SLP Says P.M. In Web Over IMPACS

THE main opposition St. Lucia Labour Party (SLP) Wednesday called on the St. Lucia government to state its position on how it intends to deal with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) that investigated extra-judicial killings in 2011.

In a statement, the SLP said that it had taken note of changing positions outlined by Prime Minister Allen Chastanet as to how his administration would proceed on the issue.

The former SLP government of Kenny Anthony had commissioned the investigation and received a report early last year which was handed over to the Director of Public Prosecutions for review.

In his address to the nation on March 8, 2015 on certain aspects contained in the report, Anthony said among other things, that the police staged fake encounters and planted evidence in the 12 fatal shootings that took place.

The SLP said that when in opposition, the now ruling United Workers Party (UWP) had indicated that the IMPACS issue would have been dealt with within 100 days of the new administration taking up office.

But it noted that in recent newspaper interviews, Prime Minister Chastanet has indicated that the government will finance a “Special Prosecutor” to prosecute those alleged of carrying out the killings.

“Prime Minister Chastanet now needs to explain what is different in this approach and that announced by the former government,” the SLP said, noting that “clearly, this was not the approach promised to the members of the Royal Saint Police Force by the UWP before and during the general election campaign”.

The opposition party said that the government also seemed to have abandoned its decision to appoint a special tribunal which “was supposed to review the findings of the “IMPACS report

“Having been obviously told that this would be unconstitutional and compromise the judicial process, he now says that the Tribunal is to assist the Police Force “on the way forward.”

“Prime Minister Chastanet has now been caught in a “tangled web” as a very direct result of his calculated efforts to make unrealistic promises to the Police Force and the public at large,” the SLP said.