Almost three years since sugar workers disappeared
- wives, children look to backlands clearing for answers and possible closure to their never-ending search for missing loved ones
IT has been almost three dark, desolate, distressing years since Maikhram Sawh and Sampersaud Taranauth mysteriously disappeared in the volatile and dangerous East Coast Demerara backlands.
But family members and other close relatives of the two sugar-workers have still not given up hope of seeing them again, either dead or alive.

Speaking with this newspaper yesterday, their spouses continue to hope and pray that someday they will be found.

While not giving up on their loved ones, the deeply distraught women are now saying with resignation, that if indeed their husbands are dead, even the discovery of their bodies or skeletal remains would bring some form of closure to their ongoing grief and uncertainty.

News Saturday that ranks of the Joint Services, while on patrol in the backlands of Buxton, East Coast Demerara, had found the skeletal remains of a man sent the ‘antennas’ up high within these two families and even the public.

The Police, in a press statement late on Saturday, said the skeletal remains appeared to be of a male of African descent, and were spotted floating in a swamp about 60 yards north of the Lamaha Conservancy in the vicinity of Brushe Dam.

The release said a three-quarter navy blue denim pants with a leather belt and a Rastafarian bead chain (coloured in red, black, green and yellow) with the name “Ishmael” were found among the remains. The find is important for the Joint Services who, along with looking to “restore order” in the backlands of Buxton and other communities on the East Coast of Demerara, are mindful that the clearing currently underway could unearth new information about cases of murder and disappearances that have rocked the country over the past few years.

Along with the combined forces, relatives of missing persons, including those of the two sugar workers - Maikhram Sawh called ‘Bharrat’, 45, of Nonpariel, and Taranauth Rampersaud, 37, of Enterprise, also on the East Coast Demerara - are also looking for possible closure to their disappearance.

The two sugar workers were at the time cleaning a Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) drainage canal aback of Vigilance.

Today, nearly thirty-three months later, there is still no trace of the men in spite of several searches of the East Coast backlands by both the Police and the Army.

Though still visibly distraught and hanging on to an as yet never waning glimmer of hope, the wives of the two missing men whom the Chronicle visited and spoke with yesterday, are still dreaming of a ‘reunion’ with the men they vowed to spend the rest of their lives with.

Deep down, however, they have started a long time ago to accept the harsh reality, and a life without them.

Commenting on the loss of her husband, Jaswanttie Sawh who had shared a 28-year union with Maikhram, put together a poem in his memory, and tearfully reading from it yesterday she asserted: “My husband means everything to me, without him my life is useless … Until today, my eyes keep watching and hoping that he will return. Some are very fortunate to find the bodies of their missing relatives, but we are so unlucky, not even a strand of his hair we cannot find.”

Maikhram and Jaswanttie have two adult children — who both share the loss of their father, and play a great part in bringing comfort to her and helping her retain her sanity.

Jaswanttie is insisting that if her husband is dead then she wants to see his remains. For this reason, when relatives heard of the discovery of the skeleton last Saturday, they said that they would feel a sense of relief if the backlands of Vigilance is also graded since their loved one and his colleague were working aback of Vigilance on the morning that they disappeared.

And Taranauth’s wife of seven years – Kamini was even more vocal, adding that the news of the discovery of the skeletal remains angered her.

“I think that’s what they shoulda do first, they doing last…”

The distraught woman was questioning why the grading of the backlands was not done much earlier – or thirty three months ago when her husband disappeared.

Kamani said to make matters worse, she is struggling, and at her wits end to eke out a living for herself and three young children aged 8,7 and 3.

The woman said she approached the National Insurance Scheme for her husband’s benefits, but they informed her that she has to tender a death certificate before they can pay her any money.

Almost three years since sugar workers disappeared
- wives, children look to backlands clearing for answers and possible closure to their never-ending search for missing loved ones
IT has been almost three dark, desolate, distressing years since Maikhram Sawh and Sampersaud Taranauth mysteriously disappeared in the volatile and dangerous East Coast Demerara backlands.
Outraged, she questioned how could she get a death certificate when her husband’s body was never found. This reinforces the need for a search to be mounted for the two missing sugar workers, Kamini contended.

She said the NIS informed her that seven years would have to elapse before her husband can be considered to be dead.

She said she sought a part-time job to earn some cash and at the same time, keep her from being submerged in grief while the children are at school. “Being at home watching these four walls woulda send me mad,” the widow snarled.

Kamini acknowledged that she received a lump sum of money from GUYSUCO, but that has since finished.

The grieving woman said she always felt that if a serious search was done, the remains of her husband and his workmate, Sawh, would have been found a long time ago, and that would have made her feel that ‘somebody cares’.

For Kamini and her three daughters, life would never be the same.

Kamini said her youngest daughter, who was just three months when her father went missing, is now three years old and is not yet speaking (forming words clearly).

The woman admits to ‘crying night and day’ since the loss of her husband, and feels that the child’s inability to speak at three, is all part of the deeply traumatic effect the loss of the father figure has had on the family’s life.

She is consumed by grief, has since been turned inward, and so did very little for the socialization process of the children. When the two older sisters are at school, the youngest is at home with her, and there is virtually little interaction — let alone communication going on between the two.

On the other hand, the two older sisters become upset at hearing the neighbours’ children talk about their daddies; see them hug and play with them; buy them gifts for their birthday and at Christmas time, and they have no one to call dad.