Torture report still to be turned over 44 days later

May 18, 2008 News

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…report has lost all credibility — AFC

Forty-four days after the announcement by Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, that the report on the investigations into alleged torture was complete, that completed report and the findings are yet to be made public.
And, according to Chairman of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan, this is unacceptable and will cause the report to lose all credibility.
Ramjattan added that he was baffled as to why Dr Luncheon and the Head of State, President Bharrat Jagdeo, would even pronounce on the report before the persons who actually conducted the investigation.
Minister of Defence and Head of State, President Bharrat Jagdeo, had told media operatives that the report was not formally handed over. “Apparently there was an oversight,” he said.
The People’s National Congress Reform has also lambasted the delay in handing over the report.
The announcement was made during one of the party’s weekly press briefings by executive member Aubrey Norton.

Pic: Patrick Sumner displaying wounds he allegedly suffered at the hands of GDF ranks

He noted that the utterances by the Head of State, indicating that there was a delay in the publication of the Torture Report, are calculated to bring the GDF into disrepute.
“It is claimed that the delayed publication has been occasioned by its improper submission to the Defence Board…Such an excuse is unbecoming of the Minister of Defence and Head of State.”
He also posited that, whether the reason given by the President was true or not, the fact remained that the act has caused suspicions to be aroused that the report is being subjected to doctoring by the political directorate.
He added that such a suspicion would undermine the integrity and credibility of the report.
“In order to bring an end to this atmosphere of suspicion and doubt, the Jagdeo Administration must publish the report without any further delay…Any other course of action will leave the Administration open to the allegation that it may be seeking to protect officers who may be guilty of torturing the citizens of this country.”
He also reiterated the PNCR’s original position that only an independent investigation of the torture allegation could exonerate the disciplined forces.
On April 4, Secretary to the Defence Board, Dr. Roger Luncheon, had announced that the board of inquiry set up to investigate allegations of torture purportedly committed by the GDF had completed its task.
According to Dr Luncheon, the results of the investigations should have been handed over the following Thursday. This, however, was never done.
Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee had promised the investigation following statements by the PNCR that torturing was a new tactic Government had introduced in crime fighting.
The allegations of torture emanated from two Buxtonians — Patrick Sumner, 30, and Victor Anthony Jones, 32, — as well as some army ranks who claimed that they were tortured in relation to the missing AK-47 assault rifles.
At the time of the allegations Jones and Sumner bore the scars of a brutal beating, which they claimed was carried out over the three days of their being in the custody of the disciplined services, following their detention after a raid in the village of Buxton in September last.
When the men were released from custody, they gave a harrowing account of their ordeal at the hands of the military.
They spoke of being taken all the way up the Soesdyke/Linden Highway, where they were threatened with death.
Jones, a farmer, who was held while coming from his farm in the Buxton backlands, could hardly speak, but managed to say: “Dey beat me unconscious, so I can’t tell wha happen. Is when I rise up in de lock-ups is then I realize whey I deh. I want know how I reach here.”
Sumner, who is based in Trinidad, claimed that he was detained after he demanded that the ranks return his cellular phone which was taken from him on the day of the Joint Services raid in the village.
He recalled that, while demanding his cellular phone, one of the ranks threatened to stomp him.
He said that he was eventually placed in a pick-up and taken to the city.
According to Sumner, he was told that he was being taken to Camp Ayanganna, where intelligence experts will trace the calls he had made to determine if he had contacted gunmen who are believed to be hiding out in Buxton.
While at army headquarters he was questioned, and subsequently taken to CID Headquarters, Eve Leary, then to the Brickdam Police Station lock-ups. There he met Jones, who was semi-conscious.
The next day, the two men said, they were taken back to Eve Leary, where they were handed over to some “vicious-looking” ranks.
After they were given a drink of water, Jones and Sumner were handcuffed and handed over to some ranks in plainclothes.
“Dem tell we, ‘Alyuh gone tell we whey all de #@$ing guns wha get tek away in Buxton,’ ” Sumner said.
There are reports that the Joint Services lost some of their weapons during a raid in the village last September.
According to Sumner, although he and Jones were blindfolded, he knew that the men had taken them up the Soesdyke/Linden Highway, since he was familiar with the terrain.
He said that the men stopped at a trail off the highway and threw Jones out of the vehicle and began beating him.
The Trinidad-based Buxtonian told media operatives that the men stripped him and burnt his testicles with a cigarette lighter.
Two hours later, he was ordered to lie on a piece of cardboard, and it was at this time that Sumner really thought that the men would have killed him.
“I say is shots going to me head one time. But I didn’t hear any shots and I started praying.”
Sumner said he fell asleep, and when he awoke it was dayclean and the men were still there.
He said that he begged the men not to kill him, and they promised not to, since he had children. However, they said that they would kill his partner, Jones.
“Dem say dat, ‘He (Jones) is a Taliban, but you (Sumner) is an informer; you wukkin with de Taliban, telling them when the Police around.’ I tell dem that I ain’t wukkin with nobody,” Sumner recalled.
The men began beating him again, while telling Jones to say a prayer.
According to Sumner, he heard the sound of a gunshot and immediately he thought that Jones was killed, since he did not hear him crying.
He said that he began thinking that his turn was coming next. He, too, was instructed to say a prayer.
“Dey give me a gun to hold, telling me dat dey just kill me partner. I say, ‘Man, I can’t hold it,’ but dey put me finger pon de trigger,” Sumner said.
All the while he was still blindfolded, and seconds later he heard gunshots.
Sumner said that he continued to pray, thinking that the men were missing him with their bullets.
Later, the men took off his blindfold and then threw him into their vehicle.
An unconscious Jones was also thrown into the vehicle, and since he showed no signs of life, Sumner was convinced that he was dead.
It was not until the men threw them into a creek that Jones revived.
Eventually, the two Buxtonians were taken back to Eve Leary, where they remained until they were released.
Another prominent report of torture came from Michael Dunn and Alvin Wilson, both GDF ranks.
Both men appeared in sections of the media claiming that they were tortured over an AK-47 that disappeared late last year.
Last November, Wilson, who was in charge of the arms store, where guards would temporarily lodge their weapons, reported that an AK-47 was missing.
Since then, the Base Commander was moved from Camp Ayanganna and several ranks placed under investigation as the army scrambled to find the gun, which still remains missing.
Both Dunn and Wilson claimed in newspaper interviews of being kicked, pepper sprayed and beaten by the army.
A reservist, Sharth Robertson, was also in custody, and relatives reportedly claimed that he, too, was tortured.
The army had denied knowledge of the alleged tortures but said it would investigate them.

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