Gunmen torch Kaieteur News pressroom
Publisher vows to continue operations
By Samantha Alleyne
Stabroek News
January 1, 2003
The pressroom of the Kaieteur News was severely damaged early yesterday morning when two armed men set off what were suspected to be grenades in the Eccles Industrial Site building.
The newspaper's publisher Glen Lall described the destruction of the unit as a "deliberate, malicious, wicked and direct attack" which appeared well planned. It has severely crippled the newspaper's ability to print but Lall vowed to get the paper out.
The blaze was extinguished by members of the Guyana Fire Service.
The police issued no statement on the attack yesterday but said they were investigating.
Lall said there would be no Kaieteur News today but he hopes to publish tomorrow with the assistance of Guyana Publications Limited (publishers of Stabroek News and the Sunday Stabroek) or the Guyana Chronicle which he would ask for help. Asked about his plans for the future, Lall said, "I mean to continue, I really mean to continue. I don't think this or anything would ever stop me from getting out this newspaper, nothing. Because you know you got about a hundred staff (members), what will happen to them? Guyana does not have work for them."
The two gunmen, who arrived on a red motorcycle at around 3.30 am, first brutalised the four workers still at the pressroom and robbed them of cash and other items before setting off the explosions. Chetram Persaud, one of the press operators, said the crew had completed printing at around 2 am and the four of them had remained to oversee the distribution. One bus had just left when the attack occurred. He said he was reading the newspaper while his three colleagues were asleep when he heard dogs in the area start to bark and sensed that something was amiss.
"I left and go at the back, picked up a cutlass, one a dem walk in with the gun and pointed it to me. He had a mask over he face, he was pointing the gun towards me and carry me in the corner and started to cuff me in me mouth. He tell me lie down on the ground face down and he started to kick me in the back and seh `don't raise up'," the man said.
Persaud said the second man, who was unmasked, entered and placed a gun to his head while the first man awoke his three colleagues one after the other and dealt them several blows. They were also placed to lie face down on the ground not far from him and robbed of their money. Persaud said he was robbed of $21,000 along with two ATM cards and his ID card.
"They seh no one to get up or else deh go kill we. And the next thing I heard is a loud explosion," the man said. He said it was a few seconds after he heard another explosion and they found that the place was in smoke that they ran out and started to make calls.
He said the men spent about fifteen minutes in the building and one of them asked if any bus had already collected newspapers. Persaud said yes and informed them that another was expected soon and one of the men turned to his accomplice and said, "`boy leh we hurry up and get out of this place'."
Yesterday, Lall, whose newspaper started as a weekly but earlier last year started printing six days a week, said the building was not insured as one would never suspect such an eventuality. He pointed out that the building was concrete and if a normal fire were to be started it would have quickly been put out.
He estimated his losses to be "millions upon millions" disclosing that the stock of newsprint alone cost about $12M.
When Stabroek News arrived on the scene Lall was supervising the removal of the spoilt newsprint and newspapers from the area. Some of his employees, relatives and friends were on hand to lend moral support.
Only 10% of yesterday's edition reached the market with the remainder destroyed in the blaze.
Some employees were focusing on the press in an attempt to assess the damage while others were looking at the wiring system.
Lall told Stabroek News that he feels the perpetrators were out to "cripple Kaieteur News, that was their main objective for doing something like this. There is no other reason why anybody would do something like this."
"You know that Kaieteur has become very popular," Lall added.
He said he had not received any threats prior to the act so he could think of no motive. "These are no ordinary people, why would an ordinary citizen want to do something like this?"
Lall said he was awakened at 3.45 am by a telephone call informing him of the incident and he immediately rushed down to the building.
He said that the four men who were at the building at the time were there to oversee the distribution of the newspapers. Because he has employees in the building on a 24-hour basis, Lall said that there was no security guard employed.
Lall added that while the pressroom was severely damaged it was not beyond repair. "It would take some time to fix the press machine, the power box and the entire wiring system," he noted, adding that when he arrived the entire building was on fire.
He said he would have to sit and assess his damages before he could arrive at a figure for his losses. Other than the press, newsprint and newspapers, Lall said ink, solution and spare parts were also destroyed.
"Look I spend a whole heap a money on spares and all burn up. Just yesterday these things came in from overseas," he said.
He disclosed that he has contacted someone in the United States who is expected to fly into Guyana today to assist in putting the press back together. While he does not know what the men might have used to cause the explosion the opinion of many at the scene was that it was grenades rather than channa bombs. He said the men used yesterday's edition of the newspaper to "spread it all around in the room to help the blaze."
He said many of his staff members visited the scene in tears and he suspects that they felt they would be out of a job. While he had not addressed them at that point he said he had plans to do so soon.
