By Balford Henry, Senior Staff Reporter
MEMBERS OF the security forces in carrying out an operation in West Kingston from July 7 to 10, which left 27 people dead, admitted to using "excessive force" but attributed it to the pressures of the operation, says the Revd Al Miller.
The Revd Mr. Miller, head of Whole Life Ministries and pastor of Fellowship Tabernacle, Half-Way Tree Road, Kingston, told the West Kingston Commission of Enquiry yesterday, that members of the security forces made the admission to him, when he spoke with them during a tour of the area with members of the private sector on July 10.
He said that members of the security forces admitted in conversations with him on that date that their actions were "excessive," but said that it was due to the "pressures" they were under while carrying out the operation.
He told, W. Earl Witter, counsel for the Public Defender, that they did not admit that their actions were "inhumane", but that it was "excessive". He said they did not explain exactly what they had done which they viewed as excessive, but dealt with the general operation in principle.
The Revd Mr. Miller said he was impressed with the "genuineness" of the members of security forces he spoke with.
He was one of two witnesses testifying at the enquiry yesterday. The other was Commissioner of Police Francis Forbes.
Commissioner Forbes was expected to be cross-examined by several lawyers on his September 10 and 11 testimony before the commission. But, this was not possible, as he took the stand at 12.45 p.m., 15 minutes before the enquiry adjourned prematurely to facilitate stenotypists who wanted to go to the funeral of a colleague.
He turned over to the commission, information on murders and shootings committed in several inner-city communities, including West Kingston, up to August 31. Also, he handed in a copy of a memo from Senior Supt. Reneto Adams, setting out places he had raided and searched in the area. These were admitted as exhibits.
Commissioner Forbes said he would not be able to return today. He is to return in January. The commission is scheduled to break for a month after today's sitting.
Mr. Witter said that Dennis Daly, Q.C., the senior counsel for the Public Defender, would seek leave to further cross-examine Commissioner Forbes when he returns, on the basis of additional information received since his testimony.
The Revd Mr. Miller testified yesterday that he had gone to West Kingston after 8 a.m. on July 10, to see for himself what was happening. He said that residents advised him against venturing into certain areas because of gunfire. He returned later with the private sector group.
He told about seeing three boys on Bond Street near the corner of North Street that afternoon. Two were lying face down on the asphalt on the sidewalk, while the third was standing with one arm in a cast and a bag on the ground beside him.
He said he told the two boys who were lying down on the asphalt guarded by members of the security forces, to get up. When they got up, he saw that they had gravel and small stones pressing into their flesh and both were perspiring.
"Perhaps perspiration and tears mixed up," the Revd Mr. Miller suggested.
He said he told them to, "Go home," and they did. None of the soldiers or policemen said anything to him about his actions.
He said he then walked across the street to the young man with his arm in the cast and asked him why he was there. The young man told him he was on his way to the KPH for treatment, when the security forces stopped him and told him "thing and thing".
Asked by counsel for the commission what he meant by "thing and thing," the Revd Mr. Milller explained: "A little bit of language in it ma'am. But as a man of God we speak of spiritual things".
He said he told the young man to take up his bag and go on to the hospital, which he did. Neither soldiers nor policemen objected.
He said that prior to this he had stopped at the morgue at Madden's Funeral Parlour and noticed bodies stacked on top of each other, with "worms coming out of them."
"It was not the most pleasant sight," the Revd Mr. Miller described them.
He said that residents of the area complained that they couldn't leave their homes without being shot at by the security forces. One woman claimed that a pig and a dog were shot at her home. He saw a young man with a "relatively fresh" wound in the side of his head which, he said, he had received when he came from his house and into his yard.
Cross-examined by Jacqueline Samuels-Brown, counsel representing the police, the Rev. Mr. Miller said that his decision to visit the area was personal.
He denied a suggestion from her that the two young men who were lying on the asphalt could have been doing it to convince visitors of bad treatment. He said he didn't believe any "Jamaican youth" would do that to himself.
He said he saw spent shells on the ground, but didn't recall being shown any.
The Revd Mr. Miller told Mr. Witter that he recalled seeing three bodies on the ground.
He told Huntley Watson, lawyer for the PNP, that he was urged by one of the commissioners, the Revd Dr. Garnett Brown to give the statement on his experiences of July 10 to the commission. He said he did not include in it several of the things revealed in his testimony, as he had concentrated on the experience with the three young men on Bond Street. But, he denied that the statement was "one-sided" and "largely anti-police."
He said that some of the residents he met were very supportive of the security forces.
He said it was not a reasonable assumption that in carrying out their functions in a volatile situation, the security forces had a right to have people lie face down in the street.
When Mr. Watson suggested that he had interfered with the security forces in their work on the basis of a "one-sided presumption," the Revd Mr. Miller responded, "Anything I see to be unjust and wrong or a violation of someone's rights, I will interfere with".
The enquiry resumes this morning at 10 o'clock.
