Skip to playerSkip to main content
CCNTV6
  • 9 months ago
Hours after HDC officials demolished their homes, acting on the order of the Commissioner of State Lands, squatters of Ramjattan Trace started rebuilding. Meantime, residents confirm, two of their own were charged following the confrontation yesterday. Rynessa Cutting reports.
Transcript
00:00We built that last night where we can sleep for everybody.
00:03It's a full mattress.
00:04There are about four mattresses there for everybody.
00:06Bunkers and sleeping.
00:07How many people were sleeping in there last night?
00:09About ten are we sleeping inside there last night.
00:11Everybody here is struggling.
00:13And we are cheering.
00:15I have six children.
00:17And also six grandchildren too.
00:19You know?
00:20And plus there are others who are cheering, more than one.
00:24And some of them aren't able to go to school.
00:27Some of them are home.
00:29This 10x6 plywood structure is the first to be rebuilt by Ramjadantri's residents.
00:34Roughly 60 persons are now homeless following the demolition of their homes on Thursday.
00:40When TV6 News visited the area today, about a dozen of them were huddled under a shed,
00:45sheltering from the elements.
00:47And they say no one has come to their aid.
00:50The squatters are taking particular issue with their MP, Foster Cummings,
00:54who they say had promised to assist them back in 2023.
00:59We are not dogs.
01:01People are not dogs.
01:02We are human beings.
01:04And when you come here and you see human beings living here
01:08and you never come back and have a meeting with the people,
01:11we feel like we are nobody.
01:15You understand?
01:16And that is not a nice feeling because we are expecting you to come back and say something to us.
01:21Did you all ever go down to the MP office?
01:24Yes, we was there.
01:25We was there yesterday.
01:27When we went yesterday, the secretary see us and run and lock the gate and run inside
01:33and nobody never come back out to talk to us.
01:36Residents also claim that HCC officials who carried out the first phase of demolition in 2024
01:42had assured them that their properties were safe.
01:45But the activity is expected to continue next week.
01:49They said it wasn't coming across.
01:51It have a big drain that parting off the land from the back to the front.
01:57And they said it wasn't coming across the big drain.
02:00And recently they come back and put notice on people who over the big drain.
02:08Even still, residents say, those days demolition by the HCC and Commission of State Lands was shocking
02:14as they say the notices which they received did not appear to be official
02:19and no authority had ever communicated directly with them.
02:22It didn't have like a letter or who it came from.
02:25Nothing, not a stamp, not a letter, no name, nothing.
02:29They are calling on state authorities to render some form of assistance.
02:33This morning we got called from AGC representatives
02:38and all they are asking us is for our names and ID card at this moment.
02:43That's all.
02:44For what purpose?
02:45They didn't say.
02:46We are hoping for some kind of help in terms of relocating us
02:51or giving us back the land, helping us build our homes back on it,
02:56compensating us for the damages with our funerals, anything.
03:00A release from the HCC on Thursday indicated
03:03that the action was taken on directive from the Commission of State Lands
03:07as the residents had been occupying the land illegally for a number of years.
03:11Residents confirmed that two young men were arrested
03:14during the standoff with police and HCC officials on Thursday.
03:18Them get charged, so they went to court this morning.
03:21There was two?
03:22Two of them.
03:23I can't, I'm not seeing language, I'm resisting arrest to see.
03:27A lawyer has since visited the residents and offered his assistance.
03:31Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
Be the first to comment
Add your comment