THE EDITOR: Sir
IF A Gleaner story published on February 28 is accurate, Velma Hylton, counsel for the Commission inquiring into events which took place in West Kingston, does not understand what is wrong with members of our security forces gunning down unarmed women and children acting as human shields - voluntary or not.
Let us assume that Miss Hylton's assertion is correct and that the women and children were acting as human shields, a doubtful proposition at best. At the very least, Miss Hylton should find something abhorrently wrong even if one unarmed woman or child was deliberately gunned down by the security forces, regardless of how many gunmen they were trying to kill.
Twenty-seven persons are dead and she finds nothing wrong. One could understand if she were a white South African referring to disenfranchised blacks during Apartheid. One might even excuse her if she were not 'educated'. But how does one excuse such a patently heartless statement from one who ostensibly knows better?
For the record, the Jamaica Defence Force of my day did not train its soldiers to deliberately gun down unarmed women and children who were shielding gunmen. We were trained to hold our fire and take cover until we could engage clear targets.
A bullet from a high-powered weapon can go straight through a woman or child and kill the person standing behind. Women and children, therefore, do not make effective shields against rifle fire and their presence is useful only to the degree that they prevent the security forces from returning fire. If they were in fact shielding gunmen who were firing at the security forces, they would have assumed that the security forces would not have returned fire, and would have run away as soon as dead bodies began piling up around them.
If at the end of the shooting there are 27 dead 'blockers' and no dead gunmen I would expect Miss Hylton to suggest a change in tactics, and not to say that the tactic used was perfectly logical.
She should apologise.
I am, etc.
CAPT. JOHN RICHARDS
12 Hope Road
Kingston 10
