One year to the day after the dramatic events that shook Kingston, Amnesty International published a report on 23 May on the situation in Jamaica and is calling for a thorough investigation.
The London-based NGO is urging the Jamaican government to investigate the human rights abuses committed last year during the hunt for Christopher "Dudus" Coke. Amnesty International says nobody has been punished, despite numerous complaints of summary executions and arbitrary arrests by the army.
The manhunt for the Tivoli Gardens strongman left at least 73 dead, more than forty of whom are suspected of being extrajudicial killings, the NGO says. During the state of emergency declared by Bruce Golding and maintained for a week, 4,000 Jamaicans were held in detention without any grounds. Two people have since been reported missing. The report also notes that many bodies were hastily buried in a cemetery near Tivoli Gardens.
Chiara Liguori, an Amnesty International researcher on Jamaica, is calling for an independent commission of inquiry "to ensure that all the human rights violations committed last year do not go unpunished like so many others in Jamaica."
Source: The Associated Press