September 24, 2000
JAMAICANS UNITED AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY TRINIDAD & TOBAGO GOVERNMENT ACCUSES AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Dear Friends, Government tactics are no different in Trinidad and Tobago than it is in Jamaica. These governments try to suppress human rights by using homophobia as a red herring to incite the baser instincts of the population. We must not allow them to get away with those tactics whether in Jamaica or Trinidad. Human rights cannot be bargained away at the alter of national politics. The right to one's sexual orientation is no different from the right to life or the right to enjoy legal protection against cruel and inhuman punishment. Lloyd D'Aguilar
Assam: Europeans want us to be gay TRADE Minister Mervyn Assam charged yesterday that Amnesty International was being assisted by certain foreign emissaries in its attempt to destabilise the country. And, he warned, foreign emissaries in this country must not use their position to undermine sovereign democratic states under the guise of assisting organisations like Amnesty International, which has a geo-political agenda. "They want to Europeanise everything. They want to turn us into homosexuals! The European Parliament...that's a fact...They want countries who come to them for aid, or grants or technical assistance, they want them to pass legislation so that homosexuality could become law." He noted that in England the age of consent for homosexual relations was reduced to 16. "England is now part of the European Community and they are forcing independent territories...to introduce legislation...to bring homosexuality into law," he said. He said they were doing the same thing with the death penalty. Pointing out that the death penalty was law in Trinidad and Tobago, Assam said "foreign bodies" were attempting to define the law and redefine the law by using their agents who have offices in the ministries of certain foreign governments. "They were sending their representatives here to destabilise and undermine the social stability. "We have to object strenuously...We have to bring out the whole population against them," he said, to loud deskthumping from his colleagues. (Trinidad Express, 23 September 2000)
A MOTHER'S STORY ON TYPICAL POLICE BEHAVIOUR IN JAMAICA I was outside at the pipe at six o'clock yesterday morning catching water. I see two men with guns and think they are gunmen, so I freeze. They come up to me and ask me if I live here and which part I live and who else live here. By this time I can see some others are wearing blue uniform and I realize is police. Same time I start to fret for my son L who is inside sleeping. By the time I reach in to my room, two police men are in there already, asking more questions about who live here. I tell them that L is sleeping because he just come off shift work. This time I am sticking on to the police like a tick because I know plenty time they plant gun on youth and then shoot them and say is shoot out. They go into L's room and I see one of them put a gun into L's face and wake him up. By this my head start hurt me and I feel my pressure go up, but no way I am leaving them in the room with my son. The police tell my son to show them his teeth, and then they leave him. By this time other police crawling all over the yard and the house. I think I count twelve of them, some in uniform and some in plain clothes. I wish I did take down their number or even the number of the cars they drive in, but I was too frighten. They burst into my cousin's room. She is getting ready for work and she is naked when she see three policemen inside her room. One of them have a little shame and turn away his face. The other two stand up same place and tell her to put on her clothes. The police ransack D's room - he is a guy who lives in the house. They say they looking for the gunman we are harbouring. I tell them we don't have any gunman in the house. They name a guy who get shot Wednesday, and I tell them he has been walking on the street here for months, so if they know he is wanted they could come for him anytime. I had heard that this guy, W, had spent time in prison. He and my son L used to pal around sometimes. I warn my son to be careful especially when he and W stay out till all two o'clock in the morning, because plenty times police mark you by your company. I never have any trouble personally with W. In fact if I need anything at the shop he will ride on his bicycle to get it, and when I am cooking him say "Give me some of what in you pot nuh Mummy?" When the food ready, him say "Is just joke I was making", but still give him a plate of food and insist he eat. Wednesday this week, W was on my road with three other guys when a man come up and shoot W in his head two time. The first shot graze W's head because he was able to push away the gun, but the second shot go into W's head and he fall to the ground. He was on the ground bleeding for about 20 minutes while people around were waiting for police to come. If I was there I would have put him in a taxi, because he was asking for help and he was bleeding a lot. Finally somebody took him to hospital. He is alive and conscious but can't see anything. He says he did not know the person who shoot him. Now we have a private security firm on my road, and the guards there seem to be in league with the police, giving them news about what they think is happening on the road. When W get shot, the killer take W's bicycle and ride away, and the guards move the spent shells. Something seem funny to me, especially since police don't come to investigate the shooting and try to see if anybody can identify the killer. They have W in hospital already, so why they coming to search us and accuse us of harbouring gunman? All these months that W was on the street where anybody could see him, if police had something to charge him with, why they never just come and arrest him? I believe that police get somebody to kill W because the security guards wanted to get rid of W from the community. All of them in league. I feel frighten and I want to move from the community before anything happen to my son. I know that police don't have any right to come into my house without a search warrant, by what I must do? If I report them or try to take them to court, I am afraid they will set up my son and kill him. What is the use of taking up for my rights if meantime police can kill my son and nobody can do anything about it? I spoke with my informant yesterday when she was very scared and again this morning when her pressure had gone down a bit. A real problem is how to persuade people to stand up for their rights when their fear is so real. Click here to return to Jamaicans United Against Police Brutality homepage. |