AUGUST 25, 2011 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER NEWS
A few weeks ago, Commissioner of Police Henry Greene warned his ranks against the wanton fleecing of Brazilians working in Guyana’s goldfields. But it seems as though the warning has fallen on deaf ears, following another allegation in which two ranks from the Parika Police Station demanded cash from two miners, after accusing them of having false papers. As it turned out, one of the miners was Guyanese Alex Willaims, who told this newspaper that he and his Brazilian counterpart were forced to hand over an undisclosed amount of cash in order not to spend a night in the lock-ups. This was despite all their documents being in order.
Guyanese gold miner Alex Williams
Williams, 22, who hails from Chiung, a community close to the Brazilian border, told Kaieteur News that he and the Brazilian GM of the dredge he is working at, were on their way to Georgetown from Bartica and were passing through Parika when the police there invited them into the station. According to Williams, they told the police – one male and a female – whose regulation number was given to this newspaper, that they were coming from Bartica, but the ranks demanded their “papers”. “I told them that I was a Guyanese and they say ‘no, you can’t be Guyanese’,” Williams related to this newspaper.
He said that for some reason, the ranks did not insist on him to produce his ‘documents’ but since his colleague was speaking no English, they demanded to see his documents. Williams said that when they realized that the Brazilian’s status in Guyana was legitimate, the police then ordered the two men into a room claiming that they had to “check us properly”. He claimed that they were stripped down to their briefs, even in the presence of the female rank, but nothing was found.
The miner believes that the $700,000 that he placed on the table during the search excited the cops and they took them into another room away from the eyes of several persons who were in the station at the time. This time, Williams said, the police threatened to lock them up if they didn’t “lef something”. He said that the ranks told him that he could leave, but his Brazilian counterpart had to be detained. Kaieteur News was told that since the Brazilian did not want to remain in custody, he offered the ranks $5000 but they insisted that he “make it right”.
Williams said that the Brazilian gave the ranks a total of $10,000, while he parted with another $2000 at their insistence. “After we give them the money, they say ‘ok, you are free now’,” Williams said, adding that Tuesday’s incident was not the first time that he had encountered such a situation. “They know that the Brazilians don’t speak English and that they hardly know what is written on their work permits and passports, so they (police) take advantage by telling them that their ‘papers’ were not in order and take away their money,” the Guyanese miner told this newspaper.
The matter was related to a senior police officer who assured that an investigation would be launched.
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