November 18, 2000
JAMAICANS UNITED AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY Dear Friends, Jamaican politicians continue to play political football with serious issues of human rights abuses in Jamaica. The latest player is Edward Seaga, leader of the Jamaica Labour Party. The following is a report of his comments made at a recent JLP party conference and excerpted from The Gleaner. "After, listing a number of scandals and acts of injustice or terrorism which he associated with the PNP since 1970, Mr. Seaga made a number of proposals, some of which he had made previously, towards dealing with the problems of justice and corruption. "These included that: instead of the proposed police investigative unit within the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) the money be invested in staffing the Police Public Complaints Authority." First of all, Mr. Seaga made no categorical condemnation of the police policy of executing men from the inner cities of Jamaica. There is vague reference to police corruption but nothing more. In this regard Seaga is no different from all other politicians who from time to make comments about police brutality and corrupton. The world should be aware that during the Seaga administration of the 1980s, the police killed an average of more than 200 people per year and in 1984 killed more than 300. Until Seaga sees fit to renounce his previous administration's reliance on this form of police brutality as a method of social and political control, whatever he has to say on the subject should be regarded as nothing more than a last gasp attempt at winning votes by a cynical and desperate politician. In the absence of any answer to Jamaica's problems of underdevelopment, Seaga and Patterson can never conceive of ruling Jamaica without reliance on police brutality and police killings. Bruce Golidng, a Seaga protege, and leader of the New Democratic Movement, recently weighed into the fray with a call for armored carriers for the police!! Nevertheless, in so far as Seaga proposes that the Police Public Complaints Authority should be strengthened and given the resources to investigate police brutality and police killings we are in total agreement. In addition, we believe that the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions is one of the main facilitators of the police escaping prosecution for their daily killings. The Director and the office is like a cheaply bought police whore who knows only one position: prostrate. Jamaicans United Against Police Brutality calls for the PPCA to be given the resources (including professional investigators) and the full legal powers to investigate the police and in the case of killings, report directly to a Coroner's Court for a hearing and determination as to whether the police should stand trial. As to whether even under such circumstances the DPP can then successfully prosecute police killings is a matter that only time will answer. And if the DPP is unable to do even this, then the question of the future of Jamaican democracy is one which the people themselves will have to determine. One thing is certain: state sanctioned policy of police killings is unacceptable in any so-called civilized, democratic society and cannot continue indefinitely. If attempts at reform fail, if citizens' cry for an end to police murder go unheeded, then it is only reasonable to conclude that those who control the state machinery have clearly answered that the legal, political system as we know it is bankrupt, and have in effect, issued an open invitation for it to be put to rest. It doesn't take a genius to see the path we must inevitably take. Lloyd D'Aguilar
Caribbean Justice
Working For The Abolition Of The Death Penalty
14 November 2000 UN HUMAN RIGHTS CONCERNS IN T&T MUST NOT BE IGNORED It is important to recognise progress made in ensuring respect for human rights, but some recent press reports suggest the (United Nations) Human Rights Committee (the Committee) has given Trinidad and Tobago a clean bill of health. That is certainly not the case. And while Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj has reportedly accepted that "human rights bodies are entitled to criticise" and does not want to say anything to make them feel they cannot do so, that is not quite the magnanimous gesture it may seem since T&T is required under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to present itself to the Committee for examination. The purpose of these regular examinations is to monitor a state's compliance with the ICCPR, a treaty it has voluntarily signed. Every state signatory is subject to the same procedure. Much has been made of the Committee's positive comments but it should be remembered that the majority of its concluding observations are devoted to "concerns and recommendations". Among them are the following:- The Committee expresses its "profound regret" at T&T's denunciation of the Optional Protocol which has denied every citizen the right of appeal to the Committee if their rights are violated; The Committee recommends that every person accused of serious crimes, particularly capital offences, should receive legal representation from the time of arrest and throughout all subsequent legal proceedings; The Committee is disturbed that flogging and whipping is still practised in contravention of the ICCPR; The Committee regrets that problems identified some years ago relating to the police ("such as corruption, brutality, abuse of power and obstacles placed in the way of police personnel who seek to correct such practices") have not been rectified and that there has been little reduction in the number of complaints against the police in 1999 and 2000; The Committee expresses its concern over prison conditions which fail to meet acceptable standards; The Committee notes that despite its requests the government has failed to abide by its obligation to provide information on implementation of Committee recommendations made as a result of petitions presented under the Optional Protocol. By definition, and contrary to remarks attributed to the Attorney General, these issues do indeed pose a threat to human rights and must be addressed as a matter of urgency. SHELAGH SIMMONS CO-ORDINATOR Click here to return to Jamaicans United Against Police Brutality homepage. |