Guyana shooting rampage kills 11
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Guyana shooting rampage kills 11*
Gunmen in Guyana have gone on a rampage, killing 11 people, including
five children, police say.
The gunmen stormed into a village east of the capital, Georgetown, and
fired into several houses.
It was reported to be the worst mass killing in the South American
country for more than 30 years, and sparked angry protests by neighbours.
Officials suspect a criminal gang acting on the orders of the country's
most wanted man, Rondell Rawlins.
Police say Rondell Rawlins has accused government forces of kidnapping
his pregnant girlfriend, and has threatened to launch attacks until she
is returned.
They didn't come here to rob, they came here to slaughter
Jag Singh
Lusignan resident
Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo deplored the attack, in the village of
Lusignan, east of the capital Georgetown, as a "cowardly act" carried
out by "sick, demented criminals".
"We have to hunt them down," he said.
Screaming on streets
Divisional Police Commander Leroy Brummel said unidentified gunmen
kicked down the doors of five wooden houses in Lusignan, shooting at
inhabitants within.
The dead include a man, his wife and their granddaughter in one house,
and a mother and her two children in another, news agency AFP reported.
"They didn't come here to rob, they came here to slaughter," a resident,
Jag Singh, told AFP.
Local people screamed and wept on the streets of the village.
Later, as many as 300 people from the neighbouring town of Mon Repos
started fires on the roads to Lusignan and vowed to form vigilante
groups to avenge the killings.
"We want justice!" they cried. "Government can't protect us! We want
more police!"
Ethnic tension
Hours before the village massacre, heavily armed gunmen had also
attacked the headquarters of the Guyana police force, injuring two
policemen.
On Wednesday, in the criminal haven of Buxton, east of Georgetown,
gunmen engaged Guyanese soldiers in a firefight that left one soldier
dead and another seriously injured.
Police said Rondell Rawlins himself had made telephone threats following
the disappearance of his 18-year-old girlfriend.
He is reputed to head a gang of about 20 heavily armed men engaged in
"urban warfare", and is also wanted over the murder of a government
minister in 2006.
President Jagdeo suggested that the latest attack may have been meant to
stir up ethnic tension. The village of Lusignan is mostly ethnic Indian,
while Rondell Rawlins and his followers come from the ethnic African
community.