Transparency Institute wants International Maritime Organisation to investigate MV Barima tragedy

What this source establishes

Demerara Waves reports that TIGI, the Transparency International affiliate in Guyana, demanded an IMO-led international investigation rather than a domestic Commission of Inquiry under government control, and called for the recusal of Ministers Edghill and Indar and of the Maritime Administration's senior leadership. TIGI put the unofficial death toll at 102 and centred the manifest gap, noting Edghill himself called the discrepancy 'criminal'. TIGI cites the Mahdia precedent: after the May 2023 dormitory fire that killed 20 children, families remain in the High Court alleging the State pressured them into inadequate settlements. CID head Wendell Blanhum confirmed the captain and three crew remained in custody.

Key claims

• TIGI says the sinking 'appears to have unofficially claimed 102 lives'.
• TIGI demands an independent international investigation led by the IMO, 'not a domestic Commission of Inquiry under government control'.
• TIGI wants international civil society organisations with an established presence in Guyana appointed as full members of the Commission, not observers.
• TIGI calls for the immediate recusal of Ministers Juan Edghill and Deodat Indar and the Maritime Administration's senior leadership from any role in the investigation.
• Government working figure: 179 passengers including 18 crew; 77 rescued, 72 bodies recovered, leaving 30 unaccounted for.
• Phillips's Thursday evening update made no mention of rescue and repeatedly spoke about recovery; technical teams continue work on repositioning the MV Barima.
• Government initially said 116 passengers and 17 crew aboard the 87-year-old Scottish-made colonial-era vessel.
• After rescued passengers' identities did not match the manifest, the government used surveillance video at the Kingston Goods Wharf on Water Street to estimate 179 aboard when it sank about 10 miles off the Essequibo Coast late Saturday night.
• Edghill himself called the manifest discrepancy 'criminal'.
• CID head Deputy Commissioner Wendell Blanhum said on Thursday that the captain and three crew members remained in custody.
• Edghill said the captain and a crew member tested positive for marijuana hours after being rescued.
• TIGI invokes the May 2023 Mahdia dormitory fire in which 20 children, most of them Indigenous girls, burned to death; three years later families remain in the High Court alleging the State pressured them into grossly inadequate settlements without independent legal advice, then fought to have their claims struck out.
• Collins says Guyanese have no appetite for a domestic inquiry that collapses into a 'circus maximus'.

Quotations

• “An independent, impartial and objective international investigation led by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), staffed by global maritime experts with no institutional stake in the outcome”— not a domestic Commission of Inquiry under government control. — Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc. (TIGI)
• “Guyana's institutions have exhausted the public's trust.”— Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc. (TIGI)
• “the gap between the manifest and the true passenger count sits at the center of this tragedy, not its margins”— Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc. (TIGI)
• “No repeat of the Mahdia model. The public will not accept another inquiry that produces a report while the state simultaneously fights its own citizens in court for years afterward.”— Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc. (TIGI)
• “circus maximus”— Fred Collins, TIGI executive member, on domestic inquiries

Actors named

• Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc. (TIGI), affiliate of Transparency International
• Fred Collins, TIGI executive member
• International Maritime Organisation (IMO), body TIGI wants to lead the investigation
• Mark Phillips, Prime Minister, retired Brigadier and former Chief-of-Staff of the Guyana Defence Force
• Juan Edghill, Minister of Public Works, whose recusal TIGI demands
• Deodat Indar, Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation, whose recusal TIGI demands
• Maritime Administration senior leadership, whose recusal TIGI demands
• Wendell Blanhum, Deputy Commissioner, head of the Guyana Police Force Criminal Investigations Department (CID)
• Rescue Guyana and the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA), organisations TIGI joins
• Mahdia Secondary School dormitory fire victims and families, cited as precedent

This page is a research summary prepared for comment and review. It is not the article. Copyright in the original remains with Demerara Waves; the full text is held only in the private research corpus from which this archive was compiled. Follow the link above to read it at the source.