Seaga blasts Gov't, society

Seaga

OPPOSITION AND Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Leader Edward Seaga, yesterday said the international community will be made fully aware of the atrocities of an operation in which 200 soldiers and police fired 10,000 rounds of ammunition, recovered no guns and found no criminals, but slaughtered men, women, children, dogs, a cat and a goat in Tivoli Gardens recently.

Mr. Seaga also blasted the Government and the society for not having a principled stance against injustice, resulting in the attack on Tivoli Gardens residents by the security forces.

He claimed there is a fundamental weakness in the society and that there are many people who feel the massacre of innocent inner-city residents is accepted if the security forces capture even one criminal. The Opposition Leader spoke last night in part one of a two-part national broadcast.

"None of the attempts by the security forces to brutalise innocent inner-city residents would be successful if the Government itself upheld principles of justice and drew a line beyond which the security forces would not go, or if civil society, too, had a principled position about where the line of justice should be drawn in the treatment of poor and disadvantaged people," he said.

Mr. Seaga added that the JLP was prepared to protect "poor and disadvantaged" from injustice even if it means being smeared as protecting criminals by persons with political agendas.

According to the Opposition Leader, if his party did not stand by his constituents in West Kingston during the July 7 gunbattle, up to 250 persons could have been killed, robbed, or burnt out of their homes.

He suggested that the security forces must gain the respect of citizens before citizens can respect them. "The Prime Minister must not talk of law and order to people who are themselves attacked by the lawless elements of the same security forces who are expected to enforce law and order," Mr. Seaga charged.

On the weekend of July 7, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Adams and a number of policemen and women, battled gunmen in Tivoli Gardens in West Kingston. More than 20 persons, including a Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldier and a police corporal lost their lives.

Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, has since ordered a Commission of Enquiry into the incident. The terms of reference of the enquiry have since been publicised but the persons to sit on the commission are expected to be known by tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Mr. Patterson last week told his East Westmoreland constituency that he would never place them above the national interest despite their loyalty to him. His comments were made in response to Mr. Seaga following the split along political lines over the flare-up of violence in West Kingston.

But in a salvo back at Mr. Patterson, Mr. Seaga said yesterday that protecting his constituents is similar to prioritising the nation's interest.

"If I am guilty of protecting the poor of West Kingston, it is not because I put them before the nation, but because I put poor and brutalised people first, and the interest of poor and brutalised people and the interest of the nation are one and the same thing," he said.

The Opposition Leader said the party will be ensuring that the proposed Commission of Enquiry into the mass killing will identify the persons responsible, at the highest level, for planning and executing the attack.

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