Am­bi­ka Ja­gas­sars­ingh

Paria's act­ing tech­ni­cal lead Cather­ine Balkissoon broke down in tears on the wit­ness stand at the Com­mis­sion of En­quiry this morn­ing af­ter be­ing told by the chair­man that the de­ci­sion to en­ter the pipeline and save the four divers may have been dif­fer­ent if it were her own fam­i­ly who had been stuck there.

Balkissoon said send­ing men in­to that pipeline was a "bal­anc­ing act", and it posed many risks.

When ques­tioned by Coun­sel to the Com­mis­sion of En­quiry, SC Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj, whether Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny had tak­en “quick and ur­gent ac­tion” re­gard­ing the Paria in­ci­dent on Feb­ru­ary 25, Balkissoon agreed that they had.

In her tes­ti­mo­ny she re­spond­ed that;

“We took quick and ur­gent ac­tion to try to de-risk go­ing in­side a pipeline that had oil and al­so, we did not know the cause of the in­ci­dent so if it is I could turn it around and say Paria al­so took ac­tion by telling LM­CS not to dive, Paria al­so took ac­tion to say lis­ten hold up are you sure you want to dive in there be­cause these are the risks too eh, some­one’s life could be lost. It is a bal­anc­ing act.”

To this, Chair­man of the CoE re­spond­ed to Balkissoon, by stat­ing “It might be a dif­fer­ent bal­anc­ing act if it was your fa­ther in the pipe or your son.”

Af­ter this re­sponse, Balkissoon was dis­traught and be­gan to sob.

Paria’s at­tor­ney, SC Pe­ter Gilbert­son said it was on­ly fair that Balkissoon was ex­tend­ed the same fair­ness that LM­CS wit­ness­es were af­ford­ed.

Lynch apol­o­gised to Balkissoon.

The com­mis­sion went on break af­ter the clash.