Tivoli enquiry commissioner urges J’cans to stop the killing
RETIRED chief justice and former attorney general of Barbados Sir David Simmons, chair of the recently concluded Tivoli Enquiry, is appealing to Jamaicans to put an end to the continuous bloodletting in the country.
“It just can’t go on, we have to stop this, this democracy is maturing, it is time for it to become confident,” said Sir David.
He, meanwhile, urged Jamaicans to be an example for the rest of the region.
“We just cannot continue this toll on human life, we have to show greater respect for the sanctity of life,” he added. “All Jamaicans, I appeal to you, stop and think what you are doing to yourself and your country.”
Sir David made his appeal during his closing comments at the final sitting of the 90-day Friday at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston.
The commission started on December 1, 2014 to look into the conduct of the May 2010 operation in Tivoli Gardens, during which more than 70 people died as the security forces tried to capture then fugitive Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, who was wanted in the United States on drug and gun-running charges.
Sir David and retired justice of the Court of Appeal of Jamaica, Hazel Harris, and Professor Anthony Harriott, director of the Institute of Criminal Justice and Security at the University of the West Indies, were appointed commissioners and asked to compile a report and recommendations concerning the events surrounding the operation and submit them to the governor general, within two months after concluding the enquiry.
According to Sir David, the report will be ready by April 20 and no later than two weeks after.
“I hope that the report will ultimately go towards helping to point the way to a safer and less violent Jamaica in the future,” he told the enquiry.
In the meantime, he defended the number of days that it had taken to complete the enquiry, which sat for 90 days.
“There seems to be a view that we could have done this enquiry in three consecutive months and I want to disabuse the public mind that these enquiries cannot be satisfactorily conducted in that manner,” he said.
Sir David said that there were a number of witnesses in this enquiry with the Office of the Public Defender alone having more than 700 witness statements.
“You appoint a commission counsel who has to go through each and everyone of those statements trying to analyse what they are about, which witness is going to testify to which terms of reference. It is not an easy task,” he said.
“It is an ongoing process, you can only do so much and none of us would have survived with our mental health intact or physical health, if we try to do that in three months,” Sir David said.
Furthermore, he said that the lawyers needed time between each session to reflect and to go through their transcripts and make the necessary notations.
He also noted that counsels of the commission were appointed without sufficient lead time to adequately prepare and that under normal circumstances attorneys who are involved in an enquiry should be given at least six to eight months to start considering how the enquiry would impact on their respective practices.