EDITORIAL - A decent burial: the ultimate human right

The reputation of our security forces has taken a further battering based on their handling of some aspects of the Tivoli crisis.

The most glaring has to be the way they have treated the dead, which at last count was more than 70. A crisis tends to bring out the worst in people. There are claims and counterclaims, fingers are pointed in every direction. This is what is happening in Tivoli Gardens right now. However, even those who believe the people of Tivoli deserved the military-style bombardment after their defiant march, in which they expressed public adulation for a reputed drug don, must now reflect on the pain for families who have been denied the opportunity of burying their dead.

It is unthinkable that distressed relatives can only stand by helplessly while the bodies of their loved ones are left to rot, or worse, for animals to feast on them. Inner-city people generally resent the police and are known to make extravagant claims about their operations, but is there any truth to the reports that bodies of west Kingston residents were being burnt by the forces? Many are saying this is a perverse way of exacting punishment on a community that provoked the State by erecting barricades, including military-styled sandbags.

Awesome power

The state of emergency gives the security forces awesome power, and this has to be very carefully exercised. Allegations of misconduct, the lack of transparency regarding who were killed, the circumstances in which they were killed and how the bodies are being handled are worrying aspects of this operation.

Presumably, the security forces had a strategy when they stormed Tivoli Gardens in search of Coke. Unconfirmed theories abound of underground tunnels and escape routes from Tivoli Gardens. Not for the first time, the security assault has reaped fewer weapons than were expected, which has left many people bewildered. If there are escape routes from Tivoli Gardens, were these plugged? Was it all a myth that high-powered weaponry was in the community? All these are pertinent questions which must be answered in the future.

After all is said and done, how will we forget the dark past of Tivoli Gardens and move forward? At the end of the day, we can only claim success if the gunmen are arrested and prosecuted. We can only claim success if all communities are freed of the stranglehold of the don. Several men alleged to be dons have turned themselves in at the request of the police. We wonder whether these men were wanted and whether there are cases pending against them. For what other reason would they have been taken in? If the idea was to keep them safe, and then they are released after this is all over, then we would have gained nothing from this bloody episode.

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