RIGHTS-JAMAICA: Amnesty International Report False, Says Government Pathologist

By Zadie Neufville Reprint | | Print |

Zadie Neufville

KINGSTON, Apr 30 2001 (IPS) - Government officials continue to blast an Amnesty International (AI) report into the police killing of seven men here on Mar. 14 which has resulted in an international campaign to force the Percival Patterson administration to review its human rights record.

The latest comes from government pathologist Dr. Royston Clifford who dismissed an autopsy report from an AI observer as false and inaccurate. The report by Danish Pathologist Peter Leth who observed the autopsy of the seven men on behalf of Amnesty International said members of the specialised Crime Management Unit (CMU) had murdered the men.

The men, between the ages of 15 and 20, were killed by members of the police CMU in a house in Braeton, St. Catherine a dormitory town about 21 kilometres southeast of the capital Kingston.

Police said that at least three of the men were wanted in connection with three killings over a two-week period.

Leth was critical of the way the autopsy was carried out and said it did not conform to international standards. In his report he said six of the seven had received lethal gunshot wounds to the head while three had received “potentially lethal” shots to the chest and abdomen. Four of the seven had also been shot from behind.

Leth reported: “It is highly unlikely that the pattern of gunshot wounds on the deceased should have occurred by random shooting from outside the house through windows with closed aluminium persiennes.”

Speaking to the Sunday Observer newspaper on the weekend, Royston the government’s chief pathologist, said Dr. Leth was not in a position to speak in detail about the nature or type of wounds on the bodies.

The paper quoted Royston as saying: “In order for a report to be classified as a post mortem examination, the person has to be involved in actually doing it as stipulated under the Coroner’s Act … How do you know by looking which wounds were exit and which were entry … without any contact and no verbal communication with the doctor?”

Royston described Leth’s report as “false, erroneous and dishonest” saying that some elements had been included to make “local pathologists and police look bad”.

Pathologist Dr. Ere Sheshiah conducted the autopsies of the seven men on Mar. 29 in the presence of Dr. Leth.

The newspaper said Dr. Leth confirmed that he was not allowed to “interfere with the autopsies in anyway and was not allowed to take samples or photographs”.

Local human rights lobbyist and convenor of Families Against State Terrorism (FAST) Yvonne McCalla Sobers is standing by Dr. Leth’s report. She noted that Leth’s experience and training had given him the necessary qualifications to arrive at his conclusions.

Leth is the deputy chief forensic pathologist with the Danish Medical group and has been an observer for the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal on Yugoslavia. FAST was instrumental in making arrangements for Dr. Leth’s presence at the autopsy.

The autopsy report supported Amnesty International’s 2000 country report and the beliefs of human rights groups here that the police is involved in extra judicial killings.

An Amnesty International release on Mar. 19, said: “Amnesty International believes that the circumstances surrounding the shootings strongly suggest the deaths amounted to extra judicial executions.”

AI also joined the calls of local groups for an investigation into the activities of the CMU established in May 1999 to combat rising crime in this northern Caribbean island, and to bring to justice anyone found guilty of violations of human rights.

The Department of Public Prosecutions is expected to call for a coroner’s inquest into the matter. This will decide the manner of death and determine who, if anyone, is criminally responsible.

On Mar. 22, amidst calls for his intervention, Minister of National Security Keith Knight for the first time broke his silence to outline the legal process.

In a statement released through the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) he said: “the public should be reminded that there are established procedures to deal with situations such as this.”

In response to a call for a public enquiry into the killings, Knight said he could not “usurp the power of the coroner nor that of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP)”.

Under Jamaican law the Coroner’s Act authorises each Coroner to order the Superintendent to investigate the circumstances relating to any death. After that the coroner may then hold an inquest.

Knight said it was the DPP and not the Minister who decides whether the Coroner should place the matter before a jury.