by Deepa BHOOKHUN

The affair has lost some of its momentum now. Other scandals have come to the surface and we tend not to pay much attention to previous affairs. Such is the human mind. But, while our preoccupations have shifted elsewhere, something very strange has been taking place in the vicinity of Line Barracks.

Suspects of the MCB hold-up have decided to change their statements. Fair enough, the law provides for this. But isn?t it strange that for weeks the suspects have insisted on involving murdered victim Gérald Lagesse in their sordid plan and upheld that they had had help from within the bank? and then, suddenly out of the blue, they tell us that this is not the case anymore? That the so-called Boss 007 was actually just an invention by this guy known as Vinesen?

Something obviously has taken place between the time the original statements were given and the time the second statement was recorded. What? We will probably never know but, to quote prime minister Bérenger, one does smell a filthy rat.

We would not like to get into the paranoia of the opposition either and start shouting ?cover-up.? We shan?t do this because we don?t know. We obviously do not know because we are not told what is going on in the police enquiry. This is so because our police do not think it fit to hold regular meetings with the press to keep the public informed.

Instead what happens is that information ? obviously manipulated ? is leaked to the press. This would have been fine had not other contradicting versions also been leaked, leaving us and, above all, the public, confused. In between information we are given and what we hear through the grapevine, we then are made to guess where the investigation is leading. And our final guess makes us even more worried.

By and large, people are expressing doubts that the crime will really be solved. Even though suspects have been arrested and have confessed their crimes. But how credible are those suspects now? How can we believe them when they have been so inconsistent so far? I suppose one could argue that it is not for us to believe but rather for the police.

Fair enough. But, when we have unsolved crimes such as those of St Paul, Bassin Blanc, that of little Akmez, and the list is long, can we be blamed for our scepticism? When the police fiscal unit decides to go and check how much money was actually stolen over a month after the hold-up, does that not warrant doubts as to the professionalism of those concerned?

We need to believe before we can support. Who knows what is happening between the four walls of the Line Barracks? We may not know now but, as we have seen, at some point in time, all deeds come to light. And make no mistake about it: we are all eyes and ears. The more so, because we can smell the filthy rat?