RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Sev­er­al de­tainees held un­der the State of Emer­gency (SoE) at the East­ern Cor­rec­tion­al and Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre (ECRC) in Arou­ca have em­barked on a peace­ful hunger strike, call­ing on Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der to re­voke the Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders for per­sons who have not been in­ves­ti­gat­ed or charged af­ter months in cus­tody.

In a let­ter sent to Guardian Me­dia on be­half of the de­tainees, a source who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty said they were held un­der or­ders is­sued by of­fi­cers of the Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit (SIU) and au­tho­rised by the min­is­ter. How­ev­er, de­spite be­ing de­tained for sev­er­al months, the de­tainee claimed “no in­ves­ti­ga­tion what­so­ev­er has been done”.

“There are 89 de­tainees at the ECRC, and not even half have been in­ter­viewed at this time,” the de­tainee al­leged. “At the time when the State of Emer­gency was an­nounced to end on Oc­to­ber 28, po­lice of­fi­cers rushed to the ECRC on Oc­to­ber 26, 27, and 28 to in­ter­view per­sons. Peo­ple were co­erced in­to par­tic­i­pat­ing in in­ter­views with­out le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tion. They were told that they would be re­leased at the end of the SoE, but now that the SoE has been ex­tend­ed, they are still in­car­cer­at­ed,” the let­ter al­leged.

De­tainees said they co­op­er­at­ed be­cause they be­lieved the process would lead to their re­lease.

“The ma­jor­i­ty of peo­ple de­tained have not been in­ter­viewed, and there is no cred­i­ble ev­i­dence be­cause some peo­ple have been held on­ly on the ba­sis of al­le­ga­tions,” an­oth­er de­tainee said. “The in­ves­ti­gat­ing po­lice of­fi­cers are not in­ves­ti­gat­ing to back up their al­le­ga­tions, so peo­ple like me are in­no­cent­ly be­ing held there. Peo­ple are just be­ing kept in cus­tody with­out ev­i­dence, and there is no at­tempt to gath­er ev­i­dence.”

They are now urg­ing the au­thor­i­ties “to ei­ther pre­fer a charge or rec­om­mend to the Min­is­ter that per­sons be re­leased pend­ing any fur­ther de­vel­op­ments where ev­i­dence was ob­tained and a charge can be pre­ferred.”

“It is dis­turb­ing and frus­trat­ing be­ing in cus­tody for three months and now maybe up to six months,” the de­tainees wrote.

“Not be­ing charged and not be­ing giv­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty to ap­pear be­fore a ju­di­cial of­fi­cer to ac­cess bail. Per­sons have been charged for sub­stan­tial amounts of drugs dur­ing the SoE, and they have been grant­ed bail ... yet the de­tainees here have no op­por­tu­ni­ty to even see a ju­di­cial of­fi­cer. How can this be fair?”

Some de­tainees al­so ex­pressed frus­tra­tion with the SoE Tri­bunal process, say­ing that com­plet­ed cas­es have not been com­mu­ni­cat­ed to de­tainees or at­tor­neys.

“Tri­bunals that have been com­plet­ed weeks ago, and at­tor­neys and de­tainees are yet to find out what the rec­om­men­da­tions are and what the min­is­ter’s re­sponse is,” they al­leged.

“The At­tor­ney Gen­er­al was re­spon­si­ble for the se­lec­tion of the Tri­bunal mem­bers, and we are of the view that the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al has some po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion, mak­ing the process one-sided. The Tri­bunal should have been se­lect­ed by the Law As­so­ci­a­tion and should in­clude a ju­di­cial of­fi­cer,” the let­ter stat­ed.

De­tainees al­so al­leged that many de­ten­tion or­ders were care­less­ly pre­pared. “If giv­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty to view some of the de­ten­tion or­ders, one would re­alise it is just cut and paste,” a de­tainee claimed. “De­tainees are shocked to see some of the al­le­ga­tions list­ed and won­der why there are still no charges, sim­ply be­cause the al­le­ga­tions have been fab­ri­cat­ed to make the or­der look and sound good. The min­is­ter al­so needs to vet these or­ders prop­er­ly be­fore sign­ing.”

Be­yond the le­gal is­sues, de­tainees de­scribed in­hu­mane liv­ing con­di­tions at the fa­cil­i­ty.

“The build­ing is not prop­er­ly ven­ti­lat­ed. The hu­mid­i­ty is ex­treme­ly high be­cause the fans are not func­tion­al,” one de­tainee said. “The toi­lets are very dirty, and a lot are not func­tion­al. The stench of urine and fae­ces is un­bear­able in the hu­mid con­di­tions, mak­ing peo­ple sick. The in­fir­mary is not equipped with suf­fi­cient med­ica­tion, and Panadol or Pu­ri­tan and gas tablets are dis­trib­uted for all ail­ments.”

They al­so re­port­ed sleep­ing un­der bright lights 24 hours a day and hav­ing lim­it­ed time out­doors.

“Air­ing is grant­ed for one hour dai­ly, ex­clud­ing week­ends and pub­lic hol­i­days. Bad weath­er al­so af­fects air­ing. The build­ing is in­fest­ed with cock­roach­es, flies, and pi­geons, with drop­pings falling through the over­head grat­ing,” the let­ter stat­ed.

The hunger strike be­gan on Oc­to­ber 28 as a peace­ful protest. “The de­tainees are sim­ply say­ing to the min­is­ter to in­struct the po­lice of­fi­cers to do their work and in­ves­ti­gate the al­le­ga­tions in a time­ly man­ner and ei­ther pre­fer a charge or rec­om­mend the de­tainee is re­leased pend­ing any fur­ther de­vel­op­ments,” they said. “De­tainees should not sim­ply be ar­rest­ed with no ev­i­dence, placed in a cell, no in­ves­ti­ga­tion, and left at the mer­cy of when the SoE will come to an end.”

“The ex­ten­sion of the SoE seems like the on­ly crime plan the gov­ern­ment can im­ple­ment,” one de­tainee said. “It comes at the cost of a lot of in­no­cent peo­ple who, un­der the cir­cum­stances, can­not de­fend them­selves. I am plead­ing with the au­thor­i­ties to re­voke or­ders for per­sons not charged be­fore the ex­ten­sion.”

Guardian Me­dia reached out to Min­is­ter Alexan­der, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie, Act­ing Pris­ons Com­mis­sion­er Hay­den Forde, and Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­varo, but there was no re­sponse up to late yes­ter­day.