COURT of Appeal president Justice Seymour Panton on Monday called for an end to the island’s appallingly high rate of extra-judicial killings, which he said only served to promote hatred and resentment from relatives and friends of the victims toward the police for generations to come.

“I am – and have been for a considerable time – appalled at the number of killings that are taking place courtesy of the hands of persons who are paid by the state and who are using weapons provided by the state.

“Something is seriously wrong in our country where agents of the state are killing an average – by my count which, may be wrong -nearly 20 men per month,” said Panton.

Panton, who was addressing a gathering which included judges, attorneys and human rights activists at the launch of the Caribbean Rights magazine at the Institute of Jamaica, downtown Kingston, said he was further disturbed by what appeared to be the “nonchalant” official response to these killings.

“I am further stunned by the fact that the official response borders – in my view – on nonchalance. It is not, and cannot be, good for so many young men to be dying in this manner,” he said. “This, in my view, is building walls of resentment and hatred in the minds of relatives and friend of these victims. And so this will definitely carry over into the next generation and beyond.”

He said that it was “no longer generally credible to say that these young men are being killed because they are attacking someone”.

“The fact of the matter is that Operation Kingfish – according to the reports I’ve been reading – have been conducting some serious and dangerous operations without fatalities,” he added.

“Extra judicial killings must be minimised with haste. And constant exposure of the details is one method of attempting to deal with the problem,” Justice Panton said.

He assured that the justice system with all its “shortcomings and inadequacy” would do its part to aid in the “preservation of all life”.

Caribbean Rights will be published three times per month by the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights and can be read online at www.ijchr.org.