Amnesty International Secretary-General Pierre Sane holds his head before the start of a press conference at the Courtleigh Hotel yesterday. - Rudolph BrownBy Claude Mills, Staff Reporter
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL head Pierre Sane yesterday shot down the 'shoot-out' version of the controversial killings of seven young men in Braeton, St. Catherine, and castigated the execution-style slayings by the police.
"We have visited the house, and we have difficulties in seeing how this (police) statement can be sustained. The claims of the police about the shootings in Braeton are very unlikely, and we take the allegations of executions seriously," said Amnesty Secretary-General Pierre Sane.
At a press conference at the Courtleigh Hotel, the London-based human rights group released copies of a 34-page report on the observations of forensic pathologist Dr. Peter Leth, who was commissioned by the Amnesty International Danish Medical Group to observe the autopsies of the so-called 'Braeton Seven'.
The autopsies were performed by Dr. Ere Seshajah.
"The pattern of gun shot wounds is more consistent with the theory that the deceased were shot inside the house from a distance longer than the length of a barrel, with the exception of Andre Virgo who was shot at close range," said the report.
According to the report, two of the wounds to Virgo's head had blackened seared margins which suggest they were delivered at close range. Virgo was a prime suspect in the slaying of principal Keith Morris, according to the police.
Mr. Sane said: "The distribution of blood in the house also suggests the majority of the killings took place in the larger of the two bedrooms, a room not easily reached by shots from the outside".
According to the findings, six of the men died from gunshot wounds to their heads, some were shot as many as four times to the head. The youngest, 15-year-old Reagan Beckford, was shot five times in the back. Four of the deceased were shot from behind.
There was evidence of blunt trauma to the bodies of Christopher Grant and to Andre Virgo, some as a result of 'fist punches'. The report stated that during the autopsy, Dr. Leth observed 'the bodies were not in a body bag, and there were no paper bags around hands and head to secure evidence and prevent contamination.'
The report also pointed to damning breaches of standard police procedures routinely used in several other countries, and the police investigation was dubbed 'in many ways insufficient'.
The report said: It could be seen on TV how the police officers handled the weapons allegedly found in the house without the use of gloves. The bodies were taken away from the scene before their position in the house were registered and photographed.
Pointing to the observations of forensic pathologist Dr. Peter Leth, Mr. Sane said: "It is highly unlikely the pattern of gun shot wounds on the deceased should have occurred by random shooting from outside the house through windows with closed aluminium persiennas (shutters)."
Mr. Sane also dubbed the present situation of continued controversial police shootings 'a human rights emergency'. "The government needs to act swiftly to stop the bloodshed," he declared.
In the past three weeks, there has been a mushrooming controversy over the March 14 police shooting in the Portmore community, and a country divided against itself ambivalent over heavy-handed police tactics in the face of a surging crime wave.
Mr. Sane promised to take the looming human rights battle to the international stage.
"This is something that we will not lay to rest. We will take our concerns to the United Nations, we will take our concerns to those countries which have developed partnerships with Jamaica. We will take our concerns to other human rights organisations," Mr. Sane promised.
"This should be a wake-up call for the Jamaican government to address the issue of crime in a more intelligent way within the framework of human rights and to guarantee that the police in this country will do its constitutional job to fulfil mission to serve, protect and reassure," he added.
Mr. Sane also defended his organisation saying that Amnesty International was neither 'anti-police or anti-state'. "We want human rights for everyone, including the worst of us," he said.
"Oh yes, this is certainly a landmark case, internationally. Other groups in the UK, Denmark and Germany have been asking for copies of Dr. Leth's report so that they can start an international campaign," he said.
Piers Bannister, an Amnesty International researcher, compared the Braeton Seven killings to the Sharpville Massacre in South Africa. "This is a watershed moment that will shock people similarly to what happened in Sharpville. When the dust settles, and there are no more pro-criminal and pro-police arguments, then people will see this incident as something that must be adjudicated, and people will be able to move forward, and hear the message and be more measured in their approach," he said.
During apartheid, the forcible relocation of blacks from sections of a suburb called Windhoek was met with resistance which was ruthlessly crushed by the South African police and 13 people were killed in what is now known as Namibia's Sharpville Massacre.
