RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s an­nounce­ment of the pub­lic re­lease of the Com­mis­sion of En­quiry Re­port in­to the Paria div­ing tragedy has sparked hope among the be­reaved fam­i­lies who are fer­vent­ly pray­ing that the re­port will be re­leased with­out al­ter­ations or omis­sions.

Vanes­sa Kussie, the wife of div­er Rishi Na­gas­sar, was over­whelmed with emo­tion up­on learn­ing that the re­port would fi­nal­ly be pre­sent­ed to the Cab­i­net and then to the pub­lic.

Kussie said af­ter 21 months of tor­ment, she ex­pect­ed the Prime Min­is­ter to con­tact the fam­i­lies and as­sure them that there would be full dis­clo­sure of the re­port.

“I want the Prime Min­is­ter and Paria man­agers to come home and see how emp­ty my house is. There is no joy in my home any­more,” Kussie sobbed.

She said her four-year-old son con­stant­ly looks out for his fa­ther to come home.

Down­stairs the house there are 15 pho­tos of Nages­sar.

“On the fourth of every month, we con­tin­ue to cut a cel­e­bra­to­ry cake with my son, a tra­di­tion start­ed by his fa­ther. We still cut it even if it is a good­ie or cup­cake. He would go by the pic­tures and talk to his fa­ther and feed his fa­ther cake just as if he was alive,” Kussie cried.

She said: “No­body knows the pain and suf­fer­ing we are hav­ing to pay bills. Gro­ceries are not cheap, bills are com­ing every month. Up to now, my son does cry. I had to put him on my bel­ly to sleep, that was what my hus­band used to do. This is the life we have to ad­just to af­ter 21 months and we can­not ad­just.”

She said los­ing the sole bread­win­ner in the house­hold has been dif­fi­cult.

“Paria of­fi­cials don’t know the re­al strug­gle. They say they give us vouch­ers to go to Massy, but that is a lie. Not one vouch­er did we ever re­ceive,” she said.

Mean­while, at­tor­ney Prakash Ra­mad­har who is rep­re­sent­ing the fam­i­lies said he ex­pect­ed the re­port to go to Cab­i­net but ques­tioned how soon the re­port will be pub­li­cised.

“Of course, we ap­pre­ci­ate that the Cab­i­net will re­quire time to study the re­port and I know how the process works in terms of the labyrinth to get to the Cab­i­net. They may send it to a Com­mit­tee and re­turn it to the Cab­i­net for de­lib­er­a­tions,” Ra­mad­har said.

He said the Prime Min­is­ter should ap­pre­ci­ate that the coun­try was wait­ing with bat­ed breath for this re­lease. Say­ing the Prime Min­is­ter can con­vene any spe­cial Cab­i­net meet­ing, Ra­mad­har said he hoped that the re­port would reach Cab­i­net be­fore Christ­mas.

He said le­gal ac­tion would be filed be­fore the sec­ond an­niver­sary of the divers’ deaths.

“We will be writ­ing for­mal­ly to the Prime Min­is­ter to en­sure that we have a copy in our hands so that we can help fam­i­ly mem­bers who need clo­sure. Time is of the essence re­al­ly.”

On Feb­ru­ary 25 four divers, Fyzal Kur­ban, Kaz­im Ali Jr, Rishi Na­gas­sar and Yusuf Hen­ry died af­ter dis­ap­pear­ing in­to a pipeline dur­ing an un­der­wa­ter main­te­nance ex­er­cise. A fifth div­er Christo­pher Boodram sur­vived. LM­CS com­pa­ny had hired the divers to ex­e­cute main­te­nance works on Sealine 36 sit­u­at­ed be­tween Berth 5 and 6 when the tragedy oc­curred.