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May 6, 2006

Guyana: Trinidadian Islamist Arrested For Politician's Murder

On April 22, the Agriculture Minister of Guyana, Satyadeow Sawh, was gunned down at his home. With him were also killed his brother Rajpat, his sister, Phulmattie Persaud and security guard Curtis Robertson, as well as a dog. The minister was on the verandah with others in his retinue, when his brother Omprakash who was in the kitchen, noticed gunmen in the garden. He alerted his brothers and sister, but they had little time to escape. Satyadeow was shot on the verandah. Phulamattie (Julie) tried to hide under a bed but she was shot there, despite Omprakash's pleas for her to be spared.

Omprakash gave two masked men inside the house $23,000, as well as a camera and a wristwatch. He was then told to lie on top of his brother Rajpat. Then he himself was shot in his left side and his hip. Rajpat was still alive, Omprakash recalled. But as the men appeared to be leaving, they shot Rajpat in the head. "I heard the shooo. You know, the blood coming out."

Curtis Robertson, the guard who was shot on the verandah, was aged 37 and left a wife and seven children. Satyadeow's wife, Sattie, managed to escape with her life.

The Guyanese Agriculture Minister was buried with his favourite hammock and was mourned by politicians and civilians alike. No-one could understand why the popular Minister, who had spent time in Canada while the Forbes Burnham government was in power, had been killed so brutally. Satyadeow was a Hindu, but Guyana's Muslim and Hindu populations, who share the same Indian ancestry have good relations with each other.

The South Asian descent population are about 51% of Guyana's demographic, and Muslims comprise about 15% of the entire population. Following the massacre, four Islamic groups paid their respects to Sawh, and condemned the assassination.

Now, according to the Trinidad & Tobago Express, a suspect is being interrogated by police in Guyana. He is David Millard, aka Buffy, a lieutenant in the notorious Trinidadian Islamist group, Jamaat-al-Muslimeen, which staged an attempted coup on Trinidad in 1990, during which 24 people were killed. Millard, who is also known as Mustapha Abdullah Muhammad, was arrested by a combined US FBI and Guyanese police team on Tuesday.

Despite his history, Millard had been given a cabinet-appointed post in the National Housing Authority. He fled Trinidad in 2003, after arrest warrants were made out in his name.

Millard (pictured) was wanted for the murder of Jillia Bowen in June 2003 and for the attempted murder of Salim Rasheed and Adel Ghany. We reported on April 29 that Millard was charged with the attempted murder of Salim Rasheed (aka "Small Salim") and also Zaki Abuadiah, the son-in-law of Abu Bakr, the leader of Jamaat-al-Muslimeen. Bakr himself is awaiting a retrial for the attempted murder of Rasheed and Abudiah. Abu Bakr is currently in jail, following his arrest on November 7 last year, awaiting trial on charges of sedition, incitement and also terrorism.

Millard, who was arrested in a house in a suburb of Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, initially told his captors that his name was Edmund de Frietas. He was arrested with another Trinidadian called Joseph Aboud, and four Guyanese, two of them women.

His fingerprints were sent to Trinidad, where it was confirmed that he was David Millard. Millard had initially claimed that he was a US citizen who had served in the US army. He did serve in the US army, but was deported.

He is now being questioned about the murders of Satyadeo Sawh and his household. Apparently he has hired lawyers to block his extraditon to Trinidad.

Millard's arrest came as part of a search for a missing arms cache, including 30 AK-47 assault rifles, pistols and grenades, which were stolen from the Guyana military. Guyanese officials claim Millard is part of a group of contract killers who call themselves the "Phantom Killers"

Once the Guyanese authorities have finished with dealing with Millard, he is expected to be brought back to Trinidad to face trial for murder and the three counts of attempted murder.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at May 6, 2006 11:06 PM

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