Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn Monday said that instead of an Argentine forensic team, the government favours working with its usual partners from the United States, the UK and Canada to help local authorities solve the murders to the three teen boys who were killed in early September.
“We have no particular preference to go outside the normal lines of engagement which we have in relation to these matters,” Benn told the News Room on the sidelines of an event at the Police Training Centre at Eve Leary, Georgetown.
He said local authorities are satisfied with the DNA analysis that was done in Guyana and overseas and continues to investigate the killings that sparked outrage nationwide.
Benn explained that the government has its normal and reliable recourse of overseas agencies that it works within this regard and has no intention of sidelining those agencies.
Benn said those agencies include the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in the United States of America, and authorities in the United Kingdom and Canada.
“Those are the ones we normally resort to and those are the ones we will resort to,” added.
The mutilated bodies of Isaiah, 16, and Joel, 18, were found in the Cotton Tree backlands, West Coast Berbice on September 6. The killers carved out a huge ‘X’ on Isaiah’s head while they cut open Joel’s chest.
The cousins had left their Number 3 Village, West Coast Berbice home to go into the backdam to pick coconuts the day before their bodies were found.
On September 14, the police determined that the boys were murdered somewhere else and then dumped in the backlands of Cotton Tree.
Mass protests erupted following the killings. It was during those protests that 17-year-old Haresh Singh was killed. The police have not been able to arrest anyone in connection with his murder.
Nigel Hughes, attorney for the Henry boys, had said the families are keen on having an Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, first announced by the Police, to investigate their deaths.
As much as I respect Attorney Hughes fine legal mind…..he proved that he did not have the Countries interest at heart with his “1/2 of 65 is 34” nonsense. It did get the Ministers of his party another year or so salary though.
Therefore does Mr. Hughes have the Countries interest at heart in trying to solve this murder. I personally feel that a bigger reward will draw out someone as there had to be several involved.
The idea is to solve the crime and I really don’t care how they do that as long as they do it. Argentine AND the ABC Countries…..go for it!