THE Tivoli Enquiry heard yesterday that residents of Tivoli Gardens could not identify a number of the men killed inside the community during the May 2010 operation to apprehend Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke because they were “imported” into the area to defend the former strongman.
This evidence was given by Inspector Mario Pratt, who was one of the drivers picking up bodies throughout the community and in the neighbouring Denham Town between May 24 and 25 of 2010.
He testified that a total of 13 bodies were placed in his truck on May 25 and that residents told an accompanying colleague of his that the men were imported so they wouldn’t be unable to identify them.
He also testified that others refused to co-operate with the police when asked if they knew the men. Pratt testified in his examination-in-chief, led by attorney Deborah Martin, that the bodies were picked up in pathways and on the road and that none was removed from houses or yards in the community.
Evidence had already been given that upwards of 300 gunmen were in Tivoli Gardens to defend Coke and that they were paid handsomely to be there.
A senior Jamaica Defence Force soldier testified that a number of men with rural addresses were rounded up in the area and some were even put out by Denham Town residents after members of the security forces gradually took control of the area. The men were unable to say what they were doing in the community and were predominantly dressed in white shirts and blue jeans. Evidence was given that this was the mode of dress for gunmen, who had engaged members of the security forces in the West Kingston area during the operation.
– Paul Henry
The enquiry, being held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston, is looking into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of more than 70 people during the operation to apprehend Coke and restore law and order to the area after gunmen barricaded sections of the community and turned it into a fortress.
Questioned by Terrence Williams, who heads the Independent Commission of Investigation, Pratt agreed that he never put in his statement the evidence that residents said the bodies belonged to imported men.
The cop, who was a sergeant back in 2010, said that his intent in November of that year when he wrote his statement was to give an outline of what occurred in Tivoli Gardens when he entered the community. Read more here : Cops say several dead men identified as ‘imports’