Guyana's police chief, Winston Felix, meanwhile, has indicated his investigators have leads in the case, but so far has made no arrest. Felix, at a press conference on Saturday, had said the armed gunmen who stormed the minister’s home reportedly demanded cash and jewellery. He said they were apparently given G$23,000 by Omprakash Sawh, the 53-year-old brother of the minister, but more was demanded.
Yesterday, he added that members of his force were also looking at whether criminal gangs or drug traffickers were involved in the executions.
Minister Sawh and relatives, who were visiting from Canada, had apparently returned to their home after attending a private function when they were approached by gunmen from along the roadway, discharging rounds.
Security guard, Albert Mangra, was hit in the abdomen while another security guard, Roopnarine Thakurdin, managed to escape unhurt. But Sawh along with his sister and brother, Rajpat Rai and Phulmattie Persaud, respectively, and another security guard, Curtis Robinson, were shot dead.
His brother Omprakash survived and is now in the hospital along. His wife survived by hiding in a closet in the house. The bandits reportedly came and left on foot. Minister Sawh is survived by a wife, three sons and several relatives.
President Bharrat Jagdeo called the recent murders, “a deliberate assault on the values of our nation” and vowed to “destroy those who seek to wound us.” While the ruling, People’s Progressive Party, in a statement, said the latest murders may be aimed to “foment hatred and violence” in the country, where elections are constitutionally due on August 4.
The recent killings has shocked and saddened the country and its Diaspora. Sawh was a former member of the Canadian Diaspora, who returned to Guyana in the early 1990s to join the governing People's Progressive Party, which had returned to power. During the years 1975 and 1992, Sawh served as a member and president of the Association of Concerned Guyanese and the political representative of the People’s Progressive Party in Canada. He was also editor in chief of the "Guyana Current" newspaper in Toronto.
He was born on June 13, 1955 in Central Mahaicony, Region Five, and went on to pursue and attain a bachelor of arts degree in economics/business from York University, Toronto, Canada in 1982 and a certificate in accounting and business from the Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, Toronto, Canada, 1978.
From 1993 to 1996 Sawh served as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Guyana to the Republic of Venezuela, Columbia and Ecuador. In 1996 he was appointed minister of fisheries, other crops and livestock with responsibility for forestry. And in 2003 he was also tasked with the responsibility of acting minister of agriculture.
The murder rate in this South American nation of less than a million people continues to skyrocket with close to 50 killings occurring since the start of 2006. They include a bloodbath on the East Bank of Demerara in February that left eight dead in one night and the execution of top contractor, Gazz Shermohamed and journalist turned talkshow host, Ronald Waddell.
Police have yet to nab the murderers in any of these cases and also continue to look for a cache of high-powered weapons that went missing from the country’s Army depot in February.
The U.S. government says the murder rate in Guyana is three times higher than the murder rate in the United States and warns U.S. citizens to use caution while traveling to and from the Cheddi Jagan International.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Guyanese and friends of Guyana are invited to post their condolences and comments through our feedback form at:
– Hardbeatnews.com
