THE JAMAICA Police Federation has condemned the findings published in a report by the international body, Human Rights Watch, and has called on the minister of justice to slap sedition charges on the body and local groups, which they say "were slandering both the government and the police force."
Sergeant David White, the federation's public relations officer ,in a statement said, "I condemn the role of the so called human rights group with their narrow interest to spread lies and deliberately malign and slander the police force and the government."
"Enough is enough. We are calling on the minister of justice (A.J. Nicholson) to examine these allegations and slap on sedition charges where necessary to both foreign and local agents of provocation," the federation said.
The federation, which represents rank-and-file members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, was responding to a report entitled 'Hated to Death: Homopho-bia, Violence and Jamaica's HIV/AIDS Epidemic'.
The report was made public Tuesday by Human Rights Watch, in collaboration with Jamaicans For Justice (JFJ), the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights and Families Against State Terrorism (FAST), at the Courtleigh Hotel, New Kingston.
The report accused the police of not only harassing but also prosecuting people suspected of homosexual conduct, sex workers and people living with HIV/AIDS.
It stated, "Police abuse is a fact of life for many men who have sex with men and women who have sex with women in all of the communities that Human Rights Watch visited in Jamaica."
It also said that gay, bisexual men and AIDS service providers told Human Rights Watch that men who are perceived to be gay were routinely threatened with arrest, arrested, detained and sometimes prosecuted because of their actual or perceived homosexuality or homosexual conduct.
The Federation however said these findings were "unsubstantiated charges and an attack on a sovereign government and people."
