Chairman of the Region 10 Regional Democratic Council Sharma Solomon was yesterday pressured to give a significant reason why he had not encouraged protestors to remove from the Mackenzie-Wismar Bridge on July 18, before three men were killed and other persons wounded.
“In your 20 minutes speech to the crowd, did you inform them, having regard to the terms of permission, that they ought to get off the bridge?” Commissioner Cecil Kennard asked Solomon when he took to the stand yesterday morning before the Commission of Inquiry into the shootings continued.
“No, I did not,” he said before Kennard asked why. With a long pause, Kennard again prompted him, “Why not? Why not? You spoke for 20 minutes, why didn’t you tell them to get off the bridge?” Responding to this, Solomon said he made no such request, since there has been similar action in Linden before and persons would usually remove.
“I’m asking you in that 20 minutes you spoke why didn’t you tell them to get off the bridge?” Kennard again asked.
“I did not,” Solomon reiterated. “Why not?” Kennard asked again, this time more hastily but received the same answer. “Why? You have a reason?” he inquired. Solomon this time said that he was outlining for the people the activities they had planned for the Toucan Call Centre.
Kennard then asked Solomon what he was telling the crowd over the microphone for 20 minutes. “I was telling them that we have our agenda which was the programme at the Toucan Call Centre and to outline to them the speakers and to also establish what our reasons for demonstrating were as we continued to reiterate at every meeting; increasing electricity hike,” he said
“Would the reason for not telling them to remove be because you did not want them to get off the bridge? That’s why you didn’t tell them to move?” Commission-er Dana Seetahal then asked the witness. “No, that is not the reason,” he responded.
However, Solomon agreed with Seetahal’s later suggestion that he wanted to have supporters in large numbers to hear his message. “So, the longer you waited to address them to go to the call centre, you would have had more people. Isn’t that so? And you were interested in getting more people to hear your message. Isn’t that so? And after you got them to hear your message, you wanted them to go to the call centre. Wasn’t that your intention?” she asked with Solomon responding “Yes ma’am” at every instance. “But it did not happen,” Seetahal concluded.
Unable to recall
Commissioner KD Knight asked Solomon if he had believed the protestors behaved violently but he said he was not aware of any violent behaviour. “Any throwing of bricks, stones, bottles or other missiles? No one in the crowd you know did any such act?” Knight asked. “I was unable to see what was taking place so I am not aware based on my recollection of what I could’ve seen,” Solomon answered.
When asked if he was subsequently made aware, Solomon said he was told that no one threw missiles at the lawmen. “I was told that persons were not throwing anything at the police and this was from Miss Vanessa Kissoon, when I saw her at the hospital on the said night,” he said.
Solomon said that after concluding further discussions on the western end, he began advancing towards the police on the eastern side when he heard that teargas was being fired. “I advanced toward the police end to find out why and what was the reason for this… I was unable to do so because I was told while advancing toward the police that a young man was shot and killed and I saw persons coming towards me with injuries,” he said. Solomon had told the Commission that his first visit to the bridge was at approximately 5pm that day.
Audio
COI Hearing 16/10/12 – Sharma Solomon
He noted that he assisted a few of the injured persons back to the western end and advised others who had already retreated to move back to the western end. “I advised them that we have a planned programme at the Toucan Call Centre. I can’t recall if I requested that they move,” he reiterated.
“You can’t recall?” Knight asked. “I can’t recall, in specific words to say ‘disperse from the bridge.’ I can’t recall saying that,” Solomon noted. However, when asked whether anything he said could be interpreted as a request to leave the bridge, Solomon responded in the affirmative.
“In terms of clearing the blockage caused by them, did you at all ask them, encourage them, advise them to leave?” Knight again posed. “I can’t recall,” he was told once again.
Counsel for the Commission Euclin Gomes asked about a letter Solomon had received around 6pm on the day in question from Senior Superintendent Clifton Hicken. “It said that we have violated the rules of the permission and the force may have to re-evaluate further permission that [is] being requested,” Solomon relayed. When asked what he did about the situation after being so informed, Solomon said that the injured persons were his priority at that time.
Under further questioning by Seetahal, Solomon said he was aware of buildings being burnt on July 18 but had no idea of how it occurred. He said that sometime between 7 and 7:30pm, he saw the Linmine Secretariat on fire while he was at the Mackenzie Hospital complex.
“Could that have been caused by the protestors?” Solomon was asked and he again said he was clueless. After inquiries, Solomon said he was made to understand that people were not at the building at the time of the fire. “Because the gunshots would’ve removed them from the building… This is as much information as I got,” he added. He noted that he received no reports as to how the fires may have started.
