FORMER People’s National Party (PNP) member of parliament, Claude Clarke, is today a bitter man who is unable to mask his pain and frustration. Five months after his brother Keith Clarke, was killed under contentious circumstances by the security forces, the promised investigation into his death is yet to get off the ground.

“Where were the rights and freedoms of my brother, whose life was savagely snuffed out in the sanctuary of his bedroom in the dead of night by members of the military, while his terrified wife and teenage daughter were forced to watch?” Clarke asked angrily.

“Why has the investigation into this obvious murder taken five long months and is not yet completed and charges laid?” said the former PNP industry minister and businessman.

Keith Clarke, an accountant, was shot to death inside his house in the upscale Kirkland Heights, St Andrew neighbourhood during a police-military operation to nab accused drug kingpin Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.

His family said he was shot after members of the security forces forced open a door to the house, saying that they were searching for a gunman.

So far, the police have only said that Clarke, a licensed firearm holder, was shot, a gun was seized, four members of the security forces were injured and the matter is being handled by the Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI).

A post mortem conducted on the businessman revealed that he was shot 20 times, including eight times in the back.

In his emotion-wracked speech to the National Democratic Movement’s 15th anniversary dinner at the Wyndham Hotel Friday night, Clarke urged the authorities to stop dragging their feet.

“It is not good enough for a country that is serious about its people’s rights to be telling us five months after such a brutal killing, that it is yet to begin ballistic testing. Get outside help!!! You do it when the Government’s interests are involved. Why can’t it be done when the right of our citizens to their life is the issue?” Clarke declared.

Shortly after Coke was captured in June, Police Commissioner Owen Ellington told reporters that a probe into Clarke’s fatal shooting was soon to be completed, citing information given to him by BSI head, Assistant Commissioner Granville Guase.

But to date there has been no word on the outcome of the Keith Clarke probe from the police.

Spokesperson for human rights group Jamaicans For Justice, Suzzane Goffe, said the pace of investigations into fatal shootings by the security forces were at best carried out at a snail’s pace and often ended in frustration for grief-stricken relatives of citizens cut down by police bullets.

“This is one of the problems with investigations into killings by the security forces. The delays are unacceptable. There needs to be continued pressure to correct it. I understand how Mr Clarke feels, it is an extension of the pain and grief persons feel when the mechanisms do not work in a timely manner,” Goffe said.

In June, Public Defender Earl Witter was asked by Keith Clarke’s relatives to probe the fatal shooting of Clarke. Efforts to contact Witter to get an update on the progress of his probe was futile as his cellular phones went to voice mail.