Towards a People's Commission of Enquiry into the Tivoli Massacre

As the anniversary of the May 24, 2010 Tivoli incursion approaches I want folks to know that the Planning Committee for a People’s Commission of Enquiry into the Tivoli Massacre is hard at work trying to make this People’s Enquiry a reality.

We are busy taking statements from eyewitnesses to what happened and certainly by May 24 we hope to have a press conference to announce what steps will be taken.

The more we investigate the more we discover the really cruel and barbaric nature of the crimes committed by the security forces against unarmed civilians. These crimes can never be normally prosecuted in a regular court of law, certainly not a Jamaica one. The reasons are obvious. It was the state which declared war against the people and criminal charges against a state which has declared war against its own people can never be successfully prosecuted by the same state against itself, even in the most liberal of states.

In terms of the cowardly practice of shifting responsibility for state crimes solely on to the individual policeman or soldier who pulled the trigger, the crime scene can never be reconstructed to reasonably satisfy any court of law in terms of who did what, where and when. The inability to convict policemen for extrajudicial killings is the norm in Jamaica, and even more impossible to do so in a war situation. 

So don't be fooled by the Public Defender's claim that he is collecting forensic evidence which will be ready in September. This is essentially a way of buying time for the government. If history is to be our guide, should the government should set up a commission of enquiry, it is hardly likely to result  in justice and accountability. The 2001 commission of enquiry into the killing of 27 people in west Kingston by the security forces exonerated their crimes.  And so we expect that the 2011 Manat and Phelps/Dudus enquiry will whitewash the actions of  Prime Minister Bruce Golding

The purpose of our call for a People’s Commission of Enquiry is first and foremost to unbare the nature and magnitude of the crime; second, to allow as many of the victims as possible to speak of their experiences; third, to show the culpability of senior government and security forces officials for what happened; fourth, to lay the basis for political action against them; and, fifth, if criminal action is impossible in the Jamaican courts to seek the intervention of the International Criminal Court.

The most important preliminary evidence we have uncovered so far is that Bruce Golding as prime minister and minister of defence, member of parliament for the area, and who declared the state of emergency, knew from the very early stages about the atrocities being committed against the people and chose to do absolutely nothing. He is the most culpable.

The cruelty of the operation is best symbolized by a soldier who it is said put a woman’s two sons to lie on the floor and asked her to choose the one to be executed. When she declined the soldier made the decision himself, killing the oldest. That woman has lost her sanity.

Please make contact. We need your moral, political and material support to pull this off.

Lloyd D’Aguilar
Planning Committee for a
People’s Commission of Enquiry into the Tivoli Massacre
lgdaguilar@yahoo.com
NB Previous video was changed because of unauthorized use of music. This one is even better.