kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
The families of the four LMCS divers who died tragically in an underwater accident at the Paria Fuel Trading Company a year ago planted trees in their memories yesterday.
They planted poui trees at the Couva South constituency office where MP Rudranath Indarsingh hosted a tribute for Rishi Nagassar, Kazim Ali Jr, Yusuf Henry and Fyzal Kurban.
Nagassar’s common-law wife, Vanessa Kussie, appealed to officials of Paria to allow the families to mourn in peace as they planned to visit the area where their loved ones died near Berths No.6 to offer prayers on the anniversary of the incident.
Kussie said the families had written to Paria requesting permission.
Henry’s mother, Nicole Greenidge, said it felt unnatural for parents to outlive their children. Greenidge, who has lost three sons, said the family has faced hardships since Henry’s death and there have been no offers of assistance from Paria.
Also at the tree planting was Christopher Boodram, the only diver to survive the accident.
“My wounds are still open. I still feel like this thing happened a week ago,” he said.
Indarsingh called on the State must also tell the country what measures had been put in place to ensure the tragedy does not recur. He said it must also say whether the OSH Agency had completed its investigation into the incident and whether that report will be laid in Parliament.
The Opposition MP also wants the State say how much it had cost to hold the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) into the tragedy. “In the context of the duty of care, we call upon the Attorney General to ensure that when this report is submitted, the report is not sanitised in any way, and the State must be prepared to send this report to the Director of Public Prosecutions and examine if there is the basis for a criminal prosecution,” he said.
Kazim Ali, father of Ali Jr and LMCS Managing Director, and his wife Catherine participated in the tree planting but did not speak at the event.
