Give us our dead boys, say residents
Published:Tuesday | June 1, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Disappointment and anger were evident on the faces of residents of west Kingston yesterday as they received news that they would not get the bodies of relatives and friends killed during last week's conflict.
The residents had gone to the Madden's Funeral Home on North Street in downtown Kingston and the nearby Kingston Public Hospital based on media reports that the autopsies would have been conducted early yesterday and the bodies released.
"But when we reach, the people dem at Madden's tell we say the media was wrong and the autopsies would not be held today (Monday)," a resident told The Gleaner.
"All them telling we is to give them a picture of we relatives and our names and telephone numbers and them will call we," said another resident.
Contrary to word from the Police High Command that post-mortems would begin today, the Ministry of National Security said the autopsies would not be undertaken as yet. Relatives and friends would be advised when to show up at the morgues, the ministry said.
Independent pathologists
According to the police, the relatives of those killed should appoint independent pathologists to observe the process.
Relatives may do so on their own or through the Office of the Public Defender or Jamaicans for Justice, a human-rights lobby.
The police further said that albums with pictures of those who had died would be displayed at the just-established police complaints office at the Tivoli Gardens Health Centre, as well as at 14 Metcalfe Street, and at the Denham Town Police Station.
The post-mortems will be done at the Spanish Town Funeral Home, Spanish Town Hospital morgue and Madden's Funeral Home.
The public defender has also been invited to observe the post-mortems.
But that was little comfort for the residents.
"I want my sister's body. She was shot and killed and we find her body over May Pen Cemetery and them move it and said we would get it, and all now we can't get the body," lamented Portia Campbell.
She said her sister was among the 73 civilians killed during the three-day gun battle in west Kingston.
"Help me now. This is worse than Iraq, because despite the war, people did get them family's body to bury and to say goodbye," Campbell said, as she was supported by her neighbours.
Still searching
Metres away, two women displayed pictures of young men who have not been seen since the security forces launched their operation last Monday.
"Show them picture in The Gleaner and help we to find them. Even if them dead, we want dem body," one woman said, as she showed the photograph of 23-year-old Jermaine Dawkin.
Beside her, another woman, who asked not to be named, held up the picture of her son, 32-year-old Kenroy Osbourne.
For these women and several others in west Kingston, the failure of the State to release the bodies - which are being stored at two private funeral homes and in a refrigerated container in central Kingston - of their loved ones yesterday is proving hard to stomach.
The residents said they no longer trusted the political directorate.
"Me want to see who is going to put on green shirt or orange shirt and follow behind politicians after this," one woman said.
"The politicians dem put guns in the youth dem hands and then dem make police and soldiers kill the youth dem. We done with politics!" said the obviously frustrated woman as she stood outside Madden's.