Sascha Wilson
Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
Siew Nagasar, 84, the father of one of the divers killed in the Paria tragedy, died believing he might never get justice for his son.
The father of 17, who died last Sunday after ailing for some time, was the father of Land and Marine Contracting Services (LMCS) diver Rishi Nagasar.
Rishi Nagasar amd four other LMCS divers, Christopher Boodram, Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry and Kazim Ali Jr, were sucked into a 30-inch diameter pipeline on which they were performing maintenance work at Paria’s Pointe-a-Pierre facility on February 25, 2022. Boodram was the only survivor.
LMCS officials were blocked from attempting to rescue their colleagues. Three of the divers’ bodies were recovered on February 28, while Nagasar’s was recovered the following day.
Officials of Paria Fuel Trading Company and LMCS have denied 15 charges under the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act, relating to the incident, and the families are pursuing legal action.
One of Nagasar's granddaughters, Nadia, told Guardian Media he was a quiet man and had grieved silently for Rishi and his other son who died months apart.
"Grief is like stress. You can't measure that, you don't know the depth of that but he used to take it on, you could see it on him," she said
She said her grandfather didn't talk about the incident all the time, but his facial expression would change whenever it came up.
"You will see it in his face, his body expression If you talk about it (incident) he might go inside and cry and grieve," she said
"He know he wouldn't get the justice, he die with that. They could prolong this matter. They could do whatever they want to do. The bottom line and question we will all ask is, 'Are we going to get the truth? Are we going to get justice?' "
Nagasar's widow Vanessa Kussie said the elder Nagasae was distraught following his son's death.
"When he come to the funeral and the wake he was like, 'Look they take my son,' and he was telling the MPs there, 'They take away our son and look how they treating us.' We need to get justice and he was begging and crying for them to help him," she recalled
Kussie said she took comfort in knowing that he was in a better place and no longer suffering.
"It's really sad seeing that he died and knowing that he did not see justice for his son Rishi. How many more will die not seeing justice? Not on Rishi's side alone, but the rest of the family. We need justice for ourselves and for our children," she said.
