives and major stakeholders at the Watooka Club A review of the bauxite sector, to chart the course for continuous expansion saw the two bauxite companies, Bosai and Rusal outlining their projections for 2013.

The programme was hosted by the Ministry of Natural Resources at the Watooka complex in Linden on Saturday.

The audience of major stakeholders from across Region 10, including Regional Chairman Sharma Solomon and Interim Management Committee Chairman Orrin Gordon, were treated to presentations of mining activities conducted by the two companies, over the past year.

Gordon, while applauding the companies’ commitment towards expansion, was most vocal about the issue of a farmer at Linden who has occupied the land he is farming on for over 32 years, but still has no lease for the land. The land that Baljit was given surface rights to farm is controlled by RUSAL.

Gordon said that he has a problem if the benefits that would accrue to the community from expansion of the bauxite sector, would only be additional jobs.

He pointed to the huge craters that are left after mining and said that they need to be filled.

According to Gordon, bauxite is a non-renewable resource, and as such steps have to be taken to benefit the community.

Those sentiments were echoed by a resident of Coomacka, a community which sits on the periphery of Bosai’s mining operations.

The woman said that mining pits left by the company collect water, which over time accumulates and flows over into the nearby Demerara River. This contaminates the water which has to serve the community’s domestic needs, she noted.

Member of the Board of Directors of the Geology and Mines Commission, and head of the Bauxite Development Unit, Dunstan Barrow, said

that the projected targets by Bosai for 2012 were ‘ambitious’ especially as it relates to stripping.

He said that if there is the availability of the requisite equipment, and efficiency is maximized, the company could very well reach its target.

Both Rusal and Bosai meanwhile refrained from answering questions by Barrow about the expected financial returns from the projected targets for 2013 by their respective companies.

Bosai said it intends to increase production by 35 percent, which will see the company producing 892,944 metric tonnes of bauxite.

RUSAL meanwhile projects a 19 percent increase in their production levels, and hopes to commence mining at Kurubuka in 2014, which is expected to increase the workforce by 10 percent. It anticipates producing 1.8 million tonnes of bauxite overall.

Ranks at the Golden Grove Police Station were forced to spend the entire Saturday night in the station compound after the building was overtaken by a large swarm of bees.

Kaieteur News understands that the bees have constructed a hive in the station ceiling’s lower flat, and when some of the ranks arrived on duty at around 18:00 hrs on Saturday, they were met by the agitated swarm.

“They took over the Enquiries office and other parts of the building…the ranks had to stay in a shed outside and in a vehicle until morning,” one eyewitness said.

Prisoners in one of the cells were also affected by the swarm, though there were no reports of anyone being stung.

Kaieteur News understands that the swarm has been living in the station ceiling for some time. While

they do not appear to be of the more deadly Africanised species, some ranks have reportedly been stung in the past.

“They fall from the ceiling and when the ranks are working they sometimes get stung, but last night was the worst.”

Kaieteur News understands that the ranks have complained about the bee invasion but no attempt has been made to rid the station of the pests.

Police ranks flee bee invasion at Golden Grove

While RUSAL blamed the global financial crisis, and high production costs for much of the difficulties the company experienced over the last year, Bosai on the other hand highlighted a multiplicity of challenges.

Some of those, the company said, were attributable to poor stripping lead, unavailability of exposed ore, a backhoe which was out of service for five months, prolonged period of rainfall and the protest action in Linden between July and August.

Nonetheless, both companies were optimistic of reaching their projected targets for 2013.

After the presentations by the two companies, there was an interactive session where stakeholders were provided the opportunity to voice concerns etc.

Topping the list of concerns were the environmental aspect as it relates to the backfilling of mined out areas, and the dismissal of 57 workers from

Rusal in 2009, and which has not yet seen a resolution.

Regional Chairman Sharma Solomon said he was committed to seeing the impasse resolved between RUSAL and the Guyana bauxite and general workers union over the dismissed workers.

The latter was of paramount importance, according to Solomon. He also pointed out that the companies need to involve stakeholders more and keep them informed on key issues.

Meanwhile IMC chairman Orrin Gordon, reiterated what Solomon said about the dismissed workers issue, and chided Rusal about the possible implications, if the matter is not resolved.

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, in 2012, bauxite production improved significantly, from 1,827,555 metric tonnes in 2011 to 2,034,811 metric tonnes at the end of November. That was an overall improvement of 25.7 percent relative to the

1,618,483 produced in the period January to November 2011.

The Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc. produced 1,416, 287 metric tonnes of bauxite, in the period January to November 2012, 5.9 percent more than that which was produced for the whole of 2011 (1,337,057 metric tonnes).

Bosai Minerals Group (Guyana) Inc. (BMGGI) produced 618,524 metric tonnes between January to November 2012, 26 percent more than for the whole of 2011 (490,498 metric tonnes).

Bosai also announced that it will invest close to US$100M to expand its operations in 2013.

Minister of Natural resources, Robert Persaud who addressed the forum, emphasized that companies operating in Guyana must abide by the laws of the country, while citizens ought to ensure the stability of their communities, for the success of said companies. (Enid Joaquin)

Page 26

Kaieteur News

Monday January 28, 2013

Execution in hotel yard…

Cops seek to enhance video of killer’s face

Police are trying to get a closer look at the gunman who stalked, chased and then killed Intaz Roopnarine last Thursday.

A senior official told Kaieteur News yesterday that police have sought the expertise of technicians in the hope that they can enhance the image from surveillance cameras that show the brief confrontation between the killer and his victim.

Investigators are convinced that the gunman is an individual who is suspected to have carried out similar ‘jobs’ and who has been on the police radar for some time.

But the suspect has apparently gone underground since police have been unable to locate him at any of the places that he is known to frequent.

A warhead recovered at the scene indicated that the killer used a .32 revolver, while Roopnarine reportedly had a licensed 9mm pistol, considered to be even more lethal than the killer’s firearm.

Some individuals have suggested that the gunman would have abandoned his mission had Roopnarine fired

Intaz Mohamed back at the individual or even discharged his weapon in the air.

Roopnarine was shot dead while he was about to leave the Cool Square Hotel with a female companion.

A security guard had reportedly cautioned Roopnarine that a suspicious-looking i n d i v i d u a l w a s lurking outside near the hotel.

According to sources who viewed the camera footage, Roopnarine was

about to follow his companion when the tall gunman scaled the hotel fence. The guard and Roopnarine immediately took evasive action.

Kaieteur News was told that the gunman discharged a shot at his fleeing target but missed and struck one of the hotel windows.

According to sources, there were several open rooms in which Roopnarine could have taken cover.

Instead, the apparently panicstricken man fled down a passageway leading to a dead end at the back of the hotel compound.

There, the gunman shot him in the head.

Sources who ruled out robbery as the motive pointed out that other guests had left the hotel before Roopnarine without arousing the gunman’s interest.

Thursday’s killing comes in the wake of several other execution-style killings last year.

On March 16, 2012, Leonard Mahadeo, 37, of Diamond, New Housing Scheme was drinking in the Soca Paradise Sports Bar located at Old Road Eccles,

East Bank Demerara, when two gunmen walked in and riddled him with bullets. They then calmly left the scene.

Mahadeo had survived a similar attempt on his life five years ago.

In June, 2012, Pest Control Plus owner Mohamed Baksh was sitting in Flava’s Grill, a Thomas Street business place, when a car stopped near the premises.

A gunman then entered the restaurant and shot Baksh twice in the head. He succumbed the following day at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.

Also in March, Giovani Leitch, 21, of Tucville was gunned down aback of the Plaisance Market. On April 30, Renie Williams, a 25-year-old taxi driver and former policeman, was sitting with his wife in a car outside their King Edward Street,

Albouystown home when a man clothed in black with a 9mm pistol shot him twice in the back, killing him almost instantly.

Four days later, Albouystown resident, Aman Lalchand, called ‘Randy’ was smoking a marijuana joint in a poorly lit Sussex Street area, when the occupants of a white car pumped several gunshots into his body.

Close associates said that Lalchand was targeted for execution by an individual who reportedly collected a $1M down-payment to carry out the hit.

In late August, the bulletriddled body of 25-year-old taxi driver, Sean De Freitas Sookdeo, was discovered on Thomas Lands, near the National Park. Sookdeo’s body bore gunshot wounds to the head, hands and abdomen and there were

signs that he was also tortured.

On October 15, Ricardo Rodrigues, a close associate of convicted drug dealer Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan, was riddled with bullets from highpowered rifles as he sat at a table at the Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club compound on Albert Street.

Jean Le Blanc, a Canadian, was also wounded and succumbed several days l a t e r.

Rodrigues is said to have been linked to a huge arms cache that was intercepted at Lethem. Fifteen days after Rodrigues’ execution, his associate, Marlon Osborne, aka Mar l o n S c o t t a n d ‘Trini’, was gunned down in a brazen daylight onslaught while sitting in a vehicle near the junction of Peter Rose and Laluni Streets, Queenstown.

Murder of male sex worker…

Colleagues continue ‘business’ in the face of danger It has been several weeks since the mutilated body of male sex worker was found in St Philip’s Green, and now police appear to have reached a dead end in their investigators.

Initially ranks had detained two men who were identified as two of three persons with whom the murdered, Wesley Holder was seen prior to his death.

The killing has caused some commercial sex workers to temporarily cease roaming the streets while others are continuing with business as usual.

This publication was also told that there is a particular group that targets commercial sex workers plying their trade in the High Street area as well as those working the vicinity of the St. George’s Cathedral.

“They got a group as soon as they see these people get clients they does run up to them and stick them up, and remember now nobody aint gon want go and report that they went to pick a fare and get rob, and these girls ‘male commercial sex workers’ does get rich clients and people you would never expect,”.

There are also reports of troublesome persons who would frequent the areas used by sex workers and assault them for no reason.

“Some people get kicks off of doing it but these people (commercial sex workers) just go out there to do business they don’t trouble nobody, yes I gon admit that they got a few who does rob them client like when they doing they business but is not nothing big,” one

Dead 19 year-old Wesley Holder. source told this publication.

Relatives and friends of the now dead Holder said they were always fearful for his life.

One relative who was very close to Holder said she recalled many nights he would literally race back to his home with marks of violence and would not be able to return to the streets for days.

“He use to tell us stories about working with a client and then known persons coming and robbing both he and his client and in some instances being severely beaten and I would beg him to not go back to the streets, but it was what he loved.”

The relative who asked not to be identified said she feels persons like Holder are victims of discrimination as their numerous reports of assault have been made to the Brickdam Police Station but nothing is ever done. Another friend of Holder’s told this publication that once Holder

was beaten so badly that his entire back was discolored and he was in severe pain for days. Relatives told this publication that on more than one occasion they found a regular job for him but before long he would return to the streets.

Holder’s friend who had identified two suspects had reportedly been at the receiving end of death threats because of a statement he had given investigators.

Sources close to the investigation revealed that there was insufficient evidence to press charges against the two men.

A source had revealed that police had removed a freshly used condom and a knife from the scene of the crime. However there has been no talk of possible DNA testing in this case.

Nineteen year-old Wesley Holder called ‘Tiffany’ of 65 Cross Street, Werk-en-Rust was on January 11th last found dead in the compound of St. Phillips Green. He had been murdered.

This publication was told that the man’s body bore a cut to the back of the neck, one to his throat and cuts to his wrists.

There were other marks of violence on the body.

Holder was last seen alive around 21:00 hours on the day before the discovery in the company of another sex worker. Holder had indicated that he was going to conduct business. Two persons were detained to assist with investigations but no charges were laid.

Monday January 28, 2013

If you “smell a rat” it may not be a real rodent but merely that you suspect something is wrong. Sometimes it can be a combination of the two, both literal and figurative, as in a recent article in FORBES, the financial magazine.

The headline was, “Scientists Smell A Rat In Fraudulent Genetic Engineering Study” and the first paragraph stated, “Last week French microbiologist Gilles-Eric Séralini and several colleagues released the results of a long-term study in which rats were fed genetically engineered (AKA genetically modified, or “GM”) corn that contains enhanced resistance to insects and/or the herbicide glyphosate…they then announced that their longterm studies found that the rats in experimental groups developed tumors at an alarming rate.”

FORBES claimed that the investigators intended to get a spurious result and used a strain of rats that were bred to develop tumours as they aged.

I have a dog here in Antigua who is better than FORBES and their scientists at smelling rats. His name is Bunji and while he may not be as dogged as FORBES, his sense of smell is especially good when it comes to rats.

Even though I complain that it is the only sense he has, Bunji constantly proves his worth through his olfactory omniscience.

This is a useful gift and Bunji is worth all the meals and love my wife lavishes on him because here in Antigua it is not the corn that is genetically engineered but the rats. If you park your car too long in the driveway, a rat will inevitably take it over.

Rats here are field dwellers who sneak around trying to scrounge whatever they could.

Among their favourite meals is wire-mesh which they eat as an appetizer so that they can get into your house where they find their main courses and shelter that is not as hazardous as a car

Kaieteur News

engine. The rats are also growing bigger and bigger.

The reason is that dog ownership here is increasing.

Whether because of the rise in crime or dog-fighting, more people have dogs, especially pit-bulls, which must be fed with expensive store-bought “chow”. The rats are brave and desperate enough to eat the dog rations and the additional protein is like steroids to them – in fact they run as fast as Ben Johnson and one, looking like Lance Armstrong, jumped on my children’s bike recently. It is only very quick work that kept him from riding away with it.

The Antiguan rats remind me of a calypso by Lord Blakie, the deceased Trinidad Calypsonian, about a rat which climbed up on the stove, removed the cover from a meat dish, ate its fill, and then put back the cover before departing. Ours are smarter – they will remove the pot and even the stove to use the oven as a nest.

Bunji was out for his prebedtime walk when he started nosing around the car. My wife knows Bunji’s behavior well enough to realize that a rat was in the engine compartment, probably searching for the spare key to unlock the door, drive the small Matrix into the bushes, strip it and sell the parts to buy dog food.

Whatever its intentions we will never know as I unlocked the door, started the engine to scare the rat away and opened the hood to show it I meant business. The rat escaped through its access point under the vehicle and took off, not so much scared as annoyed, perhaps even going to gather its friends for a showdown with us.

Bunji may or may not have seen the rat. Possibly, smelling the rat was enough for him and, considering his duty done, he expected one of the other three dogs to do the rest.

Or it might be that the rat was almost as big as Bunji (or so claimed my wife).

Whatever the reason, the rat escaped unmolested and

untroubled. It holed up in the pump room, a small shed outside the house that is redolent of rodent, most likely preparing for a prolonged game of hide and squeak with us.

The other three dogs are hopeless. Sheba, the youngest, is a speedy black mixed-breed female who can run and who hunts the tarantula spiders that cover the yard at night. However, she is scared of her own shadow.

Missy is an ancient female and Crix can find cricket balls in the bush but not anything

Page 27

else. Faced with their inadequacy, I decided to take severe steps to ensure the safety of my car, home, family and dogs. I figured that desperate times called for desperate measures.

I had tried glue traps but the rats got high on the glue and held races with the traps, using them like moccasins on their feet.

The winner got to eat the glue and the plastic case. I tried rat “cake” and one of the sagacious rats instead of consuming it left it where the dogs would find and eat it.

We almost lost Crix that way.

So I bought a metal rat-trap and baiting it with cheddar, sneakily opened the pump room door and slid the trap in, hoping that the rat would not smell a rat.

Early the next morning, I went to see whether the trap had worked and to remove it if the rat had not tripped it since I did not want any of the dogs to be injured.

That was more than a week ago. Up to today, I cannot find the trap anywhere. I strongly suspect

that the rat has gone to the local pawn shop, “Cash Whiz”, to see how much money it could get from selling the trap so it could buy some Purina or worse, it might have headed for the US looking for Lance Armstrong’s supplier. *Tony Deyal was last seen saying that he is worried that the rat might have reset the trap using a bone as bait to catch Bunji. Or maybe it was a “Mickey Mouse” trap.

Page 28

DTV CHANNEL 8 08:55hrs. Sign On 09:00hrs. GMA 10:00hrs. Live! With Kelly and Michael 11:00hrs. The Ricki Lake Show 12:00hrs. The View 13:00hrs. World News 13:30hrs. The Young and the Restless 14:30hrs. The Bold and the Beautiful 15:00hrs. The Talk 16:00hrs. Steve Harvey 17:00hrs.

The Ellen

Kaieteur News

DeGeneres Show 18:00hrs. World News 19:00hrs. Greetings and Announcements 20:00hrs. Channel 8 News 21:00hrs. Movie: Madea’s Witness Protection 23:00hrs. Sign Off MTV CHANNEL 14/ CABLE 65 06:00h Islamic Perspective 06:30h The Diary 07:00h DAY BREAK (live) 08:00h Dabi’s Musical Hour 08:30h Avon Video & DVD

music hour 09:00h Current affairs 09:15h Top Notch Music Break 09:30h Caribbean Temptation music break 10:00h Amanda’s music break 10:30h Clairan’s Ent. Music Break 11:00h Salvation Message with Pastor Kelvin 11:15h National Geographic 12:00h The View 13:00h Village Talk 13:30h The Young and The Restless 14:30h Days of our lives 15:00h General Hospital 16:00h The Bold and the Beautiful 16:30h Cartoons 17:00h Birthdays & other Greetings 17:15h Death Announcements/ In Memoriam 17:30h Sitcom 18:00h Aracari Resort Hour 19:00h CNN News 19:30h News Update 20:30h Getting it Right 21:30h English Movie: Son of the Mask 23:00h News Update 23:30h English Movie: Son of the Mask continues Sign Off

Monday January 28, 2013

Monday January 28, 2013 ARIES (March 21 - April 19): Try to pay more attention to any young adults or teenagers who may be in your life right now. You make a very good role model and you have some interesting ideas that they would benefit from. ******************* TAURUS (April 20 - May 20): There's a certain enlightening combination of facts, fiction and circumstance that only you are privy to today.

That means you'll be in a power position, and you should use it wisely. Keep your cards close to your chest and don't spill too much information. ****************** GEMINI (May 21 - June 20): Sometimes when someone's behavior rubs you the wrong way, the friction can be stimulating! Seek out contrary, opinionated voices today. ******************** CANCER (June 21 - July 22): Use your ears today and they won't fail you! Take extra time to listen for new clues, comforting compliments and juicy conversations! People around you are talking, and they are not watching what they say. ********************* LEO (July 23 - Aug. 22): While they're basking in the limelight, are you stuck stewing in sour grapes? The universe advises against jealously, as it will only create more negative energy around you. ******************* VIRGO (Aug. 23 - Sept.

22):If you haven't managed to schedule some 'away' time for yourself, make sure you do it today. Call that spa, pick out the book you'll read, or decide on a destination. ********************* LIBRA (Sept. 23 - Oct. 22): Are you feeling pres-

sured to be active right now when you really don't want to be? Listen to yourself and follow your mood, despite what other people may say. After all, one person's lazy is another person's relaxed ... it all depends on your point of reference. ********************* SCORPIO (Oct. 23 Nov. 21): Ideas are flowing out of you right now, but it's going to take concentrated effort on your part to shape them into something p r a c t i c a l . Yo u r n e w thoughts are lumps of clay -- full of potential, but in need of a strong vision to transform their potential into reality. ******************** SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 Dec. 21): A friend's tale of woe may have you taking out the tissues and formulating a revenge plan today. Hold off on moving forward, because there are three sides to every story. .********************* CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 Jan. 19): Having a rich fantasy life might be just the ticket right now to keep you energized and feeling positive. You can control everything in your imagination, so give it a try! ******************** AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 Feb. 18):Surrounding yourself with too many likeminded people is usually not a good idea, and doing so is going to really limit your creativity right now. ********************* PISCE S ( F e b . 1 9 March 20): For special insight on your latest quandary, turn to your coworkers or classmates today. You need to consult someone who either is in the same situation as you are, or has been there before.

Monday January 28, 2013

Kaieteur News

Page 29

Windies aim to start on a high Coach Gibson backs Windies against Prime Minister’s XI to come good Down Under Canberra, Australia – West Indies will get a feel of the conditions in Australia when they play their opening tour match against theAustralia Prime Minister’s XI on Tuesday at the picturesque Munaka Oval. First ball in the day/night encounter is at 2:20 pm (11:20 pm Monday Eastern Caribbean Time/10:20 pm Monday Jamaica Time).

Skipper Darren Sammy and his side will be expecting a good workout against a team led by former Australia captain Ricky Ponting.

“As an individual and as a team we have just got to get the basics right and execute if you want to win. This is the only practice match we have before we start against Australia in Perth later this week, so this is a chance to hit the ground running. The guys have been playing a lot of cricket back home and hopefully we can get this series off to a great start here,” Sammy said.

The West Indies played at the same venue against the Prime Minister’s XI two years ago and made 399-5 off 45 overs. Chris Gayle led the charge with 146 off 89 balls.

“I remember Chris Gayle hitting the ball all over the park. We played well that day and entertained the crowd.

Darren Sammy (WICB) It’s a good fixture whenever we tour here and it’s good to play the Prime Minister’s match to start our tour. I’m expecting Chris to have a good tour on a whole and I also expect the team to play well in these conditions.

“When he came back home he looked really good and I think he almost had the most runs in the Caribbean T20 tournament after just a couple of games. We all know what he’s capable of, but the strength for us is the way the team has performed together.

We are getting stronger as a unit,” the Windies captain noted.

Looking ahead to the five ODIs and one-off T20,

Sammy said the team is well motivated to do something special on foreign soil. He said last year’s action-packed series against the Aussies in the Caribbean and the team’s triumph at the ICC World T20 are proof the Windies can beat higher ranked opponents in any conditions.

“It will be competitive out here, that’s for sure. I see it as a continuation of what happened in the Caribbean – over there in the limited over format it was a draw 2-2.

We’ve got five ODIs here so we want to play hard and competitive cricket. It’s always a challenge to play Australia anywhere in the world, but even more so in their own backyard. We believe we can come here and if we can execute our plans and play to our strengths, we can be successful,” a confident Sammy added.

“We have a lot of respect for Australia, you can never count Australia out. They’re professionals and know how to dig themselves out of a hole. We won’t watch the results of the Sri Lanka series, but we’ll look at some areas to implement in our game. I expect it to be a hard-fought battle and we’re looking to play it very hard.”

Canberra, Australia – It’s a long way from the Caribbean to Australia, but the West Indies players have settled in very well after their voyage from home.

Head Coach Ottis Gibson believes his players will adjust to the conditions as they prepare for the upcoming series, which will include five One-Day Internationals and a one-off T20 International.

“We’re hoping we can hit the ground running. We’ve just come out of a tournament (Caribbean T20) at home so everyone has been playing cricket and the guys have shown good form.

We believe we’ve got a good mix of some young players and some very experienced players,” said Gibson, who took over the job in March, 2010.

“We are the T20 World Champions and we are proud of what we achieved in that tournament, but that doesn’t put any added pressure on the team. Hopefully with that victory and what we achieved more people come and watch us.”

He added: “It’s something we have to move on from and think about

Ottis Gibson (WICB) moving up the ladder in OneDay cricket and getting ourselves in the mix with the best teams in the world.

We believe we’re a top team, but we now have to show it with the way we play.”

The West Indies will have their first tour assignment when they face the Australia Prime Minister’s XI, to be captained by Ricky Ponting, in a day/night contest at Munaka Oval.

A capacity crowd of around 12,000 is expected for the first international day/night match at the ground. First ball is 2:20 pm

(11:20 pm Monday Eastern Caribbean Time/10:20 pm Monday Jamaica Time).

“This is our one opportunity for preparation and it gives us a good chance to get some practice. We’re looking forward to it and we want to entertain the Prime Minister with a full ground and hopefully we put on a good show. But the main aim is to get our preparation right for the One-Day Series which begins in Perth on Friday,” said Gibson.

Asked about the Australian side, Gibson simply responded: “I don’t know if they’re vulnerable...we try not to get caught up in that though, we’re just gearing for five tough One-Day International games and a tough T20 to come.”

SQUAD: Darren Sammy (Captain), Dwayne Bravo (Vice Captain), Tino Best, Darren Bravo, Johnson Charles, Narsingh Deonarine, Chris Gayle, Jason Holder, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Kieran Powell, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Devon Thomas.

Page 30

Kaieteur News

Monday January 28, 2013

Ian Bell hundred seals closing win BBC Sport - Ian Bell struck an unbeaten 113 as England sealed a sevenwicket victory in the final oneday international, India winning the series 3-2.

In the first international played at Dharamsala, Tim Bresnan (4-45) twice struck in successive balls as India were 226 all out having been put in. Suresh Raina (83), dropped on five and 61, made his fourth consecutive fifty.

But Bell shared in three 50 stands and hit his first overseas ODI hundred as England won with 16 balls remaining.

The Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association stadium, India’s 43rd one-day international venue, provided a stunning spectacle, nestling in the snow capped foothills of the western Himalayas.

Cold early morning conditions proved more to England’s liking when Alastair Cook won the toss for the first time since the opening match, which the tourists won by nine runs.

The entire playing area was covered in snow less than three weeks ago and despite the continuing early chill in the air Bresnan found some noticeable away swing

which produced two slip catches as the Indian batsmen were exposed by the moving ball, as if at Trent Bridge in May. Rohit Sharma was sharply taken to his right by James Tredwell and after a near replica edge next up, Virat Kohli was pouched at the fourth attempt by the spinner, with Cook poised underneath, like a midwife at a birthing pool, for any spillage.

Steven Finn maintained the pressure by squaring up the dangerous Yuvraj Singh, the leading edge drifting in the high altitude to backward point to dismiss the lefthander for a duck.

Tredwell was in the action again in the 10th over when he clutched Raina’s edge off Chris Woakes in his left hand as he dived full length at second slip but the ball escaped from his grasp.

Woakes, brought in for the errant Jade Dernbach, was soon hit for three fours in an over by the pugnacious Raina but a quirk in the laws led to England’s next success.

The umpires deemed that Bresnan had been off the field too long to be able to bowl

immediately so Cook turned to Tredwell, who struck with his second ball as Gautam Gambhir (24) cut lazily and Bell held a smart low catch to his left to bring India skipper Mahendra Dhoni to the crease in the 13th over.

Finn was brought back in a bid to make a breakthrough and he did so in the second over of his new spell when Dhoni was trapped on the crease lbw for 15.

India needed a partnership and it was provided by Raina and Ravi Jadeja, who recorded the fifty stand from 76 balls by dispatching Joe Root down the ground and into the upper tier. Raina was reprieved again when Cook fumbled at backward squareleg off Tredwell, but in his next over the redoubtable Kent spinner collected his 11th wicket of the series when Jadeja’s agricultural swipe at a turning ball looped gently to backward point.

England claimed the important scalp of Raina in the 42nd over when the lefthander was deceived by a slower ball from Woakes to give Bell his third catch of the innings, though Samit Patel conceded 12 and 15 in

Suresh Raina helped India recover (BCCI) Ian Bell slashes at one (BCCI) separate overs as 49 were mustered from the final eight.

Bresnan, left out of the tour to New Zealand to rest an elbow problem, ended the innings in the final over with India some distance short of what was considered a par total. Cook and Bell were determined not to suffer the same fate as the Indian top order and overcame some fortuitous early edges with calm assurance as the 50 arrived in the 11th over.

When Ishant Sharma nipped one to breach Cook’s defences, England seemed content to keep wickets in

hand, although Kevin Pietersen could not resist a short ball and Jadeja took an excellent running catch on the boundary.

Jadeja, India’s leading wicket-taker in the series, was not introduced until the 27th over, at which point England looked in command.

But the purposeful Root, yet to make fewer than 30 in his short ODI career, had an uncharacteristic rush of blood with 84 still needed when he made no contact with a pull shot at a turning delivery from Jadeja and was bowled.

However, Morgan, who had made only 13 in his previous three innings, launched Ashwin down the ground for six to record the fifty stand in his 40 from as many balls, leaving the adroit Bell, the only centurion in the series, to hit the winning run.

England next travel to New Zealand, where they play three Twenty20 internationals, three one-day internationals and three Tests beginning early next month.

Scores: England 227 for 3 (Bell 113*) beat India 226 (Raina 83, Bresnan 4-45) by seven wickets.

Dottin reveals how she...

From page 32 me it was more than just the runs he scored. What I liked to see was the way he walked out on the pitch, how he looked out there in the middle and the way he represented West Indies,” added Dottin, who also represented Barbados in track and field and football (soccer) before she made the switch to cricket.

“He always looked in control of things. I have never seen anyone do it quite like him. I don’t try to copy everything, because I know I can’t bat like he did, but I looked at the way he showed his presence and tried to follow that. He had power and control.”

West Indies had a full training session on Sunday afternoon under the guidance of Head Coach Sherwin Campbell. They will play their first warm-up match

against Australia on Monday morning. The Windies will play in Group A alongside defending champions England, hosts India, and Sri Lanka. Group B will include Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa.

Dottin said she is looking to make a mark during the tournament – which will be her second ICC Women’s World Cup. She was a member of the West Indies squad which placed fifth when the tournament was played in Australia four years ago.

“My aim is to be consistent. I have made some good scores in 50-over cricket, but I haven’t been as consistent as I should be. One of my goals is to score the most runs, but the overall goal is to win the tournament for West Indies,” she said.

“The pitches in India will suit the spinners and I believe our approach to spin will be

crucial. Most of the teams will be coming with a lot of spinners, so the better you handle the spin the better your results will be.”

The Windies have a strong slow bowling attack – headed by experienced offspinner Anisa Mohammed, who at age 24 is preparing for her third World Cup. She is the leading bowler in West Indies history with 89 wickets at 15.30 each in 59 ODIs. She is backed up by teenaged leg-spinner Shaquana Quintyne; left-arm spinner Shanel Daley; and the off-spin of Stafanie Taylor, the two-time winner of the ICC Women’s Player-ofthe-Year award.

“We have some very good spinners in our team, some who can bowl out a team on any given day, so we have a big advantage in that department for sure,” Dottin added.

Monday January 28, 2013

Kaieteur News

GFF Super League set to restart on Sunday Buxton & Blairmont to host matches Following an extended break, attention will return to the exciting Guyana Football Federation sponsored National Super League which features ten of the best teams in the nation.

In its third year, the Super League has been the standard bearer for selecting teams to compete in the Caribbean Football Union tournament, Inter Guiana’s Cup which also features the top clubs from Suriname and French Guiana.

To date, the competition has been keen among the clubs and can only get better when the first-round resumes on Sunday with three matches, a double header at the Buxton Community Centre Ground and a lone game at the Blairmont Community Centre Ground, West Coast Berbice.

With the transfer window now open and coming to a close on Thursday, it will be interesting to see the final make up of the various Super League teams for the remainder of the league.

The lone fixture at the Blairmont brings together home team Rosignol United and new kids on the block, Uitvlugt Warriors. The West Latest Points Standing Teams Western Tigers Pele Buxton United Alpha United Uitvlugt Warriors Rosignol United Amelia’s Ward Den Amstel BV Triumph Milerock

P 7 7 7 5 6 6 5 6 6 7

Demerara based Uitvlugt led by veteran and former National defender Orville Bobb has created two major upsets to date with wins over defending champions Alpha United (2-1) and Milerock (4-3).

Rosignol lost to Milerock in a close game 2-3 but hammered Western Tigers 41 in a commanding win. With Uitvlugt just above Rosignol at 5th place in the points standing, the scene is set for an intriguing match-up between two sides that features a number of promising young ball weavers who are eager to showcase their talent in a winning way for their respective clubs.

Up at the Buxton Ground, East Coast Demerara, the home team will engage Upper Demerara’s Milerock in feature play from 15:30hrs and an enthralling battle is anticipated.

The reigning Kashif and Shanghai knock-out champions will have the home support behind them and will also have some high standards to live up to following their historical triumph on January 1, 2013.

Both sides have a mixture W 4 3 3 3 3 1 1 1 1 1

D 2 3 2 1 0 3 3 3 2 1

L 1 1 2 1 3 2 1 2 3 5

of youth and a few seasoned players but no big names.

One thing’s for sure however, they all have a hunger for success and that will be at the back of their minds when the opening whistle is sounded.

Despite the fact that Milerock lies at the bottom of the standings and Buxton third, fans can expect a tactical contest between the two sides.

Opening play pits another East Coast side, BV Triumph United against Den Amstel Porknockers in another clash that is a must see.

BVTU in their debut year have looked very promising while Den Amstel has also shown what they are capable of doing. Again, an exciting crop of young players will be on show and fans can be assured of high octane action in their showdown.

Two matches will be played at the GFC on Wednesday February 6, defending champions Alpha United will come up against Amelia’s Ward United in opening play at 18:00hrs while the main attraction promises to be a humdinger of a battle between Pele and Western Tigers.

GF 10 9 5 11 9 12 8 6 5 8

GA 7 4 8 3 10 11 8 8 10 14

GD +3 +5 -3 +8 -1 +1 0 -2 -5 -6

Pts 14 12 11 10 9 6 6 6 5 4

Late goal takes hosts South Africa through DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa grabbed a late equaliser to draw 2-2 with Morocco on Sunday and take top spot in the final Group A table at the African Nations Cup. Morocco, eliminated after drawing all three matches, were four minutes away from beating the hosts before defender Siyabonga Sangweni levelled.

Issam El Adoua opened the scoring for Morocco in the 10th minute at the Moses Mabhida Stadium. May Mahlangu pulled South Africa level with a curling shot in the 71st minute only for substitute Abdelilah Hafid to restore Morocco’s lead with a breakaway goal 11 minutes later.

South Africa will stay in Durban for their quarter-final against the runners-up in Group B who will be determined on Monday.

Morocco’s Kamel Chafni (right) battles with South Africa’s Thulani Serero.

REUTERS/Rogan Ward

Page 31

Athletic Russell says “good start will be great for us” Canberra, Australia – West Indies allrounder Andre Russell touched down in Australia for the first time on Saturday and immediately got down to business. The 24year-old said he is excited about the prospect of playing Down Under and has big plans for the upcoming fivematch One-Day International Series and one-off T20 International.

“This is my first time in Australia and I’m looking forward to doing my best here. Down here we can expect bouncy wickets and that is good because of the way I play in terms of bowling and batting, so I am looking forward to a good series,” said the right-arm seamer, who is also a capable batsman and athletic fielder.

“Bravo (Dwayne Bravo), Pollard (Kieron Pollard) and myself, we have we discussed the length that is good to bowl here in Australia, and whenever you’re batting you can be a lot more relaxed because the bounce is a lot more consistent in terms of the pitches.”

West Indies will have an afternoon training session on

Andre Russell (WICB) Monday at the Manuka, the same venue where they will play their tour-opener against the Prime Minister’s XI on Tuesday. First ball is 2:20 pm (11:20 pm Monday Eastern Caribbean Time/10:20 pm Monday Jamaica Time).

“It is very important to get a good start. The warm-up match will be a good contest and we won’t be holding back. Getting a few wickets and making some runs – at least a half-century – that would be a good start for me on Australian soil,” Russell said.

T h e l a s t t i m e We s t Indies and Australia met, the two teams played to a 2-2 series result – with the other match being tied.

During that series in the Caribbean last March, Russell played a crucial role in the action-packed matches in at Arnos Vale in St Vincent and Beausejour in St Lucia.

Overall in his ODI career he has made 30 appearances with 595 runs at 31.31 per innings, including a topscore of 92 not out against India. He has 39 wickets at 29.94 each, including five fourwicket hauls.

“I am looking forward to doing well again against Australia. I’ve gotten some good scores against them and put on a crucial partnership with Sammy, but we couldn’t get the job done they way we would’ve liked to get it done in that game,” Russell added.

“I’ve got a few fourwicket hauls against them so I’m looking forward to at least getting a five this time and boost my career a bit.”

Page 32

Kaieteur News

Monday January 28, 2013

Valiant Murray run ragged by relentless Djokovic MELBOURNE (Reuters) Andy Murray ran and ran until the skin on his feet came off and still it was not quite enough.

The Briton’s hopes of winning his second successive grand slam title were ended by the resilience and defensive brilliance of world number one Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final.

The Serb’s 6-7 7-6 6-3 6-2 victory on Sunday was Murray’s fifth defeat in six grand slam finals but having broken his duck at the U.S. Open last September against Djokovic, the pain is unlikely to linger quite as long this time.

Having played a five-set semi-final against Roger Federer and with a day less to recover than the Serb, a calmlooking Murray did well to save five break points in the first set and then played a superb tiebreak to move ahead.

But his big chance came and went in the second game of the second set when he had 0-40 on the Djokovic serve and failed to convert. It was the turning point of the match.

“I was getting quite a few 0-15s, 15-30s, 0-30s and I couldn’t quite capitalize on my chances on his serve,” Murray told reporters. “That was a disappointing part. “I played a good second set. I created quite a few chances and didn’t quite get them.

That was the difference.”

The two 25-year-olds, born just a week apart, are separated by two places in the rankings but they showed again that when they face each other across the net,

Djokovic holds up the Australian Open trophy.

(AP)

there is a hair ’s breadth between them.

Murray said he was a little stiff after his effort against Federer but of bigger concern was a nasty blister that appeared on his right foot. His ability to stop and change direction was affected and when you have a weakness, the last person you want to play is Djokovic.

Having lifted his energy at the end of the second set to level the match, he ran Murray side to side, relentlessly, slowly increasing the pain.

Still it took until the eighth game of the third set, two hours and 51 minutes into the match, for the first break of serve as Murray netted a forehand. The grueling rallies were beginning to take their toll and with Djokovic’s tail up, Murray was broken in the third game of the fourth. That, pretty much, was that.

Murray denied that the blister had affected his chances and said he was more than happy with his efforts in reaching a third Australian Open final and his third straight grand slam final.

“The last few months have been the best tennis of my life,” he said. “I made the Wimbledon final, won the Olympics, won the U.S. Open and I was close here as well.

It was close.

“I know no one’s ever won the immediate slam after winning their first one. It’s not the easiest thing to do and I got extremely close.

“This is the first time I’ve beaten Roger in a slam over five sets. I think I dealt with the situations and the ebbs and flows in that match well.

“I felt much more comfortable on the court today than even I did at the U.S. Open, so that has to be a positive.”

Dottin reveals how she tries to “move like Sir Viv”

Mumbai, India – Deandra Dottin didn’t become the most powerful batter in women’s cricket by accident.

The West Indies allrounder revealed how she has been studying the approach of West Indies legend Sir Vivian Richards, for many years.

Dottin, a strongly-built 22-year-old, holds the world record for the fastest century in a T20 International – by a man or woman. The amazing milestone came off just 38 balls against South Africa in 2010 during the ICC Women’s T20 Championship. She is presently in India preparing for the ICC Women’s World Cup (50 overs), which bowls off later this week with matches in Mumbai and Cuttack.

She spoke of her great

Deandra Dottin adoration for Sir Viv, who is one of the greatest batsmen in the history of the game. He made 8,540 Test runs in Tests and 6,721 in ODIs for West Indies in an illustrious career which spanned from 1974 to

1991. He also made 36,212 runs in first-class cricket, including 114 centuries.

“When I started to follow cricket from very young, I used to love watching him (Sir Viv) on videos. I grew up playing cricket in the road and after hearing about the great man and seeing him play, I liked his aggression. I would sit and study the way he moved and the way he hit the ball. It was great to see the way he played. I didn’t realise back then that someday I would be fortunate enough to represent the West Indies, but when I started to play I tried to do everything the way he did it,” Dottin said.

“He’s obviously my hero in cricket and in all sports. For Continued on page 30

Monday January 28, 2013

Kaieteur News

RHTY&SC adds voice to Chattergoon’s non-selection The Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC) has joined the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) and the Albion Cricket Club in condemning in the strongest possible way the non-selection of Sewnarine Chattergoon to Guyana’s four-day and 50-overs teams.

The Club is also condemning the omission of Gudakesh Motie, Eon Hooper and Jonathan Foo from the standby list.

“We would also like to support Albion’s position that the Rayon Griffith Selection Committee should resign or be fired if they fail to provide proper justification at the non-selection of several top Berbice players.

The RHTY&SC is very upset that the highest run scorer for the four-day tournament who also has Test experience apart from his commitment and discipline cannot find a place in the Guyana team.

What then is the purpose of this tournament? Young Motie, Hooper and Foo fully

deserve to be on the standby list but it seems that they are paying the price of being Berbicians. Assad Fudadin last year Captained Guyana and for no reason whatsoever was not even considered for the vice captaincy.

The RHTY&SC notes with great disgust that one of our Berbice players was advised by a Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) official that if he wants to go further with his cricket he should leave Berbice and play cricket in Georgetown because the GCB has no interest in Berbice cricket.

The players were then offered positions to play for a club that the official is associated with. Young Eon Hooper might also be paying the price for not turning up for a T20 practice match after his employer rightly refused to release him with less than half day notice, during the busy Christmas season.

The said employer at great cost then allowed Hooper over three weeks leave to play

in the one and four-day tournaments for Berbice. It must be noted that the young and highly talented Hooper was not even on the T20 standby list.

The RHTY&SC stands strongly on the side of its players and we would continue to support them as we have always done. Our players must not suffer because of the BCB’s non support of the GCB or because of the jealousy of non-performing cricket officials over the success of the outstanding work of the BCB and every cricket Club in Berbice.

We pray that elected officials would serve cricket for the development of the game and not to settle personal vendettas. We would like to urge our sister club, Albion to work even more closely with the BCB and the RHTY&SC to develop Berbice cricket even further so that this injustice to our younger players be a thing of the past.”

Maria Thomas relegated to 2nd place in 2nd Margaret Prince Celebration Chess tourney Maria Thomas in action.

Local chess player, Maria Thomas kept the Golden Arrowhead flying when she finished 2nd to Jamaica’s National Women’s Champion, Krishna Gray, when the curtains were lowered in the 2nd Margaret Prince Celebration Chess Tournament, played at the Chess Centre, Cavans Lane, Bridgetown Barbados, January 19-21 last.

The Guyanese and Trinidad and Tobago Women’s Champion, Aditi Soondarsingh amassed 5 points each but Thomas was eventually adjudged second by dint of the tie break system.

Thomas drew her 6th round game against Martinique Woman Champion Camille Sauveur and finished with a win against her compatriot, Queens College student, Lydia Nurse.

The tournament was

intricately poised at the start of the penultimate round with four contenders, former Barbados Woman Champion, Corrine Howard, Martinique Woman Champion, Camille Sauveur, Thomas and Gray, enjoying similar points. The latter player then distinguished herself with a hard fought win against Master Sheena Ramsay, a former Barbados Champion.

Gray then comfortably dispatched Guadeloupe’s National Woman Champion Michelle Duboue in the final round to secure 5 ½ points to emulate her countrywoman, FIDE Master, Deborah Richards, who won the inaugural Margaret Prince Celebration trophy in 2009.

Soondarsingh, the top seed, recovered from a sluggish start to win games in the 6th and 7th rounds against reigning Barbados

Woman Champion Katrina Blackman and her predecessor, Donna Murray, and was eventually adjudged 3rd place.

Another former Barbados Champion, Corinne Howard, a member of the Chess Team in the UWI Sports Programme, placed 4th after amassing 4 ½ points.

She had been one of the frontrunners in the early stages of the tournament but was forced to quit at the last round to attend the funeral of a family member in Antigua and Barbuda. Before she was forced to terminate her participation, she had won her 6th round game against Donna Murray and was tied with Gray entering the final round.

However, she managed to seal off the 4th place on the better tie break after her UWI team mate, Katrina Blackman held Martinique’s Camille Sauveur to a draw.

Sheena Ramsey beat CAC Girls Under-14 Silver Medalist Gabrielle Cumberbatch of Harrison College in round 7 to end in 6th place with 3 ½ points while Katrina Blackman (3 points), placed 7th with the better tie break score from Lydia Nurse who finished 8th. Guadeloupe player, Michelle Duboue ended 9th while Donna Forde and Gabrielle Cumberbatch, both on 21/2 points each, finished 10th and 11th respectively.

Page 33

Page 34

Kaieteur News

Monday January 28, 2013