Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jamaica

[johnnycakes]

Re: Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jama

TG,
You've lost your cool. Calling me names to avoid the issue means you have nothing in terms of an intellectual argument and are trying to draw me down to your level. No thank you.

So you "refused" to publish proof of your accusation of PNP involvement in the Grenada coup while I posted a sample of what is commonly believed about U.S. complicity in the destabilization of Jamaica and I am the idiot/liar/short bus person ?


You have no proof of PNP involvement in the coup in Grenada.

Consider that Maurice Bishop and Manley's PNP were sympathetic while the hard-line Coard faction was not on the same idiological page as the PNP.


Google "U.S. destabilization of Jamaica and you'll get page after page of information on that destabilization including the book excerpt that I posted.

Googling "PNP involvement in Grenada coup" will get you no references to that preposterous claim and for reasons that should be obvious.

Is there no one else in the forum who would care to share their opinion of our respective claims?

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jama

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: johnnycakes</div><div class="ubbcode-body">TG,
You've lost your cool. Calling me names to avoid the issue means you have nothing in terms of an intellectual argument and are trying to draw me down to your level. No thank you.</div></div>

I have not lost my cool.
I called you a liar because you lied.
As for intellectual, arguments please I have met intellectuals and you sir are no intellectual.
You have called me all kinds of names for no reasons.... list available upon request.
I am able to discuss the issue, this makes it the 1000th or so time you and others have written the same nonsense and we have gone over it, step by many times.
It might help if you stop giving commentary of the colour of my flag and start shooting.
So my friend, fire away just the facts please...will accept opinions also based on facts.
Standard is what can be Googled.
All links must be posted.

The rules are set fire away....<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">JFlakes</span>!

[johnnycakes]

Re: Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jama

TG,
Fair enough.
I posted an excerpt from a book on U.S. interventions which came from a Google search.

Here's another and a link. http://www.afflictedyard.com/fun_in_76.htm

And another: http://books.google.com/books?id=-Ib...t&amp;resnum=9
This won't link so Google &quot;Killing Hope: Jamaica and it will come up.

And another :

http://openlibrary.org/b/OL21520262M/U.S.-intervention-in-Jamaica

Now you post something that backs your claim.

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jama

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: johnnycakes</div><div class="ubbcode-body">TG,
Fair enough.
I posted an excerpt from a book on U.S. interventions which came from a Google search.

Here's another and a link. http://www.afflictedyard.com/fun_in_76.htm

And another: http://books.google.com/books?id=-Ib...t&amp;resnum=9
This won't link so Google &quot;Killing Hope: Jamaica and it will come up.

And another :

http://openlibrary.org/b/OL21520262M/U.S.-intervention-in-Jamaica

Now you post something that backs your claim. </div></div>

I make no claim but that Michael Menlie and his gang soon after being legally elected to power announced that he was taking the country Socialist. He then began a reign of terror which saw him using torture, racism, illegal detention and murder to achieve is aims, which could have been achieve under less bloody methods because he basically had a free hand to do what he wanted to do.

He campaigned on the promise of better must come and that the 21 families that controlled Jamaica should relinquish its control. To help it along the PNP had mobs of young men attack the minority Jamaicans in their home and business, driving them out of their abode and eventually out of the country.

My submissions will be along those lines.

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jama

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tuff Gong</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: johnnycakes</div><div class="ubbcode-body">TG,
Fair enough.
I posted an excerpt from a book on U.S. interventions which came from a Google search.

Here's another and a link. http://www.afflictedyard.com/fun_in_76.htm

And another: http://books.google.com/books?id=-Ib...t&amp;resnum=9
This won't link so Google &quot;Killing Hope: Jamaica and it will come up.

And another :

http://openlibrary.org/b/OL21520262M/U.S.-intervention-in-Jamaica

Now you post something that backs your claim. </div></div>

I make no claim but that Michael Menlie and his gang soon after being legally elected to power announced that he was taking the country Socialist. He then began a reign of terror which saw him using torture, racism, illegal detention and murder to achieve is aims, which could have been achieve under less bloody methods because he basically had a free hand to do what he wanted to do.

He campaigned on the promise of better must come and that the 21 families that controlled Jamaica should relinquish its control. To help it along the PNP had mobs of young men attack the minority Jamaicans in their home and business, driving them out of their abode and eventually out of the country.

My submissions will be along those lines.
</div></div> So nothing about Manley and his gang overthrowing and killing Bishop??
i thought I would see something to support that.. nithing... Nada?

Or it wasn't you that posted about that?

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jama

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dr.Dudd</div><div class="ubbcode-body">So nothing about Manley and his gang overthrowing and killing Bishop??
i thought I would see something to support that.. nithing... Nada?

Or it wasn't you that posted about that?
</div></div>I did not say anything about Menlie helping to overthrow Bishop and said members of the PNP. I have also said that is not the issue right now you and Johnny won on that score...get it now <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">Don Quixote</span>?

I will now begin my cutting and pasting to make my case.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">Originally posted here</span>:

<span style="font-weight: bold">South West St Andrew</span>
<span style="font-style: italic">published: Thursday | March 16, 2006
Martin Henry</span>

APART FROM downtown Kingston, South West St. Andrew and surrounding areas were the first parts of the capital city that I got to know very well, as country come to town.

The first place I lived in Kingston was on St. James Avenue off middle Maxfield Avenue just below Lyndhurst Road. I moved into an older brother's one-room in the tradition of the older fore-runners accommodating the younger who followed to get a foot in the city.

But even before moving into Kingston, most of my immediate relatives in the city then lived in this general area. My family had links to Greenwich Town. So I got to know really well that patch of the city from Maxfield Avenue below Lyndhurst Road over to Hagley Park Road and through Greenwich Town down to Marcus Garvey Drive.

I roamed pretty freely over South West St Andrew day and night. Many a night, coming out of Greenwich Town, we would stand without any fear what-soever at the foot of Maxfield waiting for a Jolly Joseph bus to take us up the avenue; or on Spanish Town Road waiting for a bus for Waltham Park Road.

We are not talking about any halcyon days of long, long ago. I am not that old. I got to know South-West St. Andrew in the heady days of the 1970s when Michael Manley and socialism ruled and Portia Simpson was entering representational politics as a KSAC councillor.

<span style="font-weight: bold">'FREE EDUCATION' STUDENT</span>

I made my contribution to the revolution, as a Level IV JAMAL teacher in Greenwich Town, while still a teenager and a 'free education' student myself. I taught a number of JSC subjects. Somehow, I got a number of people, all women who were enthusiastic and hard working, to pass their subjects. Some of my very first set of students went on to professional training on the strength of their JAMAL JSCs.

Like so much of the rest of the city, South West St. Andrew and surrounding areas subsequently took a turn for the worse, experiencing de-development rather than development. The 1997 &quot;Report of the National Committee on Political Tribalism&quot; named eight constituencies with garrison features, among them South-West St. Andrew.

Tony Myers, in his, December 4, 2005, Sunday Gleaner article, &quot;Roll Call - Bogus voting and the leaders-to-be in Jamaica&quot; noted that &quot;in the general elections of 1976 and 1980 (before Portia's time as MP), the constituency of St. Andrew South West reigned supreme as the number one bogus voting constituency.&quot; Things have never been that bad since then with a steady decline in over-voting but the overwhelming majority of votes still go to one party.

On Tuesday Hartley Neita provided some data in his 'This Day in Our Past' feature which had the unintended effect of demonstrating the usual closeness of votes when constituencies are not heavily 'organised'. In neighbouring South St. Andrew Anthony Spaulding won the 1972 election, in a magisterial recount, by a mere 300 votes out of 7,416 votes cast. That was never again to happen!

<span style="font-weight: bold">EFFECTS OF 'GARRISONISATION'</span>

The Kerr Report noted that, &quot;Among the more visible physical effects of 'garrisonisation' are the abandonment of legally owned houses and business premises followed by the capture of some of these by illegal occupants and/or the destruction of others through vandalism and inappropriate usage. By this process, large areas of some garrison communities remain in a permanently derelict condition, which in turn fosters criminality and violence&quot;.

Areas of South West St. Andrew, like lower Maxfield Ave, have been systematically burned out. The constituency has joined the killing fields in the Police Division of South St. Andrew which has the highest number of homicides per capita in the country. Sitting in close proximity to the largest industrial belt in the country and one of the major trans-shipment ports in the entire Western Hemisphere, the area basks in dereliction.

The de-development changes in South West St. Andrew are metaphors of what has politically, economically and socially gone wrong with Jamaica.

For over 30 years I have watched the decline of this part of the city. The MP, South West St. Andrew, as Prime Minister of the nation has a major task to put her own house in order while leading development across the rest of the country.


----------------------------------------

Martin Henry is a communication specialist.

South West St Andrew

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jama

#992342 - 06/17/09 08:23 PM Re: Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jama [Re: johnnycakes]
<span style="font-weight: bold">Tuff Gong </span>
Boardite

Registered: 06/04/02
Posts: 25759 Originally Posted By:[quote=johnnycakes]
Did not Edward Seaga willingly take part in the U.S. Grenada invasion?[/b]


<span style="color: #FF0000"> The PNP was involved in the bloody coup that precipitated the invasion, so Menlie was whose dog then? Jamaica have been involved in Regional and International Operations from Grenada to Liberia, including siding with the murderous regimes in Uganda and Haiti.

If all you have on Eddie Blinds is some foreign escapade that other Caribbean and International Jurisdictions sanctioned then you have nothing. The PNP turned the guns on the State on its own people and ran corrupt governments every single time since 1972.</span>
_________________________
&quot;What good fortune for those in power that people do not think&quot;

- Adolf Hitler, as quoted by Joachim Fest

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jama

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dr.Dudd</div><div class="ubbcode-body">#992342 - 06/17/09 08:23 PM Re: Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jama [Re: johnnycakes]
<span style="font-weight: bold">Tuff Gong </span>
Boardite

Registered: 06/04/02
Posts: 25759 Originally Posted By:[quote=johnnycakes]
Did not Edward Seaga willingly take part in the U.S. Grenada invasion?[/b]


<span style="color: #FF0000"> The PNP was involved in the bloody coup that precipitated the invasion, so Menlie was whose dog then? Jamaica have been involved in Regional and International Operations from Grenada to Liberia, including siding with the murderous regimes in Uganda and Haiti.

If all you have on Eddie Blinds is some foreign escapade that other Caribbean and International Jurisdictions sanctioned then you have nothing. The PNP turned the guns on the State on its own people and ran corrupt governments every single time since 1972.</span>
_________________________
&quot;What good fortune for those in power that people do not think&quot;

- Adolf Hitler, as quoted by Joachim Fest
</div></div>

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">LOL</span> I did not say Menlie was involved neither did Eddie venture into Grenada himself...the point of the conversation was how does one gets used and who is using who.... <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">You must learn to read and comprehend.</span>

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jama

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tuff Gong</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dr.Dudd</div><div class="ubbcode-body">#992342 - 06/17/09 08:23 PM Re: Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jama [Re: johnnycakes]
<span style="font-weight: bold">Tuff Gong </span>
Boardite

Registered: 06/04/02
Posts: 25759 Originally Posted By:[quote=johnnycakes]
Did not Edward Seaga willingly take part in the U.S. Grenada invasion?[/b]


<span style="color: #FF0000"> The PNP was involved in the bloody coup that precipitated the invasion, so Menlie was whose dog then? Jamaica have been involved in Regional and International Operations from Grenada to Liberia, including siding with the murderous regimes in Uganda and Haiti.

If all you have on Eddie Blinds is some foreign escapade that other Caribbean and International Jurisdictions sanctioned then you have nothing. The PNP turned the guns on the State on its own people and ran corrupt governments every single time since 1972.</span>
_________________________
&quot;What good fortune for those in power that people do not think&quot;

- Adolf Hitler, as quoted by Joachim Fest
</div></div>

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">LOL</span> I did not say Menlie was involved neither did Eddie venture into Grenada himself...the point of the conversation was how does one gets used and who is using who.... <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">You must learn to read and comprehend.</span> </div></div> <span style="font-size: 20pt"> O K</span>

[Dyoll_73]

Re: Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jama

There is reason to think that some members of the PNP (I'm not saying the PNP as a party) may have been involved in the coup in 1979 in which the Maurice Bishop-led New Jewel Movement (NJM) overthrew the sitting PM, Eric Gairy. Bernard Coard, who was in Jamaica during the period of 1976-78 at a lecturer at the UWI-Mona, met and became friends with Trevor Monroe. Coard joined the Marxist Workers Liberation League, the forerunner to the Workers Party of Jamaica which was founded by Trevor Monroe. I'm not sure if it was during his stay in Jamaica that he met his wife Phyllis who was also charged in the murder of Maurice Bishop.

The Workers Liberation League which became the Workers Party of Jamaica was a communist outfit and supported the PNP, only that they were more radical than the PNP. In fact, Bernard Coard was involved with communist activities wherever he went: when he was at Brandeis University in Boston, he joined the Communist party of the USA, and when he was a doctoral student at the University of Sussex in the UK, he joined the communist party of Britain. And when he lived in Jamaica, he sought out Jamaican communists and joined their organizations. He was to the left of Bishop whom he deemed insufficiently-communist and which led to the splitting of the NJM into two factions.

The fact is that while the Workers Party of Jamaica and the PNP were legally separate entities, they were aligned on many issues, and there were close relations between members of both parties. Some members divided their loyalties between both parties. It was with the backing of the WPJ that the PNP went ahead and pursued closer ties with Cuba. I won't say who the members of the PNP were who were close friends with Bernard and Phyllis Coard, but he did have some allies there, of course in addition to his buddy, Trevor Monroe and some lecturers at UWI. A close friend of mine who holds a PhD in history from UWI once told me that <span style="text-decoration: underline">some</span> of the planning of the Bernard Coard-led coup which deposed Bishop in 1983, as well as the coup four years earlier, may have been done in Jamaica.

So, yeah, there is reason to think that members of the PNP were involved in planning coups in Grenada. At the very least, there is strong circumstantial evidence for this.

This is my opinion.

BTW, you said Michael Manley was removed from power by the USA. You didn't prove this, except to post excerpts of articles claiming a plan of destabilization of Jamaica. If these were deliberate policies of the US government (and I'm not suggesting that the US is beyond these capabilities), can those claims be corroborated by de-classified materials?

I have shown you why Manley was not removed, but was voted out of power by the Jamaican people.

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jama

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Humano</div><div class="ubbcode-body">There is reason to think that some members of the PNP (I'm not saying the PNP as a party) may have been involved in the coup in 1979 in which the Maurice Bishop-led New Jewel Movement (NJM) overthrew the sitting PM, Eric Gairy. Bernard Coard, who was in Jamaica during the period of 1976-78 at a lecturer at the UWI-Mona, met and became friends with Trevor Monroe. Coard joined the Marxist Workers Liberation League, the forerunner to the Workers Party of Jamaica which was founded by Trevor Monroe. I'm not sure if it was during his stay in Jamaica that he met his wife Phyllis who was also charged in the murder of Maurice Bishop. </div></div>
Ok let me say this, the reason why I did not press the issue was because it was the Workers Party of Jamaica and the Communist Workers Party of Jamaica.…. I realized that I was wrong and decided to back off.
Of course all or most of them became PNP stalwarts and 99% of the members of those two movements were members of the PNP YO prior to them joining either of those two Parties.

So I say Cakes win and I just low it!
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">BTW</span> it was not just circumstantial evidence either every once in a while it will come up on radio but never in print.

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jama

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Humano</div><div class="ubbcode-body">BTW, you said Michael Manley was removed from power by the USA. You didn't prove this, except to post excerpts of articles claiming a plan of destabilization of Jamaica. If these were deliberate policies of the US government (and I'm not suggesting that the US is beyond these capabilities), can those claims be corroborated by de-classified materials?

I have shown you why Manley was not removed, but was voted out of power by the Jamaican people. </div></div>

He has not proven jack and the article he posted for Afflicted site was posted already and ripped to shreds by me. I am trying to save myself some time by searching and posting the argument as it went then.

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jama


<span style="font-size: 14pt">The PNP and it long history of blood lust and corruption:</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold">Rema Commission Report (Pt I)</span>
<span style="font-style: italic">published: Sunday | May 7, 2006
Gareth Manning, Gleaner Writer</span>

THIS IS the first of a five-part series on the findings of a commission of enquiry conducted by the late Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court Mr. Justice Ronald Small, into the forced eviction of residents from Wilton Gardens (Rema) in early 1977.

BACKGROUND

The day was February 2, 1977. It was a very eventful day for many residents of Rema. Armed men from neighbouring 'Jungle' in Arnett Gardens raided the community, forcibly evicting people from their houses, throwing and smashing their belongings on the streets and looting their homes.

This was done while the Housing Ministry carried out an eviction exercise on 1,000 residents who they said were not paying rent.

The security forces were rushed to the scene to quell the flare-up of violence, but at the end of the day, one man was shot dead by the security forces, while several were wounded by gunfire and knives. A 12-hour curfew was subsequently instituted at 6:00 p.m. that evening.

The violence triggered outcries from the people as well as the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which heaped venomous criticisms on the Michael Manley- led government. Opposition Leader, Edward Seaga, issued a statement the next day condemning the incident and accusing the Government of orchestrating an illegal and violent eviction of JLP supporters.

POLITICAL PURPOSE

&quot;The illegal operation was a purely political purpose of replacing 1,000 JLP supporters with 1,000 PNP supporters,&quot; said Mr. Seaga in a statement to The Gleaner on February 3. He continued: &quot;In carrying out this act, the Government used both the police and the military to stand guard while PNP gangs dispos-sessed citizens, who are JLP supporters, of their legal rights and smashed private property and furnishings.&quot;

Subsequently, the same commission of inquiry established to investigate the circumstances leading to the Orange Street Fire and incidents of violence in Trench Town just one year earlier, was called on again by Governor- General Sir Florizel Glasspole to enquire into the circumstances leading to this eviction.

Robert Pickersgill led a team of attorneys representing the Ministry of Housing including L.H. McClean and G. Bartholomew, while the law firm Daley, Levy and Kandecore represented the Wilton Gardens Association. Some 113 witnesses testified: 24 in private sittings at the Hugh Sherlock All-Age School in Rema and Headquarters House at 79 Duke Street. The remaining 89 testimonies were heard in public at Headquarters House.

DAY OF VIOLENCE

Here, the commis-sioner paints a picture of the events leading up to the unforgettable day of violence.

&quot;Having completed on the 25th of October, 1976, the interim report with special reference to the Orange Street Fire, I proceeded immediately thereafter to comply with paragraph (b) of the directions contained in the Commission of Enquiry ordered by his Excellency, the Governor-General on the 28th of May 1976 to enquire and report on the circumstances and causes of the incidents of violence and destruction which have been taking place in the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew commencing with the fires that took place in Trench Town in January 1976.

&quot;It should be noted that at the stage when the commission began this second phase of the investigation, a general election had been announced and the political arena was bristling with all forms of electioneering propaganda and armoury.

&quot;Election day on the 15th of December, 1976 with over-whelming success for the People's National Party and consequential dark disappointment for the Jamaica Labour Party the one side jubilant and triumphant, the other side dejected with bitter despair. This atmosphere ran throughout the length and breath of our island home but with pronounced concentration in southern St. Andrew.

&quot;Knowledge that a further election, the municipal general election, was to take place early in March, gave rise to greater heat in the southern St. Andrew area between the two major political parties involving the People's National Party adherents to the north oftentimes referred to as 'Junglists' and the Jamaica Labour Party adherents to the south, oftentimes referred to as 'Remaites', the great dividing line being Seventh Street that runs east to west across the area.

&quot;Murder, arson, rape and shootings and bombings of all types were fast becoming the order of the day. This was the atmosphere that prevailed up to the 2nd of February 1977. Indeed it did not develop overnight, it had been festering long before and had become a matter of concern for both succeeding governments in this thickly-populated section of the Corporate Area of Kingston and St. Andrew where poverty and ghetto life walked hand in hand from year to year. The political father of each party made in turn their own efforts to clear slum aspects of the surroundings and to rehouse the people in better homes for a better order of life. The problems in achieving this were manifold and great, and none the least of them was the financial involvement both for the Government who had to find the funds to establish these new holdings and for the occupants to pay either the rent or the mortgage instalments.

POLITICAL RIVALRY

&quot;In the wake of this political rivalry, the one side suspected the other of conspiring to withhold payments while the other suspected the one of using undue pressure to force them out of the area. And so it was whether it be by deliberately sinister or casually incidental arrangement those in charge of the Ministry of Housing decided in the last week of January 1977 to stage or mount what they call an eviction exercise. But this eviction exercise, it is said, was not calculated to evict or throw out every occupant who at the time owed rent or mortgage dues, but those occupants who had not submitted an application on prescribed forms supplied by the Ministry of Housing and accepted by the minister himself, because failing compliance with the prerequisite they appeared to him to have been unwanted squatters, whom it was his intention to put out. As a companion of this pattern employed by the Ministry of Housing, there was a pattern employed by these so-called squatters, by way of disapproval, they would suffer the eviction for the moment and then as soon as the eviction team would have nailed up the doors of the rooms and departed they, the evicted, would remove the barriers and re-enter peacefully and so in effect frustrate the efforts of the Minister of Housing.

TENANTS

&quot;Apparently the time came when this practice would not be tolerated any longer and so it was that arrangements were made that a larger and stronger eviction team protected by a stronger detachment of the police force would on the morning of the 2nd of February at 9:00 o'clock descend on the once-evicted 40 families to put, them out and immediately after, cause the vacant apartments to be occupied by other would-be tenants who it was hoped would make better tenants in the area. This is how it appeared on the face of it.

&quot;The events of the day sparked off considerable criticism on all sides. Some folk referred to the whole exercise as normal procedure in dealing with delinquent and recalcitrant capturers of real estate while others declared that the eviction exercise was unworthy of any government of any civilised country. In the wake of a tirade of unfavourable and vitriolic condemnation, His Excellency the Governor-General on the 21st of February 1997, directed me by way of a second commission to 'Enquire into the report on the circumstances causes and consequences of the events which took place at Rema in the parish of St. Andrew on the 2nd February, 1977, in connection with the removal of occupants from premises owned by the Ministry of Housing.'

&quot;To this task I immediately addressed my complete and concentrated attention.

Arrangements were made to hold day-to-day sittings in public at the old Legislative Assembly Chambers at Headquarters House, 79 Duke Street, Kingston.&quot;

Rema Commission Report (Pt I)

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jama

<span style="font-weight: bold">Rema report (Part II)</span>
<span style="font-style: italic">published: Sunday | May 14, 2006

Gareth Manning, Gleaner Writer</span>

This is the second of a five-part series on the findings of a commission of enquiry conducted by the late Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court Justice Ronald Small into the forced eviction of residents from Wilton Gardens (Rema) in early 1977.


THE TESTIMONIES of the first witnesses, Senior Superintendent of Police Eric Sibblies and Superintendent Roy E. Thompson, were heard on Monday, February 21, 1977.

The two senior police officers made it clear that the Minister of Housing, Anthony Spaulding, was determined to get &quot;those squatters&quot; out of the apartments once and for all, though they were being encouraged by JLP leaders not to pay rent in order to embarrass the Government.

They also made it clear that it was the minister's intention to move quietly and quickly with the eviction and reoccupation exercise, though they claim the police had no knowledge of an intention to move in other residents the same day.

On the morning in question, they testified that Junglists gathered in large groups ready to move into Rema even before the police, housing officers and their workers were prepared for the eviction. They turned away the crowd, but they filtered into the community by way of various side roads where they were surprised by a barrage of gunshots fired by Remaites. One woman from Jungle lost an ear during the incident.

The Junglists continued in their efforts. While this was proceeding, Minister Spaulding had arrived and by making signs to them, he was able to quickly and effectively turn them back. The turn of events was reported to the commissioner of police who was angry that his original orders were not carried out by the two superintendents and called off the eviction exercise.

The decision angered Minister Spaulding who called the commissioner, lambasted him and told him his orders would be observed if all the people who were not to be there, were dismissed.

<span style="font-weight: bold">CONTINUE EVICTION</span>

The commissioner then instructed Mr. Sibblies to continue with the eviction. They returned to the scene with 94 policemen and a handful of soldiers led by Major Ormsby, to cordon off the area, while housing officers pointed out the apartments that were to be evicted and workmen removed furniture from the houses.

Witness accounts of this procedure were varied. There were those who testified that the exercise was smooth until tear gas was used to disperse the angry crowd of Remaites when Junglists, who were eviction workers, came to put them out of their homes shouting party slogans as they did so. The occupants of the houses replied with insults and threw bottles, stones and sticks and iron pipes. An elderly man's arm was broken during that event. One hundred soldiers were called in as reinforcement and the eviction continued.

Supt. Thompson testified that articles of furniture were thrown from upper floors and were smashed in the morning session of the eviction. A complaint was made about the destruction. Minister Spaulding later declared that the victims would be compensated.

<span style="font-weight: bold">THE NEWCOMERS</span>

Supt. Sibblies said about this time, several truckloads of people and furniture arrived to take over the vacated apartments. The newcomers, who were all Junglists, declared they wanted an entire high-rise building for themselves and by this time they began to throw out legal tenants.

&quot;The position is while the security forces went to lunch and rain was falling, a number of the people took up the things that were ejected and replaced them in the rooms. That was one. Two, there were legitimate tenants there and the people took out their things, also occupational families threw out their things. So they were throwing out the things of those people and they were throwing out the things evicted people had replaced in the rooms. This is where some degree of panic came about because people around the rectangle were shouting and screaming for murder and things like that; and people spoke to them but these people obviously were not willing to be controlled but there was not physical violence to anyone in the area,&quot; Supt. Sibblies told Robert Pickersgill, the attorney representing the Housing Ministry.

&quot;I was told, when I asked, by the ministry people, that there were 40 families,&quot; he continued. &quot;I may mention this that when they are throwing out the things, they said that they wanted one block for themselves and that was the 'D' building.&quot;

The housing officers made an effort to stop the new tenants but pandemonium prevailed. One gunman was eventually shot and killed by soldiers.
Rema report (Part II)

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Michael Manley was the only dirty Prime Minister of Jama

<span style="font-weight: bold">Rema Commission Report (Pt III)</span>
<span style="font-style: italic">published: Sunday | May 21, 2006

Gareth Manning, Gleaner Writer</span>

THIS IS the third of a five-part series on the findings of a commission of enquiry conducted by the late Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court Mr. Justice Ronald Small into the forced eviction of residents from Wilton Gardens (Rema) on February 2, 1977.

One of the areas that came under heavy scrutiny during the Rema Inquiry was the reckless use of force by the security forces.

The force consisted of a combined unit of soldiers and police for the last eight months following the imposition of a State of Emergency in June 1976, triggered by violence in Trench Town and later the Orange Street Fire.

Southwest Kingston and St. Andrew, of which Rema and Jungle were a part, was an important part of that hotbed.

It was some time around mid-afternoon on the day in question that the security forces shot and killed a gunman and recovered his .38 revolver. A search of those coming to occupy the vacant rooms then proceeded. They were ordered to lie down on the road and they were searched. Some disobeyed the military's orders and were 'roughed up'.

The testimonies of Superinten-dent Sibblies and Superintendent Thompson and another policeman, Superintendent Atkinson, gave a kaleidoscopic view of the search.

BRUTISH MILITARY METHODS

During his testimony, Supt. Thompson suggested that the methods of the military were brutish.

When asked by the Housing Ministry's attorney Robert Pickersgill whether the soldiers' methods were brutish, Supt. Thompson responded: &quot;I would prefer to say we would not do it that way.&quot;

Mr. Pickersgill rephrased the question:

&quot;Would you prefer to say civilised people would not behave that way?&quot; he asked. &quot;As a civilised force we do not operate that way,&quot; Supt. Thompson answered.

He said men, women and children were forced to lie down on the ground.

&quot;They were roughly handled by the soldiers with gun butts,&quot; Supt. Thompson said. &quot;They used gun butts to gun butt them. Hit them, yes. Nothing was found on them.&quot;

Supt. Atkinson amplified Supt .Thompson's statement that the soldiers were brutal.

&quot;Yes sir, the soldiers were rough. That is how the soldiers behave; they handled the situations as soldiers. The difference between soldiers and police is that soldiers apply physical force; the soldiers say lie down and push you. It was believed that most of them (the crowd) were armed,&quot; he testified.

Supt. Sibblies said there were reported injuries after the military's exercise. Some suffered from black eyes, swollen mouths, nose and heads and other forms of injuries. The search lasted for some 25 minutes.

&quot;It is a State of Emergency and things get out of hand, certainly they can't expect to be handled with kid gloves,&quot; he said. &quot;Everybody just didn't submit to the search and there were people who fell down and the security forces were among them. The security forces did gunbutt the people. I don't think they aimed at any particular spot,&quot; he added.

WEAPONS AND AMMUNITION FOUND

But weapons and ammunition were found on other people in the crowd, the policemen testified. One man, Dennis Saddler, was arrested after a .38 revolver home made gun was found on his person and a live round. They also found 14 nine-millimetre cartridges, Supt. Thompson said. Supt. Atkinson said the search made the atmosphere tenser and more people from below Rema came on the scene and a clash ensued. The police used tear gas to clear the streets. The search was called off at about 5:00 p.m. when it was clear to the Police Commissioner the exercise had grown violent.

The other area that came under investigation was the security force's shooting of the gunman. This was the shooting that eventually led to the search of the people. The man was shot and killed when he opened fire on the police, but Supt. Sibblies said security ammunition was wasted in the event though he declined to call the army's use of force careless.

&quot;Let me ask something. Would you say the amount of shots fired in your estimation and experience, those amount of shots justified the shooting of one man that was killed with a gun?&quot; Mr. Pickersgill asked.

To that Supt. Sibblies replied: &quot;That I would say no. If the person was known to be shot in the early stage of the shooting then the other shots were wasted.&quot;

But Major Reynolds of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) later testified that the gunman had not actually fired at the security forces. He said the man had only pulled his gun as the security forces chased him:

&quot;I am asking if they fired at him, the security forces who were chasing him?&quot; Mr. L.H. Mclean, another attorney representing the Housing Ministry asked of Major Reynolds. He replied: &quot;They were.&quot;

&quot;He was running away sir,&quot; he added, &quot;and he was ordered to stop, which he did not. He continued to run and when ordered to stop, he did not. He continued to run and when ordered to stop again, he pulled a weapon and turned in the direction of his pursuers and this was when the security forces opened fire at him.&quot;

Lieutenant James, another army officer, corroborated Major Reynolds' testimony. He gave evidence that the man was chased and shot at, and then shot by multiple security force members when he attempted to pull his gun. He said two shots were fired as they chased him up Minstrel Street.

&quot;The section commander who was there, gave the order for the section to fire. Now I said two shots were fired initially by people pursuing this man; the shots continuing, the man continue to run in an erratic manner. The section commander there gave the order to fire,&quot; he said.

It was then he said the crowd became boisterous and only one soldier tried to control the crowd. He moved through the crowd, kicking people. Realising that the crowd was too strong for a single soldier, Lt. James threw two canisters of tear gas into the crowd. They dispersed and those running were subsequently ordered to lie on the road and they were searched for weapons. Those who resisted were gun-butted, shoved or hit. He said this was a normal army technique during any emergency.

Rema Commission Report (Pt III)