Dear Editor,

The security forces operation into Tivoli in 2010, which led to the killing of 76 Jamaicans, has become, because of either disregard or neglect by our elected leaders, just another non-event in our history as an independent country.

There is little public interest in having all the facts uncovered or revealed so the same errors are not repeated. The now apathetic public no longer believes there is any purpose to be served by an inquiry and, therefore, think it a total waste of time and money. This is so because of the procrastination associated with the commencement of a meaningful commission.

We have been made to believe there are no lessons to be learned. It has taken four years for our leaders to be convinced of the need for an inquiry. And where are we after all this time? Finally we have got the members appointed and sworn in. We need the commission to get down to work. A public sceptical about the usefulness of the inquiry doesn’t want to hear in very general terms that the inquiry will commence by year-end. Really, now! What is needed is a schedule of the activities of the commission of inquiry, or a timeline and some openness and transparency from the outset. We need to be treated with respect, because, after all, we are paying the bill. There need be no excuses for delays, such as the unavailability of ballistic reports.

One simple part of the investigation that could be commenced without any further delay is that the commission can get evidence from the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) and members of the family of the soldier killed during this operation. The JDF knows the truth about his death. The JDF should be asked to provide the commission with a copy of the provisions for the award of military honours, especially the award of a military medal for soldiers killed on operations. The commission may wish to establish whether the soldier was qualified for any at all, and if not, why not?

It is hoped that as our elected leaders showcase themselves at Mario Deane’s funeral and with his relatives and community that they will take the time to accept they are as much responsible for the death of Mario as those who played a role in his death. Their failure in the past to do anything meaningful about Agana Barrett and Kamoza Clarke — both of whom died as a result of being in police lock-up — led to this brutal killing of Mario.

Likewise, they have done very little or nothing to ensure that justice was not denied because of the delay in getting an inquiry convened and concluded in as short a time as possible in respect of the 2010 Tivoli operation that took the lives of so many Jamaicans. So, when we have the next killing of a large group of Jamaicans because we were never made to understand that killings of such a nature as the 2010 Tivoli incident would not be condoned, one would ask that our parliamentarians save us their hypocritical rhetoric and crocodile tears.

Colonel Allan Douglas

Kingston 10

alldouglas@aol.com