HUMAN RIGHTS watchdog group, Amnesty International, has again painted a damning picture of Jamaica's human rights record.
"Reports of police brutality and excessive use of force continued. At least 113 people were killed by the police, many in circumstances suggesting that they were extrajudicially executed. Detainees continued to be held for extremely long periods without being brought to trial," the group said in the opening paragraph of country profile on Jamaica in its 2004 report. "Conditions of detention frequently amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. At least three people were sentenced to death; there were no executions."
The report which was released at the end of May is a round-up of alleged human rights abuses and reactions to these abuses which occurred in 2003 in 155 countries.
Looking specifically at the Jamaican situation, some of the human rights abuses by agents of the state were listed as follows:
The alleged police shooting at a dance at the La Roose nightclub, Portmore, St. Catherine in January. Several persons were injured because of the gunfire and the stampede which followed.
The Kraal incident in which Angela Richards, Lewena Thompson, Kirk Gordon and Matthew James were shot and killed by members of the police Crime Management Unit (CMU) in disputed circumstances.
The shooting death of 10-year-old Renee Lyons in Majesty Gardens, Kingston. The police officer involved said he was firing on an unarmed youth who fled after being suspected of smoking a marijuana cigarette.
THE REPORT
Missing from the report was last October's shooting deaths of David Bacchus, 63, and Cecil Brown, 66, in Flankers, St. James. The two men were killed after a taxi driven by Bacchus was fired on by members of a police party. The police said that they were returning fire after being attacked by gunmen. The incident caused massive protests which crippled the country's tourist capital Montego Bay for a few days.
The report also said, "There was a continuing failure to hold the perpetrators of human rights violations to account and to offer redress to victims. Investigations into alleged extrajudicial executions and other human rights violations were inadequate."
However, Jamaica's report card was not all negative as it also spoke of police officers being charged in connection with some previous abuses. Among them is the ruling that charges were to be brought against six of the police officers involved in the 2001 Braeton Seven killings. It also noted the disbandment of the CMU, whose members were involved in both the Braeton and Kraal incidents.
