By Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter
Piers Bannister, Amnesty International investigator, showing a photograph yesterday which he said, almost matches bullet wounds to Andre Virgo's head to holes found Tuesday in the floor of a back room of the house in Braeton, south St Catherine, where seven young men were killed in an alleged shoot-out with the police in March 2001. Mr. Piers was at a news conference at The Courtleigh Hotel, New Kingston. - Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, the London-based human rights organisation, yesterday produced what it says could turn out to be new evidence that seven young men were murdered, and not killed in a shoot-out with the police, at Braeton, south St. Catherine, exactly two years ago.
According to Piers Bannister, an Amnesty investigator, bullet fragments, including some which seemed to come from a 9mm handgun, were recovered in the backroom of the house where the young men died on March 14, 2001.
The discovery of the bullet fragments was made by a United Kingdom firearms expert with 18 years experience, Inspector John Vogel of the United Kingdom's Surrey Constabulary, who visited the house on Tuesday.
The backroom was said to be filled with blood, but Mr. Bannister said that no policeman had ever reported anyone being killed or shot there.
He was speaking at a press briefing at The Courtleigh Hotel, New Kingston, to make public a report, entitled, 'Jamaica: The Killing of the Braeton Seven A Justice System on Trial'.
Amnesty International, with headquarters in London, is a worldwide campaigning movement that works to promote internationally recognised human rights.
The media briefing was also called to announce plans by human rights groups to protest from 7 o'clock to 11 o'clock this morning in front of the Justice Ministry, Oxford Road, New Kingston. The protesters say they will call for an end to extrajudicial killings and demand answers to what Amnesty said are several discrepancies in the handling of the Braeton shooting scene, subsequent police reports and the related Coroner's inquest.
The report condemned Jamaica's human rights record with regard to several police killings, including that of the Braeton Seven, pointing to what it said was sloppy police investigation of the incident, scene contamination, what appeared to be a "cursory" review of the crime scene by police investigators, contradictory and changing statements made by policemen which were basically left unchallenged, and a nine-month Coroner's inquest into the shootings, which Amnesty described as a "mere formality".
The inquest, Amnesty said, often did not admit evidence crucial to discrediting the police reports, or allowed certain police officers to be questioned, but admitted evidence which was not relevant to the shooting but damaging to the characters of the slain youth.
In addition, Amnesty produced photographs which purported to show 15 indentations in the backroom floor which, Mr. Bannister said, were almost circular and could be caused by bullets, particularly from 9mm guns. Tests would have to be done to verify whether they were caused by bullets but Amnesty was sure that the discoveries warrant an investigation and prosecution if necessary.
Amnesty said it was hoping the discoveries would prompt Kent Pantry, Q.C., Director of Public Prosecutions, to revisit the case and lead to prosecution of policemen responsible, before a jury. Also, Mr. Bannister called on Government to seal the house, now accessible to anyone. Amnesty was awaiting a response to a written request sent to Government on the matter.
But, after Amnesty shared its information at a meeting on Wednesday with Dr. Peter Phillips, Minister of National Security, A.J. Nicholson, Minister of Justice, and K.D. Knight, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, the three ministers issued a joint statement blasting the report.
The ministers charged that Amnesty "consistently sought to impugn the (Jamaican) Government and the police in its reports", that the report "flies in the face of evidence that Government is taking steps to deal with police excesses" and that while the team conducting the research claimed it was doing so with an "open mind", it levelled "general accusations that could not be substantiated and is compounded by the fact that not one member of the team has seen the depositions taken at the Coroner's inquest".
In addition, the Government ministers said Amnesty's statement with regard to part of the report referring to the DPP, namely that the DPP was "unlikely to press charges against police officers... and is relieving one sector of the society from charges", amounted to accusing the chief prosecutor of corruption.
Amnesty responded yesterday that it would not be constrained by accusations of interfering in local affairs and being unfair, when it was trying to see to the protection of the human rights of all persons and when it treated all countries equally in its search for truth and a halt to human rights abuses.
