An independent counsel for the Commission of Inquiry into the July 18 killings in Linden is yet to be chosen but A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Dr Rupert Roopnaraine says while the issue has not yet been discussed it is one that could be “resolved very quickly.”
Contacted on the issue yesterday Roopnaraine conceded that the appointment of such a person is very important. He noted that the independent counsel is the individual who would be leading the witnesses in the inquiry.
When asked about the issue, Leader of the Alliance For Change, Khemraj Ramjattan suggested that Attorney-General Anil Nandlall will be the person to name the independent counsel subject to the agreement of the commission.
A government source when contacted stated that the commission will need a lawyer and a secretary who would also be a lawyer and both of these persons would be appointed by the government.
The International Committee in Continuing Defence of Linden in a letter published in today’s Stabroek News expressed concern that the process to select the independent counsel has not been made public.
“This is a key prerequisite for ensuring that there is public confidence in the official Inquiry. The Government and the Ministry of Home Affairs (irrespective of which party nominee holds the portfolio) are central actors whose conduct and policy in this matter are going to be a focus of the inquiry,” the letter said.
It pointed out that the ministry and the government are in a sense ‘suspects’ who cannot be fitted into any role of assembling of evidence to be laid before the commission. The independent counsel for the commission, the letter said, must therefore not only be acceptable to all sides, but must have total access to all personnel and records in all the relevant departments and thereby “bypass prejudicial and obstructionist activity”.
Those to sit in the COI as commissioners are Retired Chief Justice of Jamaica, Lensley Wolfe; Jamaican senator and Senior Counsel, K.D. Knight; former Trinidad senator and Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal; former Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Cecil Kennard and former Justice of Appeal, Claudette Singh.
Lindeners on July 18 began what was supposed to have been a five-day protest over government’s proposed electricity tariff increase. As night stepped in on that first day, police opened fire near the Wismar/Mackenzie Bridge. Ron Somerset, 18; Shemroy Bouyea and Allan Lewis, 46 were killed during the incident and at least 20 others were wounded.
