THIRTY years ago while he was detained without charge in a state of emergency called by Michael Manley’s People’s National Party government in 1976, Pearnel Charles vowed to continue his fight for compensation despite a rejection of his claim by the state.

Charles, a member of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), said he would appeal a decision by Solicitor-General Michael Hylton to reject his claim, despite a recommendation for an award of $10 million by Public Defender Howard Hamilton.

Charles spent 11 months in detention at Up Park Camp, the headquarters of the Jamaica Defence Force, where he was held with other party members including former deputy leader Olivia “Babsy” Grange, allegedly for being threats to public safety. He later wrote a book – Detained – in which he described his 11 months behind bars at the army headquarters.

On Monday, Charles told a packed Courtleigh Auditorium in New Kingston where the 30th anniversary of the state of emergency was observed, that he was also requesting a letter of apology from the state for his illegal detention when the government declared the state of emergency during an upsurge of violent crimes.

“The public defender is discussing my detention without trial or charge and a recommendation for $10 million has been made to the government against the background of two other detainees who were compensated,” Charles told the forum.

In the meantime, as several speakers at the forum recounted the times during the politically divisive 1970 when Jamaica became a flashpoint in the cold war rivalry between the USA and the then USSR, Edward Seaga, former JLP leader and now a distinguished fellow at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, denied that there was any collusion between his party and the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the period, a charge that was levied by various PNP spokesmen, including Manley in the tense political climate in the 1970s.

“We did not receive any help from the CIA. In any event, a good CIA operative does not declare his presence,” said Seaga during the question and answer period following his address to the forum organised by the Jamaica Institute of Public Affairs.

Seaga, who said the JLP would never forget the period and the events leading up to and during the state of emergency, when several leading JLP activists were detained by the state, said it was a corrupt use of power by the then administration in pursuit of political ends.

“It was a period when the primacy of the party over the government actually took place,” said Seaga, claiming that the “radical socialist” stance of the administration caused it to overlook established norms of governance in the pursuit of its “dream”.

More than 800 people were murdered in political violence between PNP and JLP supporters during the long campaign leading up to the October 1980 general election, in which the JLP, which campaigned on an anti-Communist platform, ended the run of Michael Manley’s socialist government.