LONDON – The London-based human rights group, Amnesty International, says police in Trinidad and Tobago may have carried responsible for a number of “unlawful” killings in the country last year.
In its 400-page 2011 annual report released today documenting the state of human rights in 157 countries around the world last year, Amnesty said: “dozens of people were killed by police, some in circumstances suggesting that the killings may have been unlawful.
Amnesty made reference to the shooting death of Tristan Cobbler, who on January 3, last year, called his mother and told her that he had been shot in the leg by the police and was hiding in a bushy area in Laventille along the east-west corridor.
It quoted his mother as saying that she found his body where he had indicated he was hiding and that “the autopsy revealed that he had died of multiple gunshot wounds to the legs, neck, back and chest. The police declared that a gun was found beside the body”.
In another incident, Amnesty said that Bianca Charles was killed on 16 July by a stray bullet fired by the police in Morvant.
“According to the police patrol, suspected criminals, whom they were chasing, opened fire on them. The police said they returned fire and one bullet hit Bianca Charles, who was standing in front of her restaurant. However, according to Bianca Charles’ husband, who witnessed the incident, the suspects were not shooting at the police.”
The human rights group, which is observing its 50th anniversary, said there had been a slight decline in the number of cases of violence against women and girls.
According to police statistics, 482 rapes, incest and other sexual offences were reported between January and September 2010 as compared to the 2009 figure of 491 cases.
“However, women’s organizations believed that such crimes were under-reported as police were not adequately trained in how to deal with cases of violence against women.
“Access to justice for victims of sexual offences remained unsatisfactory. Conviction rates for sexual offences were low. A national policy on gender and development, drafted in 2009, which put forward a number of policy measures to prevent and address gender-based violence, had not been adopted by the end of 2010,” Amntesty International reported.
It noted that while 40 people were on death row; no executions took place in 2010.
However, the human rights group said that some ministers in the new government voiced their support for the resumption of hangings as a deterrent against crime.
“The new Prime Minister said that execution by hanging was “the law of the land” and that her government “will abide by the rule of law and implement the law of Trinidad and Tobago”.
“However, she also stated that the new government was considering proposing an amendment to the law in order to end mandatory death sentences for murder,” Amnesty International added. (CMC)