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Amnesty International Report 2002 - Jamaica

Covering events from January-December 2001

Jamaica
Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Howard Felix Cooke
Head of government: Percival James Patterson
Capital: Kingston
Population: 2.6 million
Official language: English
Death penalty: retentionist

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Reports of police brutality and excessive use of force continued. At least 148 people were killed by the police, many in disputed circumstances. Detention without charge or trial and ill-treatment were reported. Conditions of detention frequently amounted to cruel and inhuman treatment. At least 50 people were on death row at the end of the year. Twenty-seven people, including two soldiers, were killed in disturbances in Kingston in July.

Background

The economic situation remained dire with large sections of society living below the poverty line. Jamaican society continued to suffer from an extremely high level of violence. In 2001, 1,139 people were reportedly murdered, including 15 police officers. Hundreds of people living in areas of West Kingston were forced to flee their homes because of political violence.

Brutality by the security forces

At least 148 people were killed by the police, and four by the Jamaica Defence Force. Many of these killings appeared to be extrajudicial executions. There were continuing reports of unlawful arrest and detention, and of ill-treatment, possibly amounting to torture, in police custody.

There were dozens of reports of ill-treatment, possibly amounting to torture, and extrajudicial executions by members of the Crime Management Unit, a specialist police unit. In October, the Commissioner of Police announced an immediate internal investigation into the management and activities of the unit. The internal investigation was completed in November, but the findings had not been made public by the end of the year. In December, the Commissioner of Police announced that he was satisfied with the Unit's performance and would be seeking additional equipment and training for members of the Unit.

• In March, seven young males aged between 15 and 20 were killed during an operation led by the Head of the Crime Management Unit on a house in Braeton in circumstances suggesting they had been extrajudicially executed. Approximately 60 police officers went to the house in the early morning, allegedly after receiving information that two of the youths had been involved in the murder of a police officer and a headmaster. The police claimed that they returned fire from outside the house after coming under heavy gunfire and that the youths were subsequently found bleeding heavily inside the house, and were removed to hospital. Local residents claimed the youths were beaten before being summarily executed, one at a time, having been forced to plead for their lives.
• In July at least 27 people, including two members of the security forces, died and over 50 were injured following disturbances allegedly sparked by a Crime Management Unit raid in Tivoli Gardens, West Kingston. Local residents maintained that many of those killed were shot indiscriminately and that others were deliberately targeted by the security forces. Film of soldiers and police officers firing automatic weapons while holding the guns above their heads was shown several times on television. The incident led to disturbances around the island. In October, a three-person Commission of Inquiry, headed by a retired Supreme Court Judge from Canada, began investigating the events. There were concerns that aspects of the inquiry failed to conform to international standards. Civilian witnesses were unwilling to testify; some alleged that they had been intimidated by police. Counsel to the inquiry were refused an independent investigator, thereby forcing the inquiry to rely on statements and evidence collected by the police, who were themselves under investigation. Following the limitation of their right to cross-examine witnesses, lawyers acting for the leader of the opposition Jamaican Labour Party left the inquiry. The inquiry was continuing at the end of 2001.

Prolonged detention without trial

Many prisoners continued to be held for prolonged periods without being brought to trial.

• In March, Ivan Barrows, aged 76, was released from prison after being held for 29 years without trial. He had originally been charged with breaking a window but was deemed unfit to plead at the time because of mental illness. The Commissioner of Prisons told the press that Ivan Barrows had been deemed fit to plead in 1998 but offered no explanation as to why he was incarcerated for a further three years.

Torture and ill-treatment in detention

In January, the Minister of National Security and Justice committed the government to the reintroduction of hard labour for prisoners.

Conditions in prisons and other places of detention were harsh and in many cases amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Serious disease was commonplace.

• The report by the Commission of Inquiry into disturbances in St Catherine's District Prison in May 2000, during which approximately 300 prisoners were beaten, was published in March. Evidence submitted by military and prison personnel conflicted with that given by the prison medical officer and inmates. The Commissioner found that the extent of injuries suffered by inmates was out of proportion to the threatened harm to soldiers and officers. He concluded that inmates were taken from their cells and beaten and that prison personnel discharged firearms into prisoners' cells. The Commissioner made a number of recommendations, including replacing batons with electro-shock weapons. However, his recommendations did not address the issue of bringing officers responsible for human rights violations to justice. The report noted the severe overcrowding and lack of adequate facilities in the prison which held 1,302 inmates in accommodation designed for 800.

Investigations and prosecutions

In May, a police officer was charged with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of 13-year-old Janice Allen in March 2000. Members of her family reportedly received death threats on several occasions following repeated visits by the police to the family's residence. In November the Commissioner of Police announced an investigation into the threats. The trial had not concluded by the end of the year.

In May, a Coroner's Inquest held that all police involved in the fatal shooting of Patrick Genius should be held criminally responsible. However, the Director of Public Prosecutions had made no ruling regarding criminal charges by the end of 2001. Patrick Genius was shot dead by police on 13 December 1999 in Kingston.

In October, three police officers convicted of murder in October 1999 had their sentences reduced on appeal to 10 years in prison with hard labour. The appeal court found them guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter. They had been convicted of beating David Black to death in 1995 and dumping his body at sea.

Death penalty

At least two people were sentenced to death in 2001, bringing the number of people on death row to 50. No death warrants were issued and in June the Attorney General publicly stated that it was unlikely that executions would resume in the near future because of recent legal rulings.

Threats to human rights defenders

Human rights defenders continued to be threatened.

• In August, journalist and human rights lawyer Hilaire Sobers received a death threat that appeared to be connected to his weekly human rights column in the Jamaican Observer. The author of the death threat also made references to AI and local human rights activists.

AI country reports/visits

Reports

• Jamaica: Killings and violence by police – how many more victims? (AI Index: AMR 38/003/2001)
• Jamaica: Police killings – appeals against impunity (AI Index: AMR 38/012/2001)
• Jamaica: The Braeton Seven – report on the observation of seven autopsies in Jamaica (AI Index: AMR 38/009/2001)

Visits

In March, AI sent a pathologist to Jamaica to observe the autopsies of seven youths killed by police. In April, AI's Secretary General held talks with members of the Jamaican cabinet, the Commissioner of Police, the Public Defender and the Chairman of the Police Public Complaints Authority. In October, AI delegates visited Jamaica and observed the Commission of Inquiry into the July violence in West Kingston.