The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

HUMAN rights advocate Alicia Wallace ripped National Security Minister Wayne Munroe’s response to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s (WGAD) report about this country’s detention systems, calling it “ridiculous” in its “unnecessary and inappropriate defensiveness”.

She argued the issues highlighted in the preliminary findings are well known.

Mr Munroe said some of the report’s findings were inaccurate.

 “One thing I would advise the public against, If you have to choose who you believe, you do yourself a disservice if you choose to believe an adverse report against the very persons who you will call when somebody is at your door, who you will call when you hear gunshots in the night, who you will call when you feel threatened,” he said.

 Ms Wallace said in response: “It is not the job of the Working Group to protect the reputation of the government or find excuses for its failures. Its role is to conduct an assessment in order to make a clear report on the situation in The Bahamas, which it did. Police brutality, forced confessions, and unlawful detainment are known issues.”

 “The suggestion that we are to believe law enforcement because we depend on them is dangerous and, as a matter of fact, threatening. Is our outrage at the unlawful behaviour and abuse of power an excuse for us to be denied services paid for by our tax dollars? That some law enforcement officers engage in illegal, inhumane acts is not to be ignored because we may need to call them one day.”

 “They need to be trained, mechanisms need to be put in place to prevent abuse of power, and the public should have the expectation that law enforcement is trustworthy and acting within the law. The minister’s attention ought to be on addressing the issues highlighted in the report rather than pretending and trying to convince us that they do not exist. We know that they do, we demand reform.”

 The WAGD said it visited ten facilities, including the Bahamas Department of Corrections, police stations, the Carmichael Road Detention Centre, and detention facilities for children in conflict with the law.

 Mr Munroe said the government will comprehensively respond to the Working Group after its final report is released.