By DANA SMITH
Tribune Staff Reporter
dsmith@tribunemedia.net
PROCEEDINGS against the Defence Force officers implicated in the Cuban abuse allegations at the Detention Centre will begin “imminently” with a “full report” of the proceedings to be released at its conclusion.
National Security Minister Bernard Nottage also said yesterday that retired Justice Emmanuel Osadebay, Reverend William Higgs, and former Police Supt Douglas Hanna have agreed to serve on a committee to “inquire into the administration of the Detention Centre” and make recommendations for “efficient” administration and management to the government.
The committee has been asked to complete its inquiry “in the shortest time possible” – beginning in no more than 10 days, Dr Nottage said. Those recommendations are “likely” to be taken into serious consideration and followed by the government.
He was speaking yesterday at the Ministry of National Security, where he announced the Defence Force had “completed its investigation into the alleged assault of Cuban detainees” at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre and hearings will begin.
“The hearings will be held in camera,” the minister said, “but a full report of the proceedings will be issued at their conclusion. This is to avoid publication of matters which may compromise national security.”
Three independent observers will be permitted to attend the hearings in order to assure the public that the proceedings are transparent and just, Dr Nottage continued.
These three will be chosen from the general public, but “one is likely to be a judge, one is likely to be a member of the church, (and) one is likely to be someone who is familiar with these type of tribunals,” Dr Nottage said, promising to release the names “very shortly”.
The proceedings will be conducted in accordance with the legal rules prescribed under the Defence Act and Regulations, “which approximate a trial before a Magistrate’s Court,” Dr Nottage explained, before adding: “As such, we will refrain from making any comments concerning the proceedings while they are under consideration.”
The minister would not say how many Defence Force officers have been implicated, but said the proceedings will be done “as quickly, efficiently as the rules and regulations of the hearings permit.”
Reports of abuse done to Cuban detainees at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre first came to light in June with a video aired on a South Florida news report depicting abuse against Cuban detainees.
Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell confirmed the video was staged and denied any abuse at the centre, stating: “It remains to be said that the Bahamas government does not beat those in its custody. All detainees are treated with respect and in accordance with all applicable conventions and with human dignity and courtesy.”
Though he would later say: “The Bahamas does not support inhumane treatment of people detained in its facilities. It does not condone or support the abuse of detainees. Where there are specific allegations of abuse then those matters are investigated and adjudicated.”
The abuse allegations continued sparking persistent protests – including a hunger-strike – by members of Miami-based watchdog group, The Democracy Movement.
At the end of last month, it was revealed by leaked Defence Force documents that a young marine admitted that on the direction of superiors, he punched, kicked and beat unresisting Cuban detainees with a stick until they screamed, in what is described in official investigation documents as a “frenzied” attack at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre.
The minister, yesterday, joined other government ministers in criticising that group for its continued disparaging remarks against the Bahamas and its government.
“They would have Cuban detainees come to the Bahamas, break our laws, and we are supposed to greet them with a red carpet,” Dr Nottage said. “In fact, as you know, there is now a constant trickle of Cubans through our waters.”
The minister said he would like to thank the Bahamian public for the “restraint they have exercised.” Particularly, he said, in light of the accusations that have been levelled against the country “by the Cuban exile group in Miami.”
Miami merchants - “many of whom are Cuban-American” - should be thankful, Dr Nottage said, for the resources Bahamians provide them with through expenditure.
“It would behove them to be more considerate, more understanding of the plight with which we are confronted, on a regular basis,” he said, explaining “a lot of money” is spent housing and repatriating illegal migrants.
“That doesn’t give us any excuse to do anything that is illegal or harmful to the detainees because we understand their issues too, but it’s time to be fair – and I don’t feel they’ve been fair.”
As for the country’s reputation, Dr Nottage said yesterday there is “no evidence” the matter has damaged the Bahamas’ number one industry.
“The Bahamas is known to be a friendly country. It has positive relationships with just about every country in the world. There’s no evidence to date that what has been said by persons in Florida or elsewhere about this matter has had a dampening affect on tourism in the Bahamas.
“However, we cannot ignore it because cumulatively, if the matter is not resolved in a matter consistent with good relations, then we will suffer the results of it. But I am confident that the matter will be resolved in a way that would satisfy both our local population and the international countries – I have no doubt about that.”
Comments
concernedcitizen 11 years, 1 month ago
I know Fred Mitchell must wake up every night in cold sweats mumbling ,Damm that Ramon Sanchez .If it wasn,t for Sanchez there would be no hearings , the PLP was praying he would tire b/c they knew he was too much of a fighter for his peoples rights to be bought off ..
JohnDoe 11 years, 1 month ago
The behavior of this government is amateur hour at its worst! According the the Minister of National Security, we are about to imminently initiate proceedings against the Defence Force officers implicated in the Cuban abuse allegations at the Detention Centre, with a “full report” of the proceedings to be released at its conclusion. Yet, according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, he is not aware of any abuse of Cubans at the Detention Centre. You can't even make this stuff up! Embarrassing guys, let's get it together.
concernedcitizen 11 years, 1 month ago
Come on Nottage i thought better of you ,how the hell are you going to have proceedings or a fair investigation when the most important witnesses ,the beating victims have all been send back to Cuba .. I don,t care if Moses oversees the hearings you can only get one side of the story ,and i don,t think the RBDF marines w/ no victims to refute them are going to willingly admit they beat the crap out of people ..
concernedcitizen 11 years, 1 month ago
HOW THE @#$@@$ CAN THEY FACE HEARINGS W/ NONE OF THE ALLEGED VICTIMS HERE TO TESTIFY ....
briwest1773 11 years, 1 month ago
I do not agree with the abuse at the detention centre...we should not violate the rights of detainees. Now with that being said....yall know that if a Bahamian had set fire to the detention centre the way the cubans did to ours....that Bahamian would get lost in a cuban prison..with no paper trail to say they were ever brought there.
We were wrong to abuse them if abuse did occur, but i will not drag down my country and side with people who are trying to destroy us. At the end of the day we are all Bahamians and the US and Cuba couldn't care less if our economy is in the toilet. I am not a PLP but I will not help foreigners destroy us by speaking bad of our country just to make the plp look bad!!!!
ThisIsOurs 11 years, 1 month ago
We're not Cuba. We're the Bahamas, where it's allegedly Better
No one has to give this administration any assistance in the looking bad category. And I stress this administration, no mention of party.
concernedcitizen 11 years, 1 month ago
@briwest,,,so if we beat the crap out of someone ,but foreigners says it ,it doesn,t matter ?? .IF i slap the sh33t out of a tourist,a cuban american tourist, and steal his money and he goes to the police and goes to the press it doesn,t matter ??So the administration could loot every penny from our treasury and put it in secret foreign bank accounts and if foreign police find it and say the PLP hid it there you don,t want our money back b/c it will make the PLP look bad ..Only the administration can make themselves look good or bad by their actions ..
briwest1773 11 years, 1 month ago
obviously u did not read my comments. The first thing I said was that abuse is wrong.
ThisIsOurs 11 years, 1 month ago
Then what's there to side with? The Cubans are saying exactly that something "wrong" happened, they only went into a tizzy because we tried to cover it up...and they're right...the only reason we're even discussing this is because one of the detainees got a cellphone..
briwest1773 11 years, 1 month ago
this is my point exactly...reports say that a Bahamian gave them the cell phone...why did a Bahamian show this to the world....that Bahamian should have reported the issue to authorities and only show it to the world if the authorities did not respond...but we were so quick to show our country in a bad light because of these rogue officers....
ThisIsOurs 11 years, 1 month ago
Why did Schindler save those Jews? Didn't he know that by allowing them to escape the world would find out what was going on in the prison camps. He was a German traitor.
briwest1773 11 years, 1 month ago
We are a far cry from Germany, my friend...German soldiers make us look like a walk in the park. Millions of Jews died....if we ever got to that point...i agree the world should know.
ThisIsOurs 11 years, 1 month ago
Larger scale, same effect, he should have been quiet, try to clean things up internally, what he ended up doing was besmirching Germany as a whole. He could have spared the country that if he'd only been a good patriot.
ThisIsOurs 11 years, 1 month ago
You have obviously missed the point, on purpose as usual. Why do individuals speak out in face of overwhelming opposition? When his heart tells him something is wrong and the mass says just do as you're told. Keep this quiet if you speak it will hurt all of us.
concernedcitizen 11 years, 1 month ago
@briewest THE authorities did not respond
briwest1773 11 years, 1 month ago
everything else that u said was your comments not mine...abuse is wrong..and we should deal with all illegal activities. But I will not go on television and air my dirty laundry. Reports have said there are death threats against Bahamians because of this issue of abuse...that means all of us...not just the suppoerters of the government all of us...so while we deal with our issues..we need to be aware of the long term effects of our actions. More work and less talk...90% of the talk surrounding this issue is just talk....it is not fixing the issue.
ThisIsOurs 11 years, 1 month ago
This is what the administration is completely missing, all of the death threats the vitriol the name calling..all of it is as a result of OUR action/inaction
concernedcitizen 11 years, 1 month ago
@briewest,,,Wow ,maybe after 4 months and no investigation , i imagine there fellow country men were getting a little upset . Also how can there be an impartial investigation when the alleged victims have been sent back .By your reasoning if i see some Bahamians beating another Bahamian half to death by the caves and the only place i can get help is from foriegners on the beach i shouldn,t do it b/c the foriegners will see our dirty laundry ..geez lousie talk about xenophopia
briwest1773 11 years, 1 month ago
I said in my comments that we go to authorites first in our country before we go outside. Maybe some of my comments are being deleted....but you people are mis-quoting me left right and centre....i never suggested that if help is not forthcoming that we should not seek help elsewhere. That was a ridiculous comparison......I may need a lawyer to even comment on here in the future...wow...
concernedcitizen 11 years, 1 month ago
None of your comments are deleted its all there in print . As to needing a lawyer its all printed above ,none are deleted .Lawyers can only be helpful in libel or slander if an untruth caused financial or other hardship ,considering there is a written record of your comments it would be hard to prove our opinion of them was untrue and caused hardship . Read the 5th post on this topic ,which is yours , and tell me how i and others could have come to another conclusion then we did .
JohnDoe 11 years, 1 month ago
Using your logic, when the government considers holding parents responsible for the acts of their children, are they not also encouraging these parents to destroy their children by co-operating with the police. What is moral and right was moral and right yesterday, today and it will be so tomorrow. Just as we as a society have a right to expect parents, cloaked in the armour of righteousness, to report even their children who commit crimes why should it then be ok for us to turn a blind eye to abuse, be it against Bahamians or foreigners. The point you are missing is that if this situation was handled with an iota of professionalism we would not be talking about this right now. Even today the government is not speaking with one accord. It is like the neighborhood bully after being punched in the mouth crying and protesting about being victimized.
briwest1773 11 years, 1 month ago
The point I am making is that this is more of a political issue not just a humanitarian one. If the govt was FNM...the FNM's that are so loud now would be silent...and vice versa re the PLP. Pepole are more concernerd with destroying a particular party than they are for the Cuban people. If this had happened on papa's watch...many of the same ppl crying foul and asking for Fred's dismissal would be SILENT. My issue is not that pepole are defending the cubans, but the reason why. If we are defending the cubans out of love for our fellow man...then great!!. But if we are doing so to simply poke fun at the present governments obvious inadequacies, and belittle the country...then shame on us all!
ThisIsOurs 11 years, 1 month ago
I for one am not FNM. I did have doubts about this administration in May 2012 but I had hopes they would not give an encore performance. If this same thing had happened under Ingraham and I had "heard" about it, I would say the same thing...what were those guys thinking, why doesn't the administration get in front of this story, did you see that man's back. Exact same thing no hesitation. I don't like to see people abused. I don't even like to hear about hardened criminals being beaten by police, they're someone's son or brother or uncle or father. I don't like to see it happening irrespective of who does it.
ThisIsOurs 11 years, 1 month ago
Why don't you post the report so we can all see the details?
concernedcitizen 11 years, 1 month ago
After 4 and 1/2 months how can BJ even make his mouth say "imminently" with "a full report " lmfao
concernedcitizen 11 years, 1 month ago
How old are you ?? I have never heard a Bahamian use the term "bore off ". Are your parents originally from here ? Do they know you like to cuss and call people names on the internet ??
concernedcitizen 11 years, 1 month ago
Go helmet boy go , you tell em ,your a tough guy and you can cuss and call people names ,,,,,lmfao
concernedcitizen 11 years, 1 month ago
Thats right helmet boy take them all on , the detainees ,the Democracy movement and the entire US OF A ,,You go boy ,call them names and cuss em ..Your not a little impotent man behind a keyboard your a super hero ..GO HELMET BOY GO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
getrightbahamas 11 years, 1 month ago
Great job Bj and Fred! Keep it up!!! When the rules are followed, this is how its done! when its all over, the report will be released. Thats how a military tribunal works. And if whiteness are needed, the defense force plane will fly them in and out. And we will know who came and what they contributed at the end. Now everybody SHUT THE F&@k UP! And wait your turn. Dont like it? Lump it!
concernedcitizen 11 years, 1 month ago
yep C
concernedcitizen 11 years, 1 month ago
@@GETITRIGHT I can guarantee you with near 100% certainty that the alleged victims and witnesses will never set foot in this Bahamaland again . There is a slight chance in 5 years when they get out of Castros jail they may head this way on a piece of plywood ,but highly unlikely ...The chance of the defense force flying to Cuba and Castro letting them come for sun and fun at coral harbour is about the same as winning the lottery 5 days in a row ..Come on man the complaitants will not and can not show up ,you know what that means in a court of law or military style tribunal ..
getrightbahamas 11 years, 1 month ago
Trust me. The commandant is pissed. The tribunal is a kangaroo court. That thing is pretty much done b4 it starts. guilty etc...
ThisIsOurs 11 years, 1 month ago
I'm doing my "I was right" dance. Few days ago I said they would probably not release the report citing something like national security and here it is...proceedings in camera for fear of revealing details that could compromise national security. This is like Scary Movie, predictable
4renbahamian 11 years, 1 month ago
This is a big messy embarrassment and all of the statements are showing we have the real aholes running the country. Like the murder case last week, when there are no witnesses the case is dismiss.
ThisIsOurs 11 years, 1 month ago
Government By and For Wait a While, the Story Will Go Away Eventually.
Classic, this is how they handle everything. Still waiting on the Blackbeard's Cay report...
And they are usually right, the fly in their ointment this time is a very angry Cuban activist group.
getrightbahamas 11 years, 1 month ago
if god came down and spoke on this matter on behalf of the government you guys would call him a liar
JohnDoe 11 years, 1 month ago
Speak for yourself, for it is only an idiot that would consciously close their minds and heart to truth and decency for the sake of following patently petty and small minded politicians. Your argument, it would seem to me, is more appropriately directed at you because it would appear that even if God were to declare that beating and abusing other human beings is unacceptable you and others would question His authority and continue to ask for more evidence. What more evidence is needed that something against standard protocol occurred than the National Security Minister stating that proceedings against the implicated officers are imminent.
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