Tuesday, August 27, 2013
By KHRISNA VIRGIL
Tribune Staff Reporter
kvirgil@tribunemedia.net
FIVE Royal Bahamas Defence Force officers have admitted to abusing Cuban detainees at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre by way of written statements, according to the Free National Movement.
The confessions, FNM shadow Foreign Affairs minister Hubert Chipman said, were expected to see those officers face a RBDF panel at a summary trial last week. However, the hearing was cancelled indefinitely, he said.
“The government must be held accountable and they must come clean,” Mr Chipman said, “This matter has gone on for far too long causing the Bahamas embarrassment.
“At any given time, on every shift, there are 10 Defence Force officers and four immigration officers on duty. The same was the case when this incident took place. I can tell you that five of those 10 have confessed in written and signed statements.
“The Christie administration would have done well to admit that the incident happened and punished those responsible. But instead they have chosen to conceal the findings of an investigation led by the police and defence force. It was completed a long time ago.”
But Fred Mitchell, Foreign Affairs Minister Foreign Affairs Minister, chastised Mr Chipman for the allegations. The Minister in an email to The Tribune said that the statement stands to compromise the outcome of an ongoing probe, which is still weeks from completion.
When The Tribune contacted RBDF spokesman, Lieutenant Origin Deleveaux he said he could not comment on whether a summary trial concerning officers’ conduct in allegations of Cuban detainee abuse had been cancelled.
He told this newspaper: “It is a normal occurrence for summary trials at the base. They are a part of the military justice system for marines who are in breach of our regulations. I cannot comment on what you are asking because I am outside of that system as I work out of headquarters along side the Commodore (Roderick Bowe). He remains detached from summary trials until the event that an appeal is launched. The Commodore must remain neutral.”
Several attempts were made to reach the Commodore at his office, but they were unsuccessful up to press time.
Meanwhile, the Miami-based protest group The Democracy Movement is alleging that women Cuban migrants with other nationalities were sexually assaulted while detained in the Bahamas.
Insisting that the exile group was not just raising the alarm to spite the Bahamas government, Ramon Sanchez, its president yesterday told The Tribune their aim was to
uncover the Carmichael Road Detention Centre’s “concentration camp” like environment.
“Eight of them were female, but there were also detainees from Colombia and Haiti who experienced sexual assault,” he said.
“They were made to do certain things for food and water, for survival.
“Some of the guards at the centre made them dance nude, according to the victim’s testimony. In other instances, they were sexually assaulted through the fence by the guards in broad daylight. It was so bad that they many times they had to move the children inside of the facility so they wouldn’t witness what was happening.”
Mr Sanchez had hoped that such testimony would be included into continuing investigations of abuse at the Centre, however it might never make public record as the eight women have already been repatriated to Cuba.
Prime Minister Perry Christie said yesterday that the public will “know exactly what has taken place” regarding the government’s probe into abuse allegations at the detention centre unless making that information public will “endanger any further steps.”
Noting Amnesty International’s call for the investigation’s outcome to be made public, Mr Christie firmly stated he has “no problem” with making investigation results public unless those reports “have some relationship with people’s rights before the court” – such as possible prosecution.
“So obviously subject to advice of a legal nature, I have no difficulties with publishing reports,” he said.
Comments
proudloudandfnm says...
So far we have a fake video, now we have altered pictures. Cuban ambassador has said twce there have been no reports of abuse. We know the Cubans have been lying to us since day one. Sorry I am not buying this at all. This reeks of a set up.
Posted 27 August 2013, 11:07 a.m. Suggest removal
Tarzan says...
"Cuban Ambassador has said twice there have been no reports of abuse." This is sited as evidence that no abuse took place?
You really have to be kidding.
All purely Bahamian aspects of this story aside, how can anyone be so credulous as to believe that the current Cuban authorities have any regard for these persons who are fleeing the tyrannical state they have imposed, any more than they have any regard for the truth?
Whatever you choose to believe about what went on at the Detention Center, or what you think should be this country's policy regarding such refugees, certainly we don't have to stoop so low as to credit what the Cuban Ambassador has to say on this topic.
Posted 27 August 2013, 3:53 p.m. Suggest removal
banker says...
I bet you all of those RBDF officers are all Red Shirts who are traitors -- except Comrade Edison Key of course.
Posted 27 August 2013, 12:25 p.m. Suggest removal
ThisIsOurs says...
They clearly don't love this country
Posted 27 August 2013, 1:14 p.m. Suggest removal
banker says...
Or ....... they have a conscience and are ethical, truthful and remorseful. Sterling human qualities that a majority of Bahamians and the PLP government do not possess.
Posted 27 August 2013, 1:17 p.m. Suggest removal
ThisIsOurs says...
Now why did you do that...Rory will pop up now to attack their patriotism
Posted 27 August 2013, 1:29 p.m. Suggest removal
Tarzan says...
So, Comrade Fred has another "ongoing probe".
Word is that he has an ongoing probe to determine whether the sun rises in the morning.
The results of this probe into the Detention Center goings on, can be expected about the same time as his probe into whether his appointee as Ambassador to the U.S. was credentialed or not. That "probe" went on for months and Comrade Fred issued the same hyperbolic responses to legitimate inquiries about why the country's Ambassador to its most important foreign government was sitting in limbo.
Launching probes is apparently a far easier course that admitting to an endless list of unforced errors.
Posted 27 August 2013, 3:36 p.m. Suggest removal
ThisIsOurs says...
Hi Rory!:)
Posted 27 August 2013, 6:41 p.m. Suggest removal
getrightbahamas says...
The FNM is pandering to a select few and loosing their support in the broader community. this matter is least important in the grand scheme of things. a sad crew of idiots. and this toilet paper is pushing them along. thats why i dont buy it.
Posted 28 August 2013, 8:19 a.m. Suggest removal
concernedcitizen says...
But you read it and post ,,remember they make money from advertising and the more people that read it onlline the more advertising they can sell..
Posted 28 August 2013, 9:31 a.m. Suggest removal
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