KINGSTON, Jamaica — Public Defender Earl Witter says that he is disappointed with the terms of reference and the number of persons appointed to the Commission of Enquiry into the May, 2010 security forces operation in Tivoli Garden, as well as the use of the word “incursion” to describe the operation.

Witter told a press conference at his office in downtown, Monday, that the office was treated with contempt in the formulation of the terms of reference. 

He said that they failed to address the issue of the “symbiosis, nexus or convergence of crime, politics and poverty”, in what occurred in West Kingston on in May, 2010.

He said that the terms of reference were also deficient in addressing the issues of the death toll or body count, or the assistance which the security forces derived from the US surveillance aircraft oversight.

“In other words, the terms of reference are laborious, they are elaborate and they are pretentious, but in some respects they are also seductive and sedative,” Witter stated.

 He said that with his office being a “respectful commission of Parliament”, he had expected to be invited to formally comment on the terms of reference, however, he received no such invitation.

“The public defender ought not to have been expected to join the public queue,” Witter commented.

He reiterated also that the commission should have been comprised of five persons, including a social scientist and a criminologist.

Turning to the use of the word incursion, Witter said that he disagreed with it and blamed the media for the label.

“It was no mere incursion, but a siege…but the media elected to show no regard for that description,” he said.

Witter added that the killing of Keith Clarke by the security forces in upper St Andrew during the state of emergency was “umbilically connected with the events that took place in West Kingston and must be regarded as so”.

Balford Henry