WAS there ever a “death list or black list” of notorious criminals targeted by members of the Royal St Lucia Police Force for execution as the controversial IMPACS is reported to have alleged?
The President of the Police Welfare Association ( PWA), Camron Laure, has said that based on investigations carried out by his organization, there was no such list.
What there was, he told news conference this week, was a series of criminal profiles on some of these criminals prepared by the Police Force which was standard procedure.
Guy Mayers, the former Minister of National Security has also denied the existence of any death list when such rumours first surfaced some three years ago. At the time, Mayers told journalists exactly what Laure is now saying that there was a list of known criminals prepared for intelligence purposes which was shared among police stations on the island.
Mayers had emphatically denied the implication that policemen had targeted criminals for execution.
The claim about the hit list was made by Prime Minister Kenny Anthony earlier this year when he addressed the nation and reported on the contents of the IMPACS report which followed an investigation into alleged extra judicial killings by policemen during 2010 and 2011.
Said Anthony then: “The report confirms that the black lists or death lists referenced by human rights organizations, victims’ families and citizens alike did exist.”
Mayers was up to yesterday critical of Prime Minister Anthony for claiming that there was a hit list. “It was absolutely irresponsible of Dr. Anthony to make that kind of assertion which was totally unfounded. There never was any hit list. That was not how the Royal St Lucia Police Force functioned while I was Minister.”
Laure told the press earlier this week: “If such a list existed, the Police Welfare Association would have been the first to condemn it.”
The IMPACS report contained several other damming allegations about some policeman and the way they went about enforcing the law.
Laure disclosed that revelations by the Prime Minister, Dr. Kenny Anthony, asserting that the report into the Police slayings had alleged that fake encounters were staged and that the Police planted weapons on criminal suspects, had resulted in the marginalization and victimization of officers who were part of the Special Task Force implicated in the report.
According to Laure, the officers have been overlooked for promotions and appointments even when they meet the requirements.
He also revealed that based on Dr. Anthony’s address to the nation last March, during which excerpts of the IMPACS report were read, certain officers were being asked to retire.
Laure said the PWA was seeking legal advice on the constitutionality of the IMPACS investigation, hinting that it may have contravened the Police Complaints Act which empowers that body to investigate complaints against police officers.
Twelve suspected criminals were killed by the police between 2010 and 2011 during a police exercise called Operation Restore Confidence. Human Rights organizations and relatives of the victims claimed that the deceased had been deliberately targeted by police for execution.
The claim attracted the attention of the United States authorities who promptly withdrew support and training assistance to the St Lucia Police Force until the allegations were thoroughly investigated. The St Lucia Government secured the services of a team from the Jamaica Constabulary Force through the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) to conduct the investigation.