One year after the May, 2010 security forces operation in Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town area of west Kingston which resulted in the deaths of at least 73 people according to the official count (some residents suggest that as many as 200 may have been killed), and widespread allegations that these were extrajudicial killings by the security forces (SF), the question still remains: was arresting Christopher Dudus Coke the main reason for this “incursion”, or more to the point, was it a counterinsurgency operation to ‘dismantle’ this ‘mother of all garrisons’, as Admiral Hardley Lewin, former chief of staff of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) once described Tivoli?
The evidence is overwhelmingly in favour of garrison dismantlement. The attempt to arrest Coke was merely a pretext, not only because this was the post-incursion claim -- a “template” to be used for dismantling other garrisons, according to national security minister Dwight Nelson -- but there was not the slightest embarrassment over the fact that Coke was able to slip through the elaborate dragnet set up to nab him in Tivoli Gardens. Nor did this bring the operation to an end. It continued with intensity for at least three days resulting in a permanent SF post in Tivoli Gardens.
After having worked so hard and risked so much to prevent Coke’s extradition it could hardly have been in Prime Minister Bruce Golding’s interest for Coke to have been caught. Coke would also have had connections with senior members of the security forces so it was not surprising that he escaped. In fact, throughout the period of being of the run it turned out that he was being assisted by no other a person than the Rev. Al Miller who was working out of the Office of the Prime Minister. What a coincidence!
Without proper intelligence as to where Coke was at any precise time the SF would have been going on a fishing expedition to find him. National security expert Harold Crooks argued in an interview that a cordon along with patience would have been sufficient to eventually achieve the purposes of capturing him and dealing with whatever other provocations were presented. The calling out of 2000 police and soldiers was a declaration of war.
Bruce Golding's role
Bruce Golding, MP for the area, took no responsibility for what happened and expressed no regret or concern that so many of his constituents, some of them high school students, who had nothing to do with Coke, had been killed execution-style by the security forces. Women were also killed, one of them very much pregnant. Others were shot and injured. Golding was to tell the residents that what happened could not have been avoided. This was as if he had been a mere spectator rather than the key architect. This kind of political opportunism was so reminiscent of his famous "I was associated with gunmen, it's not a crime to be associated with gunmen …. they served their purpose which was to keep the PNP out of the community!" In other words he had nothing to gain from what was done by these gunmen whom he was associated with.
For sure Golding would have known from the very beginning about the executions because he was called by residents to complain and beg for his intervention but he chose to do nothing. He turned off his phone. It went to voicemail. Colonel Rocky Meade has dismissed a claim by Edward Seaga that Golding tried to get the army at some point to pull out of Tivoli. Said Colonel Meade "I am not aware that the army has or would ever defy an order from the chairman of the National Defence Board.” Bruce Golding cannot escape the charge of criminal negligence, that is, that he knew crimes were being committed and chose to do nothing.
Golding is tightly wrapped into the whole operation and cannot so easily extricate himself. In order deny the charge of a deliberate plan to commit murder and other acts of state terrorism, the government and the security forces would need to make public, the plan that had been drawn up long in advance to capture Coke and its evolution into Operation Garden Parish. To what extent did this plan intellectually draw on Major Wayne Robinson’s thesis on counterinsurgency ”Eradicating Organized Criminal Gangs in Jamaica: Can Lessons be Learnt From a Successful Counterinsurgency.”
Declaration of state of emergency
The other question is on what basis did the SF advise the prime minister to call a state of emergency. On the very day that Cabinet met to make that decision the police commissioner was advising the public to be calm, that the police had everything under control, and encouraging Tivoli residents to cooperate with the police because they had no intention of infringing on their rights. That was a categorical promise and an absolute lie from the head of a state organization whose motto is to ‘serve and protect.’ The police commissioner has to be held accountable for delivering the exact opposite of what he promised.
Doctrine of collective responsibility
Under the doctrine of collective responsibility, the prime minister, who gave the security forces legal cover by declaring a state of emergency, and who participated in planning the operation with the minister of national security, the police commissioner, the army chief of staff and ground commanders such as Glenmore Hinds, are as culpable, if not more so than the soldiers and police who pulled the trigger. If Jamaican law does not contain provisions for trying this kind of state conspiracy to murder, as there should be, then certainly the matter ought to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for investigation. It should be noted that while both PNP and JLP administrations have conveniently not signed the final Rome Statute of the ICC so that crimes against humanity that are committed in Jamaica cannot be directly referred to that body, it is possible for the matter to be referred through other countries. The “law of universal jurisdiction” still applies in some parts of Europe.
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
1. For the purpose of this Statute, "crime against humanity" means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:
(a) Murder;
. . .
"Attack directed against any civilian population" means a course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts referred to in paragraph 1 against any civilian population, pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy to commit such attack;
The so-called battle
The security forces have provided few details about their battle with the Tivoli gunmen. After having done a review of their role in the Tivoli operations, the JDF is allegedly refusing to make this report public. So too did the police commissioner promise a review of the role of the Jamaica Constabulary Force. If this review has been it has never been made public. More than likely the commissioner is conveniently leaving investigations to the ineffective and discredited Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI). A completely untenable situation.
Much was made of the barricades set up to prevent a repeat of previous SF assaults on residents, but these would have been easily destroyed by tanks. Much was also made of a few crudely made explosive devices none of which worked for obvious reasons. There was also an initial suggestion about gunmen on high rise buildings -- a suicidal position to take up given that the security forces had helicopters, which they used quite effectively.
Security force snipers
In fact it was the 2000-odd SF contingent who dominated the battle from early by taking over the roofs of high rise buildings in Tivoli and the nearby Seprod complex. Few residents claim to have witnessed gunmen shooting at the security forces as they had to take cover inside their houses because the SF, from their sniper positions, would shoot at anything that moved and did kill and injure a number of men and women. (They refused to have the media embedded with them).
Gunmen operating on the streets would have stood very little chance against this advantage. The police commissioner confirms the deadly use of snipers when he said that “many of the thugs who were shooting at members of the security forces were hit from ‘distances of over 300 yards’”. Such a claim could be refuted forensically by the fact that most of the young men fitting the criteria of gun men would have been shot at close range and those killed by sniper fire would have included women, children, and even street people, some of them mentally challenged. The police commissioner can of course assert anything he pleases knowing fully well the challenges of doing a proper forensic examination when the crime scene has been compromised.
JDF helicopters and the White Plane
In addition to SF snipers JDF helicopters were used to drop mortar devices on many buildings burning them to the ground. A squatter settlement referred to as PWD was completely burnt after a helicopter attack. Any smart gunman would have known that there was no place to hide in Tivoli unless he was prepared to fight to the death. No explanation has so far been given by the JDF as to why such extreme measures were necessary.
Residents of Tivoli and others in the Kingston and St Andrew area reported seeing a ‘white” plane flying in tandem with JDF helicopters. The JDF needs to answer: which government supplied this plane; what was its role in the operation; was it a drone, or an electronic surveillance plane; did the government give approval for it to be used and on what basis. Col Rocky Meade, member of the National Security Strategy Committee, and former pilot and Flight Commander was very evasive when journalists tackled him on this issue. It is clear, however, that based on the description of the plane it is not part of the JDF fleet of helicopters. A curious report in the Gleaner stated: “A military aircraft circled the city and JDF helicopters provided air support.” Notice the distinction between a “military aircraft” and “JDF helicopters”.
One Observer report suggested that there was increased US electronic surveillance in Jamaica arising out of the attempt to extradite Coke. Was this white plane part of a stepped up US intervention? Was Golding’s hand being forced?
Few guns found
Four guns were declared found within the first few days after the operation. But after questions were raised by the Public Defender about the number in light of so many killed, that figure was revised upwards many days after. The simple truth is that the SF were not shooting gunmen and consequently there were no guns to recover.
In commenting on the low retrieval of guns from gunmen Police Commissioner Owen Ellington confirms the disadvantage of gun men on the streets versus SF snipers on rooftops. According to the Commissioner: "If a man is firing a rifle and he is taken out by snipers there is no way that the sniper can go and retrieve his firearm. It would be unwise, unsafe and downright irresponsible for him to attempt to do that."
“In such cases, he said, residents would have had ample time to retrieve weapons from slain gunmen.” But that would also have been “unwise, unsafe and downright suicidal” for residents as SF snipers were firing at anything and any one who dared to put out his or her head. The far more sinister intent of that suggestion was to create the impression of this fanatic relationship between gunmen and residents, ready to risk their lives to retrieve guns of fallen comrades. For what purpose? Not surprisingly, therefore, the soldiers and police did treat the residents as if they were combatants along the lines suggested by the Commissioner.
Based on a survey carried out by the Planning Committee for A People’s Commission of Enquiry into the Tivoli Massacre only two out of 175 Tivoli residents claimed to have seen gunmen firing their guns or moving about on the day that security forces invaded. One resident claimed to have seen a man in a helmet and a bullet proof vest, unarmed and with his hands in the air, pleading for his life but was shot nonetheless. He thought that this man could have been a gunman. The important fact, however, is that he was unarmed at the time he was killed
Providing cover for escape
What is clear is that any shooting by gunmen, when assessed from the point of view of military tactics was at best symbolic and designed to provide cover for Dudus and the gunmen themselves to escape. It has been suggested that the least patrolled area around Tivoli was along Spanish Town Road and it was at this end that escape was most possible in the very early stages of the operation.
The diary of Cedric “Doggie” Murray, killed by police in an alleged shootout some months later, seems to suggest, assuming that he is really the author, that the main tactic of the gunmen was indeed to provide cover for Dudus to escape, and other gunmen like himself. Doggie supposedly wrote:
“May 24, Babylon — the enemy — invaded Tivoli Gardens, gunshots rang out for hours from every corner of West Kingston and other places of Kingston to protect the man, the don of all dons, Christopher Coke aka ‘Dudus’.”
May 24 would have been a Monday but Tivoli residents claim that they were receiving fire from the security forces from early Sunday evening, the day when the State of Emergency was declared. Note that the Doggie’s diary does not speak specifically of Tivoli which is where most of the deaths took place. (Granted he could have been in Hannah Town or Rose Town).
Attorney-at-law Hannah Barrington of the Planning Committee (PCETM) stated in a radio interview with me on my radio programme “Looking Back Looking Forward” that around mid-day that Sunday she spoke by phone with Dudus (she was on her way there meet him) and he informed her that the security forces had started to fire into Tivoli. She could hear the sounds of gunshots in the background. Coke told her that he was confident about his own safety, but not necessarily so for the people around him. Was this a hint that he knew how to get out of Tivoli?
Doggie also wrote: “I fired my AK until my finger was numb. I eat gunpowder until my throat was sore.” Again, this sounds like wild shooting (and some braggadocio) rather than a credible account of a shootout. It also jibes with the theory that this excessive shooting was meant to be cover for Dudus and others to escape. There were no deaths or injuries among the security forces on Sunday onwards apart from one soldier who was shot in Hannah Town by a sniper. So who was Doggie shooting at? Whether by witnessing it or reading about it, Doggie went on to accuse the police of being worse than gunmen. By his own estimation he would have expected no mercy once they caught up with him.
In an interview with Emily Crooks on Impact, Edward Seaga said it was foolish for Coke and his gang to think that they could successfully challenge the security forces. In terms of challenge, there certainly was the burning of police stations in Hannah Town and Rose Town. But some cynics have suggested that this could have been facilitated in order to provide the ultimate pretext for the incursion. Another tactic used by the police high command to prime the public for an incursion was to feed disinformation to the media. One such piece of disinformation was that they had evidence “that residents of Tivoli Gardens are in possession of the 50-calibre Grizzly Big Boar sniper rifle”. This gun according to the manufacturer blows its targets to pieces. No such gun was ever found and nothing more was said about the evidence they had.
The message
Undoubtedly, a message was being sent by Coke and his ‘generals’ (according the Gleaner) to the effect that they could wreak havoc if they wished. Or if they were capable, to make the island ungovernable and force the government to back down. But for how long? The signing of the extradition warrant was the final signal that Golding could no longer use legal arguments to prevent the extradition.
But to be accurate, no message was being sent by Tivoli as the Gleaner editorial wrote. This deliberate blurring of the line between the vast majority of uninvolved residents who had nothing to do with what was going on, and the ‘generals’, was a deliberate ploy used by the media and the SF high command to stir up animus against an entire community and to goad the government into taking severe action.
As Seaga is able to testify in the historical relationship between the security forces and Tivoli Gardens there has never been any serious resistance to any of their operations. The last two, in 1997 and 2001 resulted in many deaths, including women and children, but no gun men were killed or guns recovered. In January 2008 shortly after Golding’s election the security forces backed by a JDF helicopter killed five men in a building in Tivoli. No member of the SF was injured and a coroner’s inquest resulted in their exoneration. Golding made no criticism of the killings which had similarities to 2010.
That Presi Coke maintained armed gunmen to support his drug dealing and other business operations is the norm for this type of semi-legal narcotic operation. Disputes arising between drug dealing competitors can never be settled in a court of law. Nevertheless, the evidence was that Coke and his business outfit Incomparable Enterprises and the Shower Posse (assuming they ever referred to themselves as such) did collaborate with elements of the Jamaican state, or tried to peacefully co-exist. The gunmen were for business not to challenge the state. That’s why Coke’s indictment originated in the United State and not in Jamaica. Despite having carried out his activities under both PNP and JLP administrations, at least since 1995 and being under the surveillance of the MIU and other such police bodies, he was never charged. Instead his legal business, Incomparable Enterprises flourished and received millions of dollars of contracts from both administrations.
Whether because of Coke or due to him Tivoli Gardens was a calm and peaceful community compared to other areas. Even Golding has made this observation on many occasions. The most notorious of Tivoli’s muscle flexing was their bloody war with Rema in the late 1990s when that area broke ranks and went over in support of the PNP. That war did not help the reputation of Tivoli and definitely not that of MP Edward Seaga, the self-described number one Don of the area. Seaga would have had a vested interest in keeping his vaunted garrison in check. The difference between Seaga and Golding was that Seaga knew how to keep his distance from Coke, Golding didn’t know how.
The actual incursion
After having met with the heads of the SF Bruce Golding declared a state of emergency on Sunday May 23. He and the SF declared that they were convinced that there had been "a calculated assault on the authority of the state that cannot be tolerated and will not be allowed to continue. The criminal element who have placed society under siege will not be allowed to triumph."
Golding said that he expected the security forces to deal “decisively” and “swiftly” with the criminal elements assaulting the state. In terms of respecting the rights of citizens, especially the residents of Tivoli Gardens, he had NOTHING to say. Instructions had been given to the SF he said to “observe and respect the rights of citizens to go about their lawful business.” But ‘going about lawful business’ was obviously not intended for residents of Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town who would be under total lockdown for up to four days. Golding was not unaware of the killings and abuses that took place in 1997 and 2001. He strategically omitted to instruct the SF not to repeat those abuses.
That omission was itself instructive. It was markedly different from Senator Tom Tavares Finson, the attorney who represented Coke and who once aspired to represent west Kingston. “Don't use it to murder innocent people in west Kingston. Don't do it; it will not put us anywhere," he pleaded with the SF according to a Gleaner report.
It should surprise no one that Golding’s words about a ‘calculated assault on the authority of the state that will not be tolerated or to triumph’ were not lost on the security forces. Their interpretation given to the victims of their abuses was that Golding ‘send we fi kill oonu off’. Everyone, including 90 year-old women were treated as suspected Dudus sympathizers, Shower Posse members, or in cahoots with criminality. Richard the Second cared so much about the integrity of his troops attacking France that he gave ordinances prohibiting plunder and other crimes against humanity. Not so caring was Bruce for the people who gave him power and a salary.
As was to be expected within a short period the superior firepower of the security forces silenced the guns of those trying to keep them out and the gun men disappeared. This did not stop the helicopters assisted by a mysterious ‘white plane’ from dropping mortar and incendiary devices on houses. The PWD squatter settlement was burnt to the ground. There was shooting into apartments. Snipers fired at anyone who moved on the streets. And then there were the house to house searches which resulted in the deaths of scores of young men who were simply shot on the spot, or taken out into the streets and executed.
Pretext for executions: Looking for weapons
Police Commissioner Owen Ellington: "First we did the primary search, which was to clear the environment and to detain people... and then we are now doing the secondary searches, which are a bit more detailed, for weapons and evidence."
Pattern of executions
The pretext for the executions was the search for weapons; looking for gunmen who were hiding; looking for anyone who could be a sympathizer or member of Dudus’ organization. Those who were lucky not to be killed were physically punished, and then detained, some of whom did not return home. Those who lived were mostly middle aged men and even they were sometimes beaten. In terms of the younger men who lived they were taken to detention centers such as the National Arena -- over 900 of them, and eventually 4,000 over a longer period.
Some stories
In one case a woman told me that after much pleading on behalf of her son, a senior police officer gave the order to another policeman to kill him in the living room in front of other family members including a young child. She subsequently saw the senior police officer on the street and he laughed at the whole matter when she confronted him. I have heard the story of a woman with two sons. The invaders put them on the ground and asked the woman to decide which one should live and which one should die. When she refused the order the executioner decided on the oldest son. That woman has lost her sanity.
One young girl I met on the street during a street protest told me that when the security forces entered her home in Tivoli and found her young teenage brother they asked for a picture to confirm that he was in fact a member of the family. This request was complied with but did not stop them from blowing away a part of his face. There is another story of vendor taking shelter in the house of a friend and when he was unable to provide proof that he lived in the house he was executed.
There are too many other stories that follow this pattern of killing for it not to be part of a plan taken at the highest level of command. Police Commissioner Owen Ellington also peddled the idea of outsiders converging on Tivoli to defend Coke. The soldiers and police were given the job of finding and dealing with imported mercenaries.
“We believe that we had to re-establish the primacy of the State and the rule of law in Jamaica that no individual or sympathisers should believe that anybody can exist in this space outside of the reach of the law.” Despite immediate reports in the media about extrajudicial killings and other abuses the police commissioner insisted on congratulating the security forces on a job well done and for their professional conduct! Commissioner Ellington and the rest cannot escape responsibility for the criminal behaviour of the men they commanded. Nor can Bruce Golding for not caring about what was happening and taking no steps to stop the massacre.
Amount killed
In terms of the discrepancy between what the security forces and the residents contend a in terms of the numbers killed (73 versus 200) there were reports of bodies being burned but never seriously investigated by the state, especially the Public Defender. This omission is a serious indictment of the effectiveness of the Public Defender.
Having left quite a number of bodies to rot in the streets, indicative of supreme contempt for the people, soldiers were observed burying these rotting corpses in the nearby May Pen Cemetery. The police commissioner in condoning this attempt to hide a massacre suggested that the bodies were in an advanced state of decomposition because they might have been killed before the SF moved in. There is absolutely no evidence to support such a claim. The question remains nonetheless: were bodies buried which were not part of the official count?
Reminiscent of the way Jewish concentration camps operated under Hitler, young men were forced to load trucks with dead bodies. Some were taken away with these trucks and in one case the young men were about to be killed but luckily were spared. How many others were not so lucky is a legitimate question. Madden’s Funeral Home, responsible for storing bodies on behalf of the state, was so overwhelmed with body collection that it was forced to borrow a refrigerated truck to store bodies.
Some families have still to account for missing male members and so the question of the numbers killed is still to be settled.
Destruction of property
There was widespread destruction of people’s household property and apartment infrastructure (sofas, television sets, closets, beds, roofs, toilets, kitchens), supposedly as part of a weapons search.
The government has accepted liability for household property damage by paying out nearly $100 million to at least 2,759 residents who claimed damage and to 59 vendors who lost goods when the Coronation Market was damaged by fire. Some people have suggested that it was the SF who burned down the market.
The government claims to have rebuilt seven houses but this is a far cry from the numbers actually burned and still not fixed.
One woman who lived in a board house constructed in PWD and paid for by her years of ‘cleaning do do” claimed that after finding nothing but children’s clothes and toys the SF torched the house as reprisal for the burning of a police station in Denham Town several days prior to the incursion.
It could be argued that the government has accepted responsibility for some of the killings by providing funeral grants to 64 families. The government could hardly claim that it was providing funeral grants to families of gunmen who fired on the SF.
Role of the media
Journalists were not allowed to cover the Tivoli ‘incursion’ even though there were images of brave TV journalists in bullet proof vests taking cover during shooting incidents in Denham Town. There are reports of journalists being threatened when they wished to continue to cover the unfolding development in Tivoli. Even so the media raised no howl about not being allowed to do their job. Their passivity failed the cause of justice and failed those who were savagely murdered.
Conclusions
1. The Tivoli incursion and the subsequent massacre of civilians was based on a counterinsurgency doctrine probably formulated by the Military Intelligence Unit. In the Jamaican context the view is that gangs and garrisons are at war with the state and the state in order to repel that perceived “insurgency” must bring greater violence to bear on the insurgents. Counterinsurgency is not a normal police operation. It is tantamount to a declaration of war by the state. Counterinsurgency as practiced by the US in Vietnam, Iraq and Pakistan makes little distinction between armed combatants and the civilian population who are regarded as the chief basis of support for the insurgents. As such this type counterinsurgency practice is by definition criminal and against the rules of war.
2. War was declared on Tivoli and the wider west Kingston area including Denham Town. No distinction was made between armed combatants and the civilian population.
3. The threat to the state posed by gunmen loyal to Coke was greatly exaggerated and was used as a pretext to carry out this planned counterinsurgency operation.
4. When Bruce Golding was no longer able to stall the extradition of Coke on legal grounds, and under pressure from both the United States and local groups, almost being forced to resign, he opportunistically fell in line with the counterinsurgency plan.
5. The MIU was already pressing by having visited both the DPP and Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne very early in the extradition process to indicate their special concern about the Coke extradition matter.
6. Bruce Golding as prime minister and head of the defence board authorized what he knew would bring bloodshed to the ordinary residents of Tivoli in order to save his political career.
7. The war crimes, and criminal conduct of the security forces must be laid squarely at the feet of Golding. Not since Governor John Eyre who in 1865 gave the orders for the massacre of thousands of people in Morant Bay has a Jamaican head of state acted in such a desperate and despicable manner.
8. The police commissioner in an attempt to cover up the massacre told enough lies to bring attention to his intimate involvement in planning of the operations or his support for what happened. Either way his involvement is of a criminal nature and ought to be prosecuted.
9. The Chief of Staff of the JDF was mostly silent but no less culpable for crimes against humanity.
10. It is known that Senior Superintendent Glenmore Hinds, since promoted to Deputy Police Commissioner was the ground commander and bears direct responsibility for the massacre.
11. Many people have been demanding a Commission of Enquiry into what happened. This may serve some purpose but will in the end result in a whitewash of the actions of the security forces and Golding’s role. The 2001 enquiry into the west Kingston operation did the same thing. One should expect the Manat Commission to do the same.
12. It is incumbent on civil society to use all legal means, and all peaceful political means to have the architects removed from office and prosecuted.
13. We advocate a People’s Commission of Enquiry where all the people of Tivoli and Denham Town who either witnessed of suffered brutality at the hands of the security forces should be allowed to testify to give Jamaica a deeper understanding of the true nature of the crimes committed in May 2010.
14. This matter should be reported to the international criminal court for action to be taken.
Lloyd D’Aguilar
Campaign for Social and Economic Justice
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