{"id":39498,"date":"2013-09-20T11:11:34","date_gmt":"2013-09-20T15:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=39498"},"modified":"2013-09-20T11:14:16","modified_gmt":"2013-09-20T15:14:16","slug":"bahamas-government-puts-abuse-of-cubans-on-back-burner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/09\/bahamas-government-puts-abuse-of-cubans-on-back-burner","title":{"rendered":"Bahamas Government Puts Abuse of Cubans on Back Burner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fred<\/a>The government has yet to appoint the retired Court of Appeal justice and the other person who will lead the final investigation into the alleged abuse of Cuban detainees at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre, The Nassau Guardian confirmed.<\/p>\n

The reported abuse allegedly happened nearly four months ago and there is widespread interest in a report being completed and publicized.<\/p>\n

Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs Hubert Chipman said yesterday it appears the government is dragging its feet in the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be talking about how we are going to correct what happened at the detention center, not still asking where the report is,\u201d Chipman said.<\/p>\n

Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell has directed all inquiries concerning the probe to the Ministry of National Security.<\/p>\n

One government official, who was not authorized to speak, said yesterday that the government was still in the process of confirming the retired Court of Appeal Justice to head the investigation.<\/p>\n

Mitchell told reporters last month that a cleric, who the government had also engaged, was unable to take part in the probe as initially planned.<\/p>\n

Miami-based protest group Democracy Movement also hit out at the government over the delay yesterday.<\/p>\n

Ramon Sanchez, a spokesman for Democracy Movement, said: \u201cIf we knew that they were releasing the report it wouldn\u2019t be so bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

On August 15, Mitchell told reporters that he hoped to have the completed report in little more than a month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in the process of settling the terms of reference of the review of the investigation, which we expect within a week,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are hoping within 30 days of the review being settled, which should be sometime this week, we should have a report.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, Minister of National Security Dr. Bernard Nottage told reporters that he has not made an announcement on the allegations or the report because he had yet to receive all of the \u201cbits and pieces\u201d he needs about the issue.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Perry Christie said last month that he has no problem releasing the report.<\/p>\n

He said the only thing that would make him hesitate in doing so is if its release would violate people\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

Chipman said he found it strange that the government\u2019s team of investigators will not have the alleged victims available to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you conduct this investigation, who are you going to interview to get the Cuban side?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing else you can ask these people because they aren\u2019t here. They were repatriated. The people who were allegedly beaten are not here.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are you going to get your information from, the defence force and immigration officers?\u201d<\/p>\n

A disciplinary hearing into the alleged abuse was also postponed, and there is no indication when it will take place, according to attorney Wayne Munroe, who represents one of the defence force marines accused of the beatings.<\/p>\n

Sanchez said yesterday that the government is creating too much uncertainty over the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur concern is if we don\u2019t pursue this issue, it will go to sleep,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means that these people will still hang around and abuse other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group has staged multiple protests against The Bahamas in the wake of the allegations.<\/p>\n

According to one of the marines interviewed as part of the initial investigation by the defence force, Cuban detainees were severely beaten at the detention center for almost two hours after they attempted to escape on May 20, and one even appeared to have temporarily lost consciousness as a result of the abuse.<\/p>\n

Randy Rodriguez, a former detainee who was granted asylum by the United States, said he was “mercilessly” kicked on the floor by guards, pepper sprayed and doused with water.<\/p>\n

Nottage is expected to hold a press conference at the Ministry of National Security this morning to discuss the recommendations made at a recent public meeting on crime, \u201camong other pertinent issues\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is unclear if he will give an update on the government\u2019s investigations into the alleged abuse.<\/p>\n

via The Nassau Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite repeated promises to investigate the abuse of detainees at the Detention Center, the Bahamas goverment continues to delay an investigation and has made it clear that they do not care about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1929,1494,40,41,142,60],"class_list":["post-39498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-cubans","tag-detention-centre","tag-government","tag-immigration","tag-incompetence","tag-plp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}