by Adrian Gibson
THE flippant response by Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade, the Royal Bahamas Police Force and Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell to the complaints of members of the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association (GBHRA) should lead every Bahamian to question how the fears and concerns of Bahamians could be so casually ignored.
Sometime ago, members of the GBHRA filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) claiming that they feared imminent threats to their lives due to their political advocacy. Frederick Smith QC, Francisco Nunez, Joseph Darville, Kirkland Bodie and Romauld Ferreira all decried the response of government agencies to their concerns, noting that they had cause to flee the country. What’s more, on more than one occasion, an open letter to the Commissioner of Police was published.
The IACHR - the human rights arm of the Organisation of American States - came down on the side of the GBHRA, recently determining that the government should immediately move to protect the lives and personal integrity of five members of Save the Bays and their nuclear families, and that the complainants had received believable threats of harm, harassment and intimidation as a result of its advocacy on environmental issues and in opposition to questionable governmental decisions.
Notably, there have recently been complaints of police officers randomly showing up at the offices of the five complainants and demanding to see these men. Such an approach is nothing short of intimidatory and, given the business environment, the most appropriate approach would be to arrange a meeting at a time convenient to all parties. These are Gestapo tactics which only deepen the suspicions of persons already frightful of mischief, injury or their sudden demise.
I applaud these courageous men for stepping up and inviting international scrutiny, for ensuring that their concerns and human rights are not trampled upon and, by extension, establishing precedent for persons who are downtrodden and voiceless. The GBHRA’s decision to invite the IACHR to request that the Bahamas’ government adopt precautionary measures to prevent irreparable harm to their lives creates another avenue of recourse that Bahamians could have faith in.
It is unacceptable that any Bahamian should be subject to having their security concerns ignored and marginalised for years.
What’s more, the dismissive response of Mr Mitchell to the IACHR resolution - whilst not surprising - highlights his lack of accountability. Face saving, political spin seems to be the order of the day in the Bahamas. To term the ruling as “regrettable” and assert that the claims of these men “were not properly grounded in facts and were without evidentiary support or legal merit” is insulting. I cry shame on the minister. Shame! Shame! Shame!
Did Mr Mitchell ever cause a proper investigation to be conducted? Or was his promised investigation a merely another insincere stalling tactic?
We need to implement human rights legislation. We need to implement laws against harassment. We need to ensure that our fundamental rights and freedoms are protected at all costs. I call upon the current government and, whoever will comprise the incoming government, to put these legislative initiatives at the top of its agenda.
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First published in the The Tribune under the byline, Young Man's View, here…
View Adrian Gibson's archive here…
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