Text and image Euritha Tjan A Way
PARAMARIBO — Violence in and around the gold fields appears to be increasing, with the sad low point being the violent death of police aspirant Vinod Nurmohamed in the Lawa area. Head captain Akoebi Constant, under whose traditional leadership Antonio du Brinco and Ronaldo fall in the Lawa area, says in conversation with the True Time that the policeman was shot during a robbery by Brazilians in Ronaldo, about a seven-minute boat ride south from Antonio du Brinco, which is directly opposite the French municipality of Maripasoula.
Constant: “I woke up with the news that a robbery was in progress. They were Brazilians. I called RBT (Regional Assistance Team, … ed.) called right away. He had also heard it and was already on his way from Antonio du Brinco to the scene of the accident.”
When Constant arrived, he said the officer Nurmohamed had been shot and the robbers had taken the Chinese entrepreneur and his wife into the forest. “I tried to reach the man on his phone. He answered and said he had been left in the woods. He was handcuffed, but walked back with his wife.”
“How come none of his colleagues were with him?” – Chief of Police Melvin Pinas
The police officer was transported by his arriving colleagues to Maripasoula for assistance. Unfortunately, it turned out he was already deceased. “In the morning I deployed two boats to transfer the officers and the body to Lawa Tabiki airport,” says Constant.
The newspaper has learned that it was Nurmohamed’s first deployment. He was normally employed in Mariënburg in the Commewijne district.
Under investigation
The case is still under investigation, said Chief of Police Melvin Pinas, who was installed on Friday, when asked the True Time. “I especially want to know how come he was there alone. How come none of his colleagues were with him?”, the police boss responds.
In an interview that DTV had with Captain Amoefini Santa, who says he knows the Lawa area well, it was said that agents in the Lawa area often stand guard for Chinese entrepreneurs and are paid fifty euros a day for this. The police officer may therefore have been alone with Ronaldo.
But Constant strongly denies this. “That’s not right. Amoefini is angry with the police because they do not want to support him when he wants to extort money from the Chinese in Antonio du Brinco and Ronaldo.” According to the head captain, it is Amoefini who sold land in the Lawa area to the Chinese without his permission.
Jealousy
In the interview with DTV Santa complains about Constant’s working method, who counters by stating that Santa’s dissatisfaction has to do with jealousy. “People don’t like Amoefini here. I just brought order and it is now clean in the area. I made sure of that,” he pats his chest.
After complaints about pollution in the river, he says he worked to arrange a garbage collection with a boatswain. “If you see the river now… it’s completely clean,” he says. Constant, who resides in Maripasoula, reports that he “Fransi papira” has, “but mi na busikondre sma, unu no e luku papira.”.-.
*read also ‘Safety in Lawa area is a concern: ‘I want to know who regulates the chaos’.
