(Jamaica Gleaner) – The government has been pressed to pick up the tab to bury the casualties of last week’s Tivoli Gardens incursion.
Seventy-three civilians were killed after gunmen in the west Kingston community clashed with the security forces. One soldier was slain.
On Thursday, Lay Magistrate Dr Godfrey E. McAllister wrote to Prime Minister Bruce Golding suggesting that the state play a leading role in burying those killed. ed that despite strong indications that the security forces might not have been culpable for some of the casualties, “the government of Jamaica, at the very least, appears to be obligated to underwrite the cost of the most conservatively priced funeral for each of the victims of the incursion”.
Finance Minister Audley Shaw told The Gleaner yesterday that such a decision would be the Cabinet’s call.
“I can’t make an arbitrary decision on that but I don’t think it would be something that we could refuse to do. Where families want to do it, they can go ahead,” Shaw said.
sublic Defender Earl Witter has also agreed that it might be appropriate for the State to assist with funeral expenses.
McAllister has proposed that it would cost less than $125,000 to bury each victim.
In 2001, following a bloody clash between police and gunmen in west Kingston which left 25 civilians dead, the government offered to help several families bury the victims. Cabinet had approved funeral grants of $50,000 each.
However, a number of families of the deceased refused the state’s assistance, opting instead for aid from the Jamaica Labour Party, which was then the opposition.
The West Kingston constituency contributed more than $500,000 towards the funeral expenses for 13 of the victims.
