Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL (AI) has again painted a macabre picture of human rights in Jamaica, in a wide-ranging condemnation of extrajudicial killings, violence against women and children, and the buggery law, in a report released yesterday.
The latest AI report, covering the period January-December 2005 and repeating many of the previous concerns of the human rights body, said at least 168 people were killed by the police.
The international human rights group claimed that despite evidence of extrajudicial executions in the past six years, none of the lawmen involved have been convicted.
NO CONVICTIONS
"For the sixth consecutive year, no police or army officers were convicted of unlawful killings committed while on duty," said the report released yesterday. It also noted that investigations into alleged extrajudicial executions remained inadequate.
Mention was also made of the Kraal and Braeton incidents which involved the controversial Crime Management Unit.
Six police officers were acquitted in February for the 2001 killing of seven young men in Braeton despite evidence that they were extrajudicially executed, the report suggested.
AI noted that the trial of the six police officers, charged with the murders of two men and two women in Kraal, Clarendon, in 2003 also resulted in acquittals last December.
RECORD MURDER TOLL
The rights group said Jamaica continues to suffer from increased levels of violence, with a record 1,674 people murdered in 2005.
The damning report, entitled 'The State of the World's Human Rights', said conditions of detention frequently amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
Another problem AI highlighted was that police officers often failed to preserve crime scenes, and statements from officers were often taken only after long delays.
It said several policemen charged with unlawful killings fled from justice, including the policeman charged with the murder of 10-year-old Renee Lyons in 2003.
AI further argued that, despite legislation to establish a police civilian oversight authority, that law did not mandate the authority to play any major role in investigating alleged unlawful police killings.
Violence against women was also highlighted in the report. According to AI, in the first eight months of 2005 there were 835 reported cases of sexual assault against women and girls, of which 67 per cent were against girls, and 16 per cent were at gunpoint. Most injuries to women, the report said, were inflicted by an intimate partner.
HIV INFECTION CLIMBING
The report also stated that rates of HIV infection among women and girls were on the rise in Jamaica and that people living with HIV faced systematic discrimination.
According to AI, amendments to reform and update the Offences Against the Person Act and the Incest (Punishment) Act, submitted to Parliament in 1995, were still awaiting approval. It pointed out that marital rape was still not a criminal offence.
AI also said gay men and lesbians continued to face violence and discrimination.
In August, the report said two men were convicted of buggery and sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labour, suspended for two years. During previous hearings, crowds gathered outside the courthouse had verbally abused the men.
