Silent soldiers

• Gomes lashes JDF for remaining mum on west Kingston operation

The Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) is refusing to make public the findings of an internal review conducted into its operations during last year's west Kingston incursion.

The silence of the JDF has not gone down well with Dr Carolyn Gomes, executive director of the human-rights group, Jamaicans for Justice.

"The no-comment is not acceptable. Even if the JDF cannot give all of the specifics, they have a duty to report to the Jamaican people," Gomes told The Gleaner.

"They were busy up and down reporting while the operation was going on, and now one year later, they need to tell the country what happened," Gomes added.

It is believed that, as usual, the JDF conducted a debriefing and operational review following the incursion.

"That would be the normal procedure for any operation," a former senior JDF officer told The Gleaner.

"The army does not leave anything to chance, so the officers would want to look at what was done, how it was done and, in particular, how Coke escaped from Tivoli, because they know he was there when they were going in," the ex-soldier added.

But efforts to get a comment from the JDF have so far been unsuccessful, with one army officer claiming that the army could not comment because the issue could be the subject of a commission of enquiry.

According to the JDF, it did not want to offer any comment that could prejudice any investigation or inquiry that may arise from the operation.

The JDF led the operation by the security forces to capture Tivoli Gardens strongman Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, and was instrumental in the islandwide search for Coke after he escaped from Tivoli.

Several questions have been asked about how the soldiers operated during the incursion, with some west Kingston residents alleging extrajudicial killings and other abuses by JDF personnel.

The soldiers are also facing questions about the fatal shooting of businessman Keith Clarke, who was killed on May 27 in his upper St Andrew house during one of the many raids launched to capture Coke.

The JDF now helps to man a permanent security post established in Tivoli Gardens in the wake of the operation and soldiers can still be seen patrolling the streets of that community each day.