NEWS
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WEEK ENDING June 8, 2014 | guyanatimeSinternational.com
Guyana still awaiting word from TT – almost two months after Guyanese died tragically there
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lmost two months after a Guyanese tourist died after he was reportedly refused medical attention from a Trinidad hospital, the Trinidadian authorities are yet to provide Guyana with a report on an investigation that was conducted into the allegations. Jeetindra Sookram, 35, died earlier this year while he was being transported to another medical facility after he was allegedly denied treatment at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) in Trinidad, because he was not a Trinidad national. According to Foreign
Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, her Trinidadian counterpart had promised to probe the matter and have a report presented to her; however, she has not received any such document to date. However, she pointed out that she did not miss what she called “off the cuff” comments made by the Trinidad Health Minister on the issue that medical insurance is needed upon entry into the country. Rodrigues-Birkett noted that she had raised the issue with Caricom Secretary General Irwin LaRocque since it is counter to the Caricom Single Market
and Economy movement. “The issue there was emergency care and all of our countries subscribed that we would provide emergency care whether or not this is a skilled national…what took place was not congruent with what we had agreed as a region,” the Minister stated. The Foreign Affairs Minister pointed out that if it were a foreign national seeking medical attention in Guyana, a situation like what occurred in Trinadad would not have happened. She said that the person would have probably been treated before Guyanese patients. Sookram and his
wife, Vidya Baichu, were on a two-week holiday in Trinidad in April when the man took ill and began complaining about chest pain. Officials at the EWMSC said Sookram did undergo an electrocardiogram (ECG), which showed he had a heart attack; however, when the nurses went looking for him to administer treatment, he was nowhere to be found.
“Pink form”
North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) Chairman, Dr Shehenaz Mohammed was reported to have said that the issue occurred out of confusion over “the pink
form”, a financial obligation statement to be signed on accessing emergency care. The woman had refuted reports that she was given documents to sign. “The things that the Minister is saying about me, it is not so. They didn’t give me anything to fill out. The Health Minister just take one side of the story. He just listened to the hospital to hear their side. I did not get any ‘pink form’ or anything to sign,” Baichu told the Trinidad Guardian. Baichu had initially told the Trinidadian Guardian that when she took her husband
to the hospital, “…I went in with him and they took him straight to the place where they took blood and did tests. When I went to register him now, they asked for ID and I gave them his passport. They told me he is not a Trinidadian resident and so all the services we would have to pay for it…. We asked them how much was the cost, they said they were not able to say, but whatever service they do we would have to pay for it.” This issue comes as the Caribbean Community is making headway in its free movement policy under the Caricom Single Market and Economy initiative.
Trinidad police probing execution Guyanese con-woman of young brothers in Morvant jailed for 10 years in UK
Trinidad’s Crime Scene Investigators search outside the Morvant home of brothers Jadel Holder and Jamal Braithwaite, for clues Monday (TT Guardian photo)
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ORVANT, TRINIDAD: Police in Trinidad are searching for the gunmen who stormed into a house in Morvant and shot and killed, execution style, two brothers, including a nine-year-old on Sunday. Police said the gunmen entered the house and ordered the occupants, including nineyear-old Jadel Holder and his older brother, Jamal Brathwaite, 15, to lie on the ground before shooting them in the head. Police sources confirmed that Jadel is the country’s youngest person to be shot dead this year and the brothers’ execution has sent the murder toll for the year to 185. According to police reports, the boys were at their Petunia Avenue, Coconut Drive, Morvant home relaxing with their mother and neigh-
bour 16-year-old Glendel Alexander, when at about 3 pm, two gunmen entered the house. Their guns drawn, the men ordered the brothers, Alexander and the brothers’ mother to all lie face down on the floor. The men then stood over Jadel and Jamal and shot both of them once in the back of their heads. The brothers died instantly, while their mother watched on helplessly. Police sources told the media that Alexander, fearful that he too would be executed, jumped up from the floor and made a dash for the door while a gunshot rang out, with the bullet hitting him in the leg. As he fell, the gunmen left the house, clearly not interested in killing Alexander nor the dead brothers’ mother, whose identity police refused to reveal. A resident, who refused to give his name
out of fear, lamented the death of the nine-yearold saying people just don’t care who they kill whether man, woman or child. “Imagine in little Trinidad a nine-yearold is executed just so. What would a nine-yearold have done to deserve such a death?” Another neighbour said the brothers were known to be troublemakers to some but to their neighbours and those who were their friends, Jadel and Jamal were pleasant and polite youngsters who were no better or worse than other youths in the area. Police sources said no motive has been established for the double executions but they believe it was gang related based on the manner in which the two were killed. Police sources said that Jamal was well known to them. (Excerpted from TT Newsday)
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Juliette D’Souza
Guyanese woman who posed as a witchdoctor to con a string of affluent victims out of almost £1 million has been jailed for 10 years after a Judge described her scam as the “worst case of confidence fraud” he had ever heard of. Juliette D’Souza masqueraded as a shaman for more than 12 years, convincing 11 of her middle class “clients” to hand over thousands of pounds to solve issues such as curing terminal illnesses or problems conceiving a baby. The 59-year-old, from Hampstead, an upmarket part of north London, told her victims the money was a “sacrifice” which
would be used as a spiritual offering and hung off a sacred tree in the Amazonian rainforest. Two other shamans in South America would perform rituals around the money before it was sent back and their problems would be resolved, she claimed. But in fact, she used the proceeds to fund an extravagant lifestyle including splashing out on £3000 designer handbags, holidays and a property portfolio. She told victims she was an orphan born on a plane with the amniotic sac over her face – a lucky symbol, but was in fact born Maryan Persaud in Guyana. Far from having a university education, she was a former
cleaner, receptionist and temp. Her trial at Blackfriars Crown Court in London heard wild claims, including that Princess Diana was on her client-list and how she warned the late Princess of Wales that she “would never see her sons again after she went to Paris”. Jurors heard the fake witchdoctor also boasted about treating Prince Andrew and Robert Redford, the actor, and to have cured Monty Python star John Cleese’s daughter of cancer. She also told clients her sister was a Personal Assistant to Prime Minister David Cameron. Jailing D’Souza, Judge Ian Karsten QC said she had cast a “spell” over her victims and persuaded them to hand over the money or they would face “terrifying” consequences. He told the court: “It is the worst case of confidence fraud I have ever had to deal with or indeed that I have ever heard of. “The most serious aspect of this case is that you wrecked the lives of a number of your victims and you have done it out of pure greed.” He said an aggravating feature was that she spent the money on “high living” in the UK and abroad, which included owning expensive cars, jewellery and antique furniture, and even keeping a pet monkey called Joey, which she kept in a cage at one of her Hampstead flats. continued on page 22