West Kingston Commission resumes sittings today
THE West Kingston Commission of Inquiry resumes its sittings at the Mutual Life Centre in Kingston this morning, following a three-week break for the Christmas holidays.
The inquiry is being held into the upsurge of violence in Western Kingston and other parts of the Corporate Area between July 7 and 10, 2001, which left about 27 people, including a policeman and a soldier, dead.
During the Inquiry’s first 10 weeks of sittings, between September 10, when it commenced, and December 14 when the Christmas break was taken, 94 witnesses appeared before the three-member commission, chaired by Justice Julius Isaac, and including criminologist, Dr Hyacinthe Ellis, and theologian, Rev Dr Garnet Brown.
Members of the security, accounted for more than half of all the witness who took the witness stand, this with a total of 67 appearing. Of this number 48 were from the JCF and the remaining 19, the JDF.
In excess of 75 exhibits have been tendered into evidence to date. These include statements from witnesses, photographs and maps of the areas under review; video and audio cassettes; copies of police force orders and organisational charts, certified forensic results of police swabs of suspects, and a damaged tyre from a JDF V150 armoured personnel carrier which was reportedly fired on by gunmen while it was being used in West Kingston between July 7 and 10.