- 24 minutes ago
A voyage that should have taken hours has ended in heartbreak, raising serious questions about maritime safety, emergency response and accountability.
As the search continues and families await answers, we'll examine what happened aboard the MV Barima and what this tragedy means for Guyana and the wider Caribbean.
As the search continues and families await answers, we'll examine what happened aboard the MV Barima and what this tragedy means for Guyana and the wider Caribbean.
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NewsTranscript
00:00mentioned this was an old boat. In fact, the government had bids out for major repairs of
00:05this vessel. So the seaworthiness of this vessel, that's also a major concern at this time. You
00:13hear stories from persons who would use this vessel to ship goods and major cargo into the
00:20northwest area. Talk about, you know, being allowed one ton, but if you pay something,
00:26corruption, like Anand said, and you can get two and three tons and only one ton is recorded.
00:31So it may have been an issue of overload, of the vessel being overloaded, and that coupled
00:37with probably the rough seas or whatever was out there and how the cargo may have been placed.
00:43All of that will eventually form part of this commission of inquiry and the investigation
00:48that they're now talking about. Who ultimately bears the responsibility for ensuring that a
00:54vessel like the MV Burima is seaworthy before it leaves the port?
00:59The same government that's in charge of the vessel, the state. There's a transport and harbors
01:04department. There's a maritime administration, and they're in charge of going through the process
01:10of ensuring the seaworthiness of the vessel as well as the loading.
01:15Anand, you wanted to add something.
01:18Well, there's a maritime act. It speaks again to legislation that is on the books that are just
01:23completely ignored and not observed. There's a maritime act that says every single ferry that's
01:29leaving has to be certified and the inspector has to be satisfied that it's properly loaded,
01:36it is not overloaded, and that everything is in order. That does not happen at all. And in this
01:43circumstance, the fact that they had more passengers than they knew that they had and that the cargo
01:50was also an issue. That, of course, is something that's going to have to be addressed. The point,
01:54the tipping point for the entire voyage seemed to have been when this fairly significant wave struck
02:01and because the cargo was not well secured and packed, it appeared as if when the wave struck,
02:08the cargo moved in the direction of the force of the wave. And so this reversibly tilted and capsized
02:14the whole thing. Whereas if the cargo was well secured, it would have been able to write itself back
02:19after the significant wave had come upon it.
02:24Gordon, how many other vessels like the MV Burima are there operating in Guyana?
02:30And are they still being allowed to operate even after this tragedy?
02:36Yes, there are a number of other ferries that ply different routes. This particular route was being
02:42serviced by about two ferries. The Elfated one, there was one other. They are continuing. And in fact,
02:49there was a new ferry that the government brought in earlier this year to ply this same route.
02:55And but that ferry has not started going in that area as yet because of some technical issues with
03:03them having to prepare proper wharf and proper landing facilities for that ferry. So while it is in
03:09the country, it has not been plying this route just yet. But the other ferries are continuing in
03:15operation along the various routes and the opposition parties and other concern groups are now calling
03:21for a full review of the entire operation of those ferries, too.
03:27Are there indications as yet that safety regulations were breached or have been breached?
03:34Well, the fact...
03:36Sorry, go ahead.
03:37Yeah, clearly that's the case, that there were breaches, both in terms of the loading. And of course,
03:44there is one other very significant thing, that is the captain was found to be under the influence
03:49of a narcotic. Now, that is a huge breach of any law that governs the conduct of a captain.
03:56The captain and one of his other crew members were found to be under the influence. And quite
04:01a number of the passengers, the survivors who we spoke to, had said that crew members were also
04:07consuming alcohol. So this is one of the worst case scenarios. You know, you have a possibly overloaded
04:13vessel, cargo not well secured, and your captain who might be high in something hit by a wave,
04:18you know, that's the perfect storm. And it's no surprise that what happened happened. So there
04:24are a whole series of things that would have to be assessed in terms of where the breaches occurred,
04:31and who should be held accountable for those.
04:34I saw the opposition leader, Mr. Mohammed, indicate that he thought that where he was on the sea,
04:42that the vessel was below him. Was that found to be true? Has the vessel been located?
04:48Yeah, the vessel has been located. We now have divers from French Guiana, from Trinidad and Tobago,
04:55and Brazil has now joined the teams out there, and they have located the vessel. And so they've actually
05:01been going down to the vessel. I think they said they've been able to identify one body on that vessel,
05:09but they were not able, at least up to last evening, to bring that body ashore,
05:14because of how it was situated. Earlier this evening, the Prime Minister announced that there
05:20will be efforts in the coming day and days to bring that vessel off of the ocean floor, balance it
05:27up,
05:28and then bring it closer to the seashore, so they can have a better search of the vessel,
05:34in case there might be bodies trapped on the vessel this time. Because as the survivors recounted,
05:40many of them recounted, this all happened within seconds, from the time the wave hit the vessel,
05:45to everything tilting over, and many of them being thrown overboard, was within seconds. So there is
05:52a belief that there might be some person still trapped in some sections of that ferry.
05:58I mean, you both have been on the ground. What are relatives saying as they just wait?
06:06Well, you know, I mean, the overwhelming thing that's come out of this story are the,
06:12you know, the testimonies of people who survived, and the horrific pain and suffering some of them
06:18have gone through. One of the first people we spoke to was a grandmother who lost seven of her
06:23grandchildren. And that is an unbelievable thing. And she's there weeping and sobbing and having to
06:28tell this story about how she had a two-year-old child in her arm. And this child was, you
06:33know,
06:33just simply pushed away from her by, you know, the cargo that became dislodged. She's lost seven
06:37grandchildren. And her daughter today was speaking about the fact that, you know, she has now lost her
06:43children as a result of this. And so some of them have spoken about spending six or seven hours on
06:49the
06:49water. People trying to help them. One person was helped by somebody who then went onto the water.
06:55So the helper ended up dying and helping somebody to get to safety. And so some of these stories have
07:01been so horrific that they've just overwhelmed, you know, the story and the actual consequences of
07:08now having to investigate. Those stories will be told for a long time to come. And not all of them
07:12have been told because quite a lot of the survivors have still not spoken about their experiences.
07:16Gordon, what about you? What was the most striking story that has been told to you coming out of
07:24this tragedy? There's so many of those stories. You know, we spoke yesterday with a woman from
07:32Georgetown who was on the ferry on Saturday. Her husband managed the canteen, the food supply on the
07:38ferry along with his brother. And she spoke about meeting her husband on the ferry 23 years ago. They
07:45developed a relationship. They got married. They have children. Now she's mourning his loss and the
07:51loss of her brother-in-law. And she says she was on the ferry Saturday, assisting them with setting up
07:56the canteen, preparing food items, packing out stuff before eventually leaving and watching them sail off.
08:03And so she says she's, you know, this same ferry, the very boat that she met the love of her
08:09life
08:0923 years ago. It's the same boat where she last saw him. And so she's dealing with that. There are
08:16stories of, as Annan pointed, of mothers who lost their children. There's a particular story of a young
08:24girl in her early teens who lost her entire family, her mom, her dad, and two of her siblings. And
08:31those are
08:32one of the most troubling stories we're hearing. Because these were, in many cases, these were
08:37families returning to the Port Kaituma area. And for you to have an understanding, this ferry journey,
08:44it's a long journey. It's about 24 to 25 hours, you know, from Georgetown. And so, you know, they were
08:51heading back home. The ferry service would be once every two, three weeks. And so many of them were just,
08:58you know, grabbing things to go, to head home, and then tragedy struck.
09:05Very. I think what touched me the most, the most hurtful part, were the children.
09:11Yeah. You know, their last moments. There were so many children aboard that vessel. I guess it'd
09:18been vacation time and so on. Yeah. And there was one of the Oscar, you know,
09:25unbelievable bravery. A nine-year-old girl helped to carry another child younger than her to safety.
09:31You know, the child couldn't swim and she held on to this nine-year-old. This nine-year-old became
09:36separated from her mother. But yet she had the presence of mind to hold on to this younger child,
09:40who was just estranged to her, and was able to get her to safety. You know, that was an unbelievable
09:45story. And then there was another man who had agreed to accompany his brother to take the body of the
09:52brother's wife home to Port Gaijumu for burial. The brother has disappeared. Of course,
09:58the body has gone to a watery grave, and he's managed to be saved. But, you know,
10:02so those stories were unbelievable. And they've really sort of like,
10:06torn a hole in, you know, how the people in the country have reacted to this. You know, it's,
10:09it's horrific.
10:10Is there hope now that, you know, persons may still be alive or do families just want closure?
10:20I think family really want closure at this point. We're heading into more than three days
10:27since this tragedy. So search and rescue has now essentially become a search and recovery. Today,
10:35the military and the Coast Guard, they were out there with drones, checking closer to the shoreline,
10:41just in case there was any sign of life. But there has been no sign of life over the past
10:47two and a
10:48half days. So this is essentially now a search and recovery mission.
10:53Gentlemen, we're going to take a quick break. We're just, of course, getting started. When we return,
10:59we'll continue our conversation as we examine unanswered questions surrounding the MV Burima tragedy,
11:06the ongoing investigation, and what it means for maritime safety across the region.
11:19Mr. Moseley, Mr. Moseley. Yes, I'm here. Do you want to leave now as we only break or
11:27you want to stay? It's up to 8 30, right? Yes, that's right. This is almost 10 minutes from now.
11:34So stay through. All right. Great. Thank you so much.
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12:41Welcome back to Beyond the Headlines. We're talking about the MV Burima tragedy. Joining us is Anand
12:47Passad. He's editor-in-chief of Kiskity Watch and Gordon Moseley, who is chief editor of News Source Guyana.
12:53Gentlemen, thank you for staying with us. Let's continue the conversation. Has the government's
12:59response satisfied satisfied the response satisfied the families? Or is there still criticism about
13:04the speed and transparency of the operation?
13:07Well, this is really the thing that annoys and puzzles people. We are supposedly this new Dubai in
13:14this region, you know, with all of the oil money that we've accrued since 2019, when we started with
13:20oil. Yet, the search and rescue mission was absolutely horrendous. There was no immediate response.
13:26The first signal. The first signal came out at about 11 o'clock at night, and the first rescue did
13:33not happen for hours.
13:35And you mentioned the opposition leaders supposedly indicating where the wreckage was.
13:40You know, they had to rely on a fisherman who had some sort of like presence of mind to indicate
13:47where,
13:47you know, this wreckage might have been. Whereas if they had spent money, for example, on providing a new
13:54ferry, as opposed to having an 87 year old one flying this route, and they had had better systems in
14:01place,
14:01search and rescue might have been able to save more people because we're into, you know, way past the third
14:06day.
14:06And clearly, those people couldn't be could have been alive. The first 24 hours were very important.
14:11So they definitely could have done a far better job given the resources that are available to them.
14:16And, you know, even things like finding where this stuff, pinpointing where this wreckage was.
14:21All of that could have been done earlier, given the kind of assistance they've had from the US and so
14:24on.
14:24So I think there's a general feeling among the public that this is a clear example of where your oil
14:32revenue does not improve your performance.
14:34And we're left here having to sort of deal with the aftermath of poor governance and the inability to sort
14:41of really address things that improve people's lives.
14:44You know, ferry travel, you know, the state with the Stellings, those are the things that are not being addressed
14:49and the impact on people like those who've suffered, the ones who are going up for their business and traveling
14:56on public transport that is not reliable and is pretty dangerous.
15:01Gordon, do you want to add to that? You did mention a commission of inquiry. Has it been committed to
15:06by the state?
15:08Well, the prime minister has committed to that and says the government is committed to that commission of inquiry.
15:15Of course, we don't know what the terms of reference will be. We don't know who are the persons who
15:19will make up that commission of inquiry.
15:21They're saying it's too early for that, that their response right now is to deal with a search and rescue,
15:27search and recovery.
15:29But there will be a very clear need for that commission to take place and for it to be very,
15:35very comprehensive.
15:36Earlier this evening, it was also announced that they made a third arrest.
15:40They've arrested the supervisor who was in charge of the loading of the ferry.
15:47So clearly with these arrests, they're pointing to a number of systematic problems and challenges and failures that popped up
15:56with this particular ferry and its departure from Fort Georgetown.
16:00So while that commission of inquiry will hopefully take place sooner than later, the terms of reference will be the
16:09key point and whether it will be a fully independent commission of inquiry.
16:15Also with people who understand the industry, it's one thing to have a commission of inquiry, another thing to have
16:21one with people who understand what they are being told.
16:24And so I figure that's the hope of people that this will not just be another commission of inquiry to
16:29tick off a box, but there will be consequences coming out of it.
16:36This may be a bit premature, but would survivors and relatives of those who would have died in the tragedy,
16:49would they have the recourse of civil litigation?
16:54Yeah.
16:55Yeah.
16:56They will be.
16:56They can.
16:57Sorry.
16:58Yeah.
16:58Been raised.
16:59This has been raised because clearly there was no insurance.
17:02This is not a privately insured vessel because the government doesn't allow private insurance.
17:07The government is really the insurer here.
17:10So there will clearly be, given the negligence around this trip, there will be civil litigation against the government.
17:20The state will obviously try to write deals before it gets to that stage.
17:25But one of the other things that has been calling to the public is the lack of ministerial accountability here.
17:30Given everything that has gone on, everybody was expecting that the minister of public works would have resigned.
17:35And if he didn't resign, one would have expected that the president would have said, I'm asking you to stand
17:39down or I'm removing you until we can conduct everything that we need to have done.
17:44So this here is another problem in the country.
17:47There's never been this culture of ministerial accountability.
17:49And the government always goes out of its way to try to shield and cover.
17:53So when we mention a commission of inquiry, what people are concerned about is this is like the second major
17:58disaster that has hit the Ali administration in, let's say, three years.
18:03In 2023, there was a case where 20 children died in a fire in a dormitory.
18:09There was a commission of inquiry that was completely unsatisfactory, did not lead to the blame being assigned where it
18:16should be.
18:17And so people are concerned that the same thing might very well happen here.
18:21That is, they appoint people who are their place people and people who they have control over.
18:26And so that this inquiry will not get to the core.
18:29And we've already seen it with the minister not taking responsibility for what has happened here and at least stepping
18:35aside temporarily until this inquiry could be done.
18:39Gordon, do you want to add to that?
18:42No, he sort of said it all.
18:44Well, there is a concern about the inquiry and how it will be set up because people are concerned that
18:50because of experiences of past commissions of inquiry that you don't really get results.
18:55It's a box being ticked off.
18:57And so that is the major concern with how this will be done and whether they will involve international players
19:05to also join part of the local investigations, because that's not a major issue here.
19:10We have the captain and the crew member in custody.
19:15And in Guyana, they can only hold you for three days before they can go to the court.
19:21They've announced that they've gone to the court to keep him in custody.
19:24But they're not saying what he is essentially being investigated for.
19:29You know, what is the criminal charge that you're laying at his feet?
19:33Fair enough, you said you found traces of a narcotic in his system.
19:37But what is the criminal charge related to that that would force you to go to the court and seek
19:45an extension of his detention?
19:48Gentlemen, Gordon, I do have to interrupt you.
19:51We're just about out of time, but I do need to ask the other passengers, other routes.
19:56Are people now afraid to travel by these vessels?
20:01I can't say they're afraid.
20:03People are traveling.
20:05And, you know, in many instances, this is the only mode of transportation to get to some areas.
20:10I think what they will be paying much more attention now will have to be the safety of all of
20:15these vessels,
20:16including the smaller ones, the jet boats that fly many of these routes also.
20:21Anand, closing thoughts, 10 seconds.
20:24Yes, this thing has to be properly investigated and there must be accountability at the top.
20:28There must be an attempt to blame people lower down.
20:31And he was on escape boats.
20:32I think that's really the key thing here.
20:35Gentlemen, closing, Mr. Moseley, you closing comments, 10 seconds.
20:40Again, we're all hoping for a full investigation.
20:43And, you know, that the families will get a justice and we'll get closure.
20:49That is so important for those families who are going home tonight to empty beds and, you know, to empty
20:55bags.
20:57Definitely a tragedy.
20:58Anand Passat, editor-in-chief of Kiss City Watch.
21:00And, Gordon Moseley, of course, chief editor of News Source Guyana.
21:04I want to thank you so much for sharing your insights, for joining us and, of course, giving us your
21:08time this evening.
21:09This is, of course, a developing story.
21:11We will continue to follow the investigation and bring you the latest information as it becomes available.
21:17Our commiserations with the people of Guyana.
21:20I'm Urvashi Tiwari Rupnarain.
21:22Thank you for watching Beyond the Headlines.
21:24It's now Tadisha.
21:25Until next, y'all.
21:25Bye!
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