Grieving relatives, survivors, Guyanese at home and abroad have, for the past 100 days been calling for the MV Barima to be raised. After months of foot-dragging and delay, the Government finally announced that BK International had won the contract to raise the wreck. The Government never announced when the work would begin, and Guyanese learned that the raising of the wreck had begun only when a man died. On October 28, Luis Martinez, a Venezuelan diver, died at the wreck site. Five days later, it was BK, not the Government, that confirmed he died working on the Barima. Why this secrecy?
The law requires notice, yet no Notice to Mariners has been posted on MARAD’s website to tell mariners that the raising of the wreck has begun. Nothing has been said to the grieving relatives. Nothing has been said to the survivors. Nothing has been said to defence counsel for the three men charged with murder. The MV Barima is the key piece of evidence in their clients’ case, but that evidence is being raised, and their lawyers were not told.
No one may raise or break up a sunken wreck in Guyana without the written permission of the Receiver of Wreck. To do so without that permission is a crime. The Maritime Administration Department has a legal duty to warn mariners and the public of any operation that affects safety at sea. And everything brought up from that hull, the cargo and the belongings of the dead, must be published by the Receiver within forty-eight hours. So where is the permission? Where is the warning to Mariners from MARAD?
Now consider the three men charged with murder. Whatever one thinks of the charges, our Constitution is clear. Every person charged with a crime is entitled to a fair hearing. Every accused person must be given adequate facilities to prepare a defence. The Constitution places on the court a duty to ascertain the truth. The MV Barima is the
central physical evidence in that trial. Its hull, and everything inside it, will tell the court what happened. That evidence is now being disturbed in secret, with no one for the defence present to see what is done to it. Whatever has changed cannot be tested; whatever is lost cannot be recovered. The evidence from all appearances has already been compromised, and not only has this prejudiced the three accused, the court itself also is prevented from finding the truth.
This is not how the world raises a wreck. When South Korea raised the ferry Sewol, the families watched from boats just outside the salvage area. When Italy raised the yacht Bayesian, the coast guard announced the operation in advance. When a diver died there, the work stopped, and the death was made public the same day. That is the standard.
I therefore call on the Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation, Deodat Indar, to answer these questions. When did the raising of the wreck begin? Where is the written permission of the Receiver of Wreck, and what conditions did it set? Who was told, and when? Was the Commission of Inquiry notified? What has been done to the hull so far?
But even as these questions are being asked, full answers cannot undo what has been done; the site has already been compromised. The death of Luis Martinez also calls into question whether this operation is being conducted safely at all. An independent review of the safety of the operation and of the integrity of the evidence is now unavoidable. Furthermore, the Government must say when it will officially notify the families that the raising of the wreck has begun. It must put in place arrangements for them to witness the work, as far as is possible. Above all, the legal representatives of the three accused must be given that same opportunity, because the freedom of three Guyanese citizens rests on this evidence.
Seventy three bodies were brought home from the Barima and around thirty families are still waiting for a body to bury. They asked for the Barima to be raised so that they could have answers, but instead, they were kept in the dark, the Guyanese public was kept in the dark until another family lost someone.
Enough is enough.
