Jagdeo

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC):

Police yesterday used tear gas to break up a demonstration by residents of the East Coast Demerara protesting the lack of security in their area following the weekend murders of 11 people including five children by unidentified gunmen.

The lawmen battled demonstrators who have set fires to public bridges and blocked the main road even as President Bharrat Jagdeo met with leaders of several community policing groups and the heads of the security forces to map out a strategy to deal with the weekend massacre.

No details of the meeting have been made public.

Rushed to Hospital

Scores of schoolchildren were rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation yesterday after police sprayed tear gas in the vicinity of their private school at Mon Repos, 10 miles from the capital.

Principal of the school, Jaikarran Jaipersaud, told reporters that the children were in their classes when the lawmen fired tear gas over the building.

Jaipersaud was critical of the action of the police saying they had no need to take such extreme actions and that several students fainted during the melee.

Residents of several villages along the East Coast have taken to the streets following Saturday's killings of the 11 people in the village of Lusignan by a group that the police say include the country's most wanted criminal Rondel 'Fine Man' Rawlins.

Rawlins is reported to have warned law enforcement authorities that there would be mayhem in the country if his reputed pregnant common-law wife was not released by abductors.

The police have offered a G$30 million (US$150,000) reward for Rawlins' capture. He is wanted for several murders, including the April 2006 assassination of Agriculture Minister Satyadeow 'Sash' Sawh, several of his siblings and a body guard.

Protest

Villagers took to the streets yesterday morning blocking the public road and setting fires to old vehicles. Public bridges were also set ablaze and scores of residents from the village of Coldingen have since fled their homes following reports that undefined men had been seen in the area.