Brutality is nothing new at Carmichael Road Detention Centre. Haitian and Cuban immigrants with no voice and no power have been routinely attacked by officers in the past. The only whimpers heard from inside the compound have come to the public's attention via the press, usually The Tribune.
When the press itself is attacked, the implications are far greater. Journalists have very loud voices and very great power, and last Tuesday's alleged savage assault of a visiting cameraman has not gone unrecorded.
In fact, as we write, a full report is being prepared for the Commonwealth Press Union and other international press organisations outlining the circumstances of this unfortunate affair. It means that, unless the Bahamas government acts swiftly and decisively to identify the culprit and deal with him appropriately, the Bahamas' good name in press relations is in danger of being tarnished.
Every three months, reports are circulated to editors worldwide about press freedom in every country on earth: The physical abuse of journalists in some Third World countries is alarming as despotic regimes try to keep the truth from being told.
By comparison, the Bahamas has fared well, having learned its lessons the hard way from the days when Sir Etienne Dupuch, The Tribune's editor and publisher, slapped down dictatorial incursions on press freedom by Lynden Pindling.
Given his way, Pindling would have neutralised the press, made it answerable before parliament to any perceived instance of 'misreporting' – a highly subjective term – and imposed stern penalties on any errant newsman who fell under his critical gaze.
This was a course he embarked upon in the late 1960s, as soon as he had managed to get his feet under the table as the Bahamas premier. Fortunately for all concerned, The Tribune enlisted international press support to make him think again. His ill-considered and wickedly conceived bill was swiftly, though reluctantly, withdrawn.
In last week's alleged attack, a Spanish-speaking journalist from a South Florida news channel was brutally beaten allegedly by a Defence Force officer. His face was split open by a baton while he was using a pay phone and, according to him, he then struck his head against a car after falling to the ground. He had, according to witnesses, done nothing to provoke the attack and was merely reporting back to his office on the guards' obstructive attitudes.
As it happens, the journalist's station serves an area – which provides hundreds of thousands of Bahamas tourists every year. Quite rightly, he and his producers "splashed" the story to draw attention to what law enforcement can mean in Nassau, and were able to produce bloody pictorial evidence to support their case.
If unearthing evidence of brutality at the detention centre was partly the objective of their film project, then such evidence was presented to them in abundance.
The officer's alleged action will have underpinned an impression now growing, not only among some visitors, but also the Bahamian public itself — that there is little or no accountability where it really matters in many government institutions.
Based on evidence which has been leaking out of the detention centre for some time now, guards appear to have tacit approval to do exactly as they please, in spite of assurances from new superintendent Edwin Culmer a year ago that abuse claims would be dealt with.
Mr Culmer has remained silent on the latest outrage, probably because he is said to be at odds with the government over being at the detention centre at all. As he is still awaiting completion of his office inside the compound, he spends much time off the premises.
Last week, Mr Culmer told INSIGHT he had "no problem" with his transfer from Fox Hill, where he served as man and boy, but had no direct knowledge of the assault incident. In fact, he said he was based temporarily at the ministry office in central Nassau.
In such circumstances, where the leadership structure is clearly far from perfect, it is not surprising that Carmichael Road is just as bad as it ever was.
In December, 2004, INSIGHT posed the question "Can the Bahamas allow this horror to continue?" in an article giving detailed accounts of rampant brutality at the Carmichael Road centre.
Evidently, it can… because here we are, 15 months on, and a Defence Force officer evidently feels free – according to eye-witness reports – to vent his frustrations on a newsman OUTSIDE the perimeter of the detention centre.
Witnesses reported that a group of officers "rushed" foreign reporters, shouting and swearing at them. When The Tribune arrived, an officer threatened to arrest our photographer for taking shots of the injured newsman.
Several questions arise: What is the IQ level of those who make such arbitrary decisions? Are they under any kind of disciplinary control? Do they seriously believe beating up innocent members of the public is part of their job? And do they have any idea about the possible wider consequences of their actions?
Quality of personnel in the Bahamas law enforcement service has long been a matter of concern. Although there are undoubtedly some very fine officers in all areas, there is also a disturbingly large body of sub-standard personnel who lack the intelligence, maturity and temperament for such a demanding occupation. That corruption is rife among police, the Defence Force and othergovernment departments is ﾠnow well-known to all who – care to observe. Poor quality government employees are making the Bahamas look bad, ﾠand the matter needs to be addressed.
Only the government itself, it seems, is in denial, even when presented with the clearest evidence. It's obvious little or nothing has been done over the last year or so to sort out the Carmichael Road mess, yet disclosures INSIGHT made then were nothing less than staggering.
At the time, 27-year-old Jamaican Omar Jones, a Carmichael Road detainee, was barely able to stand because of treatment meted out by some Defence Force bullies. His ribs were swollen, the rest of his body badly bruised "and his legs were so painful they quaked beneath him," we reported at the time.
According to relatives, he had been savagely beaten behind the compound wire by a Defence Force officer, even though he had been convicted of no offence and had not even appeared before a court.
His distressed family said Omar was hammered mercilessly for no good reason that they were aware of. Meanwhile, his wife Ingrid – who had just given birth to twins and was in need of further hospital treatment – was left in a traumatised state by reports coming from Carmichael Road.
She had heard that her battered husband was in distress, deeply perplexed at his treatment, and broken in spirit. "He was, it seems, the victim of recreational barbarism," INSIGHT reported.
The Jones case was particularly significant because it came within days of a fire at Carmichael Road which destroyed an entire building.
This was started by Cuban detainees complaining about "inhumane" conditions inside the centre. A day earlier, a government report about Carmichael Road had been condemned by critics as a "whitewash".
INSIGHT reported: "Already, conditions at Carmichael Road are well known internationally. The fire and reasons behind it received widespread agency coverage. Together with the horrors of Fox Hill Prison, the deprivation and humiliation which have become routine at Carmichael Road are now seen as part of a pattern of human rights abuse in the Bahamas.
"For those whose confidence was shaken by the Lorequin report, which highlighted theft and corruption by some officers, the new allegations demand candid and speedy answers.
"Is there a culture of gratuitous abuse among some Defence Force officers? Does the Bahamas government have uniformed brutes on the payroll? ﾠAre foreign detainees – and especially Cubans and Jamaicans – targets of savage assaults for no good reason other than that they are vulnerable and unrepresented?"
All these questions were highly pertinent at the time, and still are, but they received official no official answers, other than the usual bland and meaningless pledge that "investigations will be carried out."
Yet INSIGHT had presented a graphic account of Mr Jones' ordeal, during which one officer waited outside a room while another took him inside and thrashed him without mercy.
"Once inside, he was kicked in the back," said INSIGHT. "He fell to the floor, but was hauled to his feet by his throat. He was choked to the point of passing out, then released.
"Once he had regained his breath, he was choked again. The assault was protracted and unrestrained. Mr Jones was tossed around like a rag doll and kicked repeatedly.
"Throughout, the officer allegedly told him he intended to kill him. He said other officers were on hand to help to kill him. Mr Jones was terrified. He was warned of the consequences if he told anyone else about the attack."
Racial prejudice appeared to be the main motive for the abuse. The officer told him he hated Jamaicans.
The account is remarkably similar to those of Patrick Lemoine, a detainee in the notorious Fort Dimanche in Haiti during the unspeakable Duvalier regime. He, too, spoke of arbitrarily-imposed humiliation, gratuitous savagery, and feelings of utter helplessness among inmates who had no voice and no power.
In his book, Fort Dimanche – Dungeon of Death, Mr Lemoine charts the appalling excesses of guards working in a prison noted for gross ill-treatment of its inmates. Of course, Dimanche was an extreme example. Many of its prisoners did not emerge alive. Some died of starvation, others of torture and disease.
But the fact that the ordeals of Jones and Lemoine can be mentioned in the same breath does not bode well for the Bahamas, a country reckoned to be many notches higher than Haiti in the human rights league.
So what is the Bahamas government's posture on this kind of incarceration? Is there anything resembling official revulsion at reports of this type? Are Cabinet ministers undergoing crises of conscience? Does anyone care?
Last week's outrage was followed by the usual ministry statement saying it had launched an investigation. Although details were still emerging, it added, "the ministry is concerned by the initial reports."
Behind the scenes, government officials were trying desperately to gloss over the incident, spin reports in their favour and, of course, counter The Tribune's version of events – even though the evidence was overwhelming.
If this investigation is anything like the one into the alleged visa scam at Norfolk House, it will be the usual exercise in obfuscation. Everyone, it seems, knows about a visa scam except the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the government department supposedly in charge of visas.
At Carmichael Road, the public needs to know who is conducting the investigation, what form that investigation is taking and when the report will be made known. Will it be an independent inquiry, or will the Defence Force be asked to investigate its own? Will the inquiry be one the public can respect, because that is the over-riding issue in the present climate.
A Bahamian who expressed dismay at last week's beating said: "The problem now is that people are losing hope, losing trust in those who control everyday affairs here. It is very difficult to believe anything that is being relayed to us through official channels.
"Politicians say an investigation is taking place just to buy time, sweep the matter under the table and hope the whole thing goes away."
Meanwhile, the Bahamas suffers as reports of last week's attack on journalist Mario Vallejo spread through the American press.
The main edition of the Miami Herald, for instance, took a line that will send shivers down the back of Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe.
"Video of a Miami television reporter attacked by a guard outside a notorious Bahamian immigration jail is snowballing into a political crisis for the island government as Cuban exile groups called, for a tourism boycott," it said.
In the story, Vallejo claimed he had seven stitches inserted into a face wound and was unconscious for two minutes after the guard cracked his head against a car bumper.
Fifteen months have elapsed since INSIGHT last exposed the horrors of Carmichael Road. A government noted primarily for inertia and ineptitude continues to huff and puff with indignation when inconvenient and embarrassing incidents are brought to light, but nothing seems to happen to put things right. The first – response is always to dispose of the messenger rather than confront the problem.
If an officer acted wildly during last week's incident and assaulted a reporter outside the compound, then he needs to be dealt with by a court and, if convicted, sentenced accordingly. In that way, the government could demonstrate that it is not only capable of making a decision, but actually has a moral stance outsiders can understand.
Meanwhile, the international press will be taking a close look at the Bahamas and wondering whether it will soon be listed alongside Guatemala, Colombia, Haiti and Zimbabwe, among many others, where brutality against innocents, and specifically the press, receives official sanction.
By: John Marquis, as printed in the INSIGHT column in The Tribune.
What do you think? Leave a response on the Bahamas Community Message Board, or contact the author John Marquis at: Fax 328-2398 or e-mail jmarquis@tribnnemedia.net.
