MEMBERS OF the security forces who exchanged gunfire with civilians in Western Kingston, July 7 to 10 last year, leaving 27 people dead, have been exonerated by the three-member Commission of Enquiry, headed by Justice Julius Isaac of Canada.
The report found that the security forces carried out their law enforcement functions "satisfactorily in all the circumstances".
Among those killed were a Jamaica Defence Force soldier and a policeman.
The security forces had been branded by some critics as being politically motivated, of targeting Tivoli Gardens, the stronghold of Edward Seaga, JLP leader and MP for West Kingston, and of firing indiscriminately at unarmed civilians.
But, according to the commissioners, the conduct of the security forces up to and including July 5, 2001, was "unexceptionable".
The findings of the commission are contained in a three-volume, 18-chapter document which was released yesterday to reporters at the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.
It states that the uncontradicted evidence of witnesses show that:
There was a large contingent of security forces in West Kingston on July 7, 2001.
The number of members of the security forces reflected the nature of the task to be done - to execute cordons and searches for guns and ammunition in 19 areas in the Kingston Western Police Division.
Violence against the security forces perpetrated by groups of armed civilians provoked their response the return of gunfire, albeit with some restraint in order to protect lives.
There was no evidence of indiscriminate use of violence a characterisation of state terrorism.
There was no credible evidence of violence directed through political motivation.
The commissioners found that violence erupted in the area during the period May to July 6, 2001; that intelligence available to the security forces on July 6, 2001 indicated that a substantial quantity of guns, ammunition and drugs was present at the Golden Age Home in Denham Town or its environs and that wanted men were likely to be found in the area where cordon and search was established.
"We were unable to find that the upsurge of violence during 7-10 July, 2001 was linked to money laundering, extortion and other elements of organised crime," the report said.
The commissioners also found that while the presence of drugs and illegal weapons was a factor in the upsurge of criminal violence in the communities since May, 2001, the use of the substance was not an aspect of the upsurge of criminal violence during the same period. Rather, that violence was linked to external connections dealing in drugs and illicit weapons.
"The essential cause of the violence in Denham Town, Tivoli Gardens and their environs during 7-10 July, 2001, was the presence of drugs, the proliferation of guns and ammunition in the hands of civilians residing in the area and the desire of the owners to protect them," the report states.
Uncontradicted evidence according to the commissioners also found that:
The security forces came under heavy gunfire from armed civilians.
Both the JCF and JDF suffered fatalities from gunshot wounds.
The security forces spent inordinately long periods of time taking cover from gunfire that came from all directions, in buildings and behind buildings.
The security forces were generally impeded in the execution of their planned operations.
Because of the continuous gunfire aimed in their direction the security forces were prevented from removing seriously injured and dead who had fallen on the streets.
The commissioners said no evidence existed that could attribute the loss of civilian lives to the action of the security forces only, as "bodies found on the streets of Denham Town in areas where there was intensive gunfire between the security forces and armed civilians were more likely than not those of persons involved either in the assault on the security forces or caught in cross-fire between the opposing forces".
While exonerating the security forces, the commissioners concluded that it was probable that the bullet which injured a young girl alleged to have been lying on her bed in an apartment in Tivoli Gardens could have been fired from the Barrett 82 rifle used by a member of the JCF.
They described the intervention of Mr. Seaga on July 7 as "advantageous in that it averted, temporarily, the intense gunfire exchange between criminal assailants and the security forces".
Mr. Seaga's intervention was to offer Senior Supt. Reneto Adams "safe passage" out of the area.
"By his presence in Tivoli Gardens, the anger of supporters who comprised a reportedly hostile and boisterous crowd was somewhat defused and their threatening advance on the security forces was deflected," the report said.
But, according to the commissioners, while the actions of the Leader of the Opposition might have been well-intentioned, his message to the nation through the media seemed to have deviated from the grim reality of the events of July 7-10.
In the end, Mr. Seaga, Councillor for the Tivoli Division, Desmond Mckenzie and scores of West Kingston residents who were either injured in the incident or who were witnesses refused to testify.
In a swipe at the JLP, the commissioners said while the incidents of July 7-10 were inherently non-political in design, the road blockages, loss of lives and other forms of disruption which followed, appeared to us to have been partisan in spirit...".
They described the loss to the Jamaican economy as a result of the upsurge of violence in terms of monetary, material and other resources as incalculable.
The report will be tabled in Parliament today, and is to be fully discussed by Cabinet next week.
