Four friends left together two weeks ago for sea to make “an honest living” but last weekend two of their bodies washed ashore at Abary in Region 5 with marks of violence and their hands and feet bound – signs that they were tortured before being killed by suspected pirates.
While two families have closure, two more are in anguish and are clinging to some hope that their loved ones are somehow still alive.
Still missing are boat captain 20-year-old Vishnu Seeram called ‘Kevin’ of Miss Phoebe Port Mourant and 20-year-old Marvin Tamessar called ‘Buddy.’
With little to no help from the Police, their families have launched their own search parties with the help of residents and have combed the Corentyne coastline with the hope of finding the young men.
Forty-one-year old Shamwattie Inderjeet called ‘Nanda’, the mother of the boat captain, sat in a hammock resting Sunday as her blood pressure skyrocketed. She cannot fathom the thought that he may be dead.
The woman’s search party combed from the Number 68 Village to Number 19 Village foreshore but came up empty handed; they plan to resume the search Monday.
Inderjeet told the News Room that Kevin left for sea with the sole intention of clearing his conscience since he was reportedly indebted to the boat owner after an unsuccessful first trip, so he decided to make a second trip to make up for the loss.
She was skeptical of him going to sea given the danger, so she asked him to find another job, however, he was unable to find employment.
The distraught mother said her son has been a fisherman since he was 17-years-old.
She is enraged that the owner of the boat has not offered to assist in the search for her young son.
“How I feel, this person just take my son to work he boat just for the money. He [doesn’t value my son’s life] or nothing else only he stuff.
“I feel so bad. My heart like it shatter how I feel,” Inderjeet said with tears flowing down her cheeks.
She described her son as a “good and kind-hearted person who loves to work.”
“I know this work is challenging and I does tell my son let him look another work, but he does search but nothing he nah get on the road. Job hard to find.”
An honest living
Meanwhile, at the home of Tamessar, his mother Sanita Ramanah was comforted by relatives.
He is the second eldest of 10 children. Like the others, Ramanah said her son went to earn money to help sustain his family.
“He went to work to provide for us. He went to work an honest dollar. [I] need [my] son… he does help me a lot, he never show me a bad face, he does always call for [his] ‘Ma’.
“If he alive or dead me still want see he, even if a part of he body me want see he,” Ramanah said through tears.
The 20-year-old has been a fisherman for some three years and in 2018, the boat he was working on was attacked by pirates who stole their catch; he and the other crew members were badly beaten.
In light of the situation, the families are calling for safety measures to be put in place to protect the lives of fishermen. They noted that too often the act of piracy occurs with little or no justice.
“Long time them say they gonna put things in place and prevent this from happening but how I feel right now is like this thing [won’t] stop”.
The News Room understands that the men departed the Number 65 Village Wharf for a fishing trip to Suriname on Saturday, October 5 and were scheduled to return in 14 days.
But the boat was found abandoned on Friday last at the Wellington Park Foreshore in East Berbice Corentyne with bloodstains; the engine and a piece of seine are missing.
Inside the abandoned boat, Police found clothing that belongs to the fishermen along with other items. The boat is registered as SARA 1.
