Blair: Politicians Must Sever Ties With Dons

FORMER polit­i­cal ombuds­man Bishop Herro Blair yes­ter­day agreed that the island’s polit­i­cal lead­er­ship must com­mit to ful­ly dis­con­nect gov­ern­ment and par­ty resources from “thugs” as a first step in remov­ing the influ­ence and pow­er of dons in the soci­ety. Blair’s agree­ment came as he gave evi­dence before the Tivoli Enquiry, dur­ing which he tes­ti­fied about his efforts in May 2010 to get then Tivoli Gardens strong­man Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke to sur­ren­der him­self to the authorities.
He spoke also about see­ing approx­i­mate­ly 50 armed men in the com­mu­ni­ty before the start of the oper­a­tion on May 24, 2010 and the after­math of the operation.

In response to attor­ney Linton Gordon (rep­re­sent­ing the Jamaica Defence Force), Blair — who also head­ed the Peace Management Initiative — said he agreed 100 per cent that politi­cians should sev­er ties with dons, as he spoke pas­sion­ate­ly about the issue. “[The don’s] resources is also part of the polit­i­cal con­nec­tion… for a don to get con­tracts to offer secu­ri­ty for a Government con­tract any­where in this soci­ety and that has to be includ­ed in the con­trac­tu­al arrange­ment, I think is a blight on the polit­i­cal process in civ­il soci­ety,” Blair said, his tone wreak­ing of dis­gust. He said the dons were “cre­at­ed” and that “some of us in soci­ety” are respon­si­ble “for what we face today”. Following his evi­dence, Blair agreed with com­mis­sion chair­man Sir David Simmons to sub­mit writ­ten rec­om­men­da­tions, based on his “vast expe­ri­ence”, to the com­mis­sion on the prac­ti­cal steps that can be tak­en “to turn around things in Jamaica”. The enquiry is prob­ing the deaths of 76 peo­ple, accord­ing to the pub­lic defend­er’s inter­im report, as a result of the oper­a­tion to appre­hend Coke. Yesterday, dur­ing his exam­i­na­tion-in-chief led by attor­ney Pearnel Charles Jr, Blair said he vis­it­ed with Coke in Tivoli Gardens on Wednesday, May 19, 2010, with the bless­ings of then Prime Minister Bruce Golding, and the fol­low­ing Saturday with a mes­sage from then Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington to sur­ren­der to local author­i­ties or the United States.

He said that, on the first occa­sion, he spent 15 to 20 min­utes plead­ing with Coke to sur­ren­der to avoid blood­shed. But Coke declined, he tes­ti­fied, say­ing that he was await­ing the out­come of the mat­ter filed by his attor­ney in the Supreme Court chal­leng­ing the 2009 extra­di­tion request from the United States. The cler­gy­man tes­ti­fied that on the sec­ond vis­it, Coke again declined to sur­ren­der and at one point expressed fears that he would meet the same fate as his father Lester Lloyd Coke, who had died in a fire in the 1990s while in cus­tody await­ing extra­di­tion to the US. Blair said, under cross-exam­i­na­tion by Deborah Martin — one of the attor­neys for the Jamaica Constabulary Force — that the for­mer don was more con­cerned about his own sit­u­a­tion than how his deci­sion not to sur­ren­der was affect­ing the res­i­dents around him. During his exam­i­na­tion-in-chief, Blair said that when he first went to meet with Coke, he saw about 50 men with guns in the com­mu­ni­ty and that his escort, an asso­ciate of Coke’s, sig­nalled for them to allow their pas­sage. He said he saw block­ages in sec­tions of the com­mu­ni­ty. He said that, dur­ing his meet­ing with Coke, he asked him to have the men dis­arm or leave the com­mu­ni­ty. On his Saturday vis­it, he tes­ti­fied, he nev­er saw the men. He said he thought to him­self that Coke had acced­ed to his request. He told com­mis­sion attor­ney Symone Mayhew that res­i­dents were mov­ing about their busi­ness among the gun­men, say­ing that armed men were nor­mal fea­tures in com­mu­ni­ties like Tivoli Gardens.

Questioned lat­er by Linton, Blair agreed that it could nev­er be good for any cit­i­zen to be able to deploy 50 armed men in his defence. He added also that in any com­mu­ni­ty across the island, there are 50 or more men armed at any one time. He also said that, based on what he saw in Tivoli Gardens, he was pri­mar­i­ly con­cerned about the safe­ty of mem­bers of the secu­ri­ty forces when he was try­ing to secure Coke’s sur­ren­der. He said the only oth­er time he had seen that many guns was in the army, where he served as a reservist. He said he saw armed men from the Spanish Town Road entrance of the com­mu­ni­ty lead­ing to Coke’s Presidential Click office. Meanwhile, Major Warrenton Dixon, who was in charge of mor­tar usage dur­ing the oper­a­tion, start­ed giv­ing evi­dence yes­ter­day. He said care was tak­en to ensure the safe­ty of res­i­dents. He said the tar­get of the 37 mor­tar rounds fired was an open field.
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