THE KILLING of the seven young men in Braeton on March 14 and the reports by Amnesty International on the incident and on human rights in Jamaica seem set to dominate public debate for some time to come. This is as it should be because a society that is blasé or uncaring about issues such as these is a society that has lost its moral compass.
The three latest developments, the joint statement by a coalition of private sector, religious and civic organisations calling for the removal from duty of the policemen who were involved in the shooting pending a Coroner's Inquest, the statement from the United Church on the Amnesty Report and an open letter to Jamaicans from Amnesty are bound to add to the intensity of the debate.
The statement from nine organisations can only be faulted for the tardiness of the response. Of greater moment is their urging that the hearing of the inquest should begin by May 7.
We have some difficulty in understanding the position taken by the United Church and its spokesman the Reverend Roderick Hewitt. Even if the report by Amnesty International was harsh in its condemnation of human rights abuses in Jamaica that does not, in our view, justify a shrill response from a religious group.
The history of Christianity is replete with examples of those who were prepared to speak out, to display righteous indignation in the face of atrocities and injustices. Many paid with their lives for their courage. We cannot on the one hand, applaud Amnesty International for the role that it played in bringing to an end the Apartheid regime in South Africa and on the other level a charge that it is behaving like a superpower when it admonishes us for our own shortcomings.
We cannot fault the position taken by Amnesty International and reiterated in Pierre Sane's open letter, that in taking its concerns about Jamaica to the international community it is not seeking to damage the country's economic interests but asking the international community to play a positive role in "seeking to protect the human rights of all Jamaican citizens".
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner.
