117 / 494
116
5.77.
We find DCP Hinds’ evidence as to the total number of
firearms recovered to be rather confusing if not inaccurate. The JCF’s
daily updates to Prime Minister Golding and Minister Nelson for the
period 26 May to 30 June show the total number of firearms recovered
in that period as 88. DCP Hinds’ evidence refers to 86 firearms in
respect of Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town. When the updates are
analysed up to the day before the end of the State of Emergency
(extended and expanded) on 21 July, the total number of firearms
recovered is 106 and not 115 as stated by both DCP Hinds and
CoP Ellington or, 111 as stated by Supt. Phipps. Even the figures for
total ammunition recovered are defective. Both CoP Ellington and
DCP Hinds give a figure of 15,500 rounds recovered. The JCF’s Update
for 21 July gives a figure of 14,984 – a difference of 516 rounds. These
are internal inconsistencies or discrepancies within the JCF’s own
evidence, which make the arithmetic unreliable.
5.78.
Another troubling feature of the evidence of the security
forces is the small number of firearms which were recovered in Tivoli
Gardens, the main theatre of conflict. We are asked to accept, on the
evidence, that there were approximately 300 gunmen in Tivoli Gardens
and Denham Town, yet by 28 May only 28 firearms were recovered,
including 10 at #33 and #38 Chestnut Lane, implying that 18 were
found in the Tivoli Gardens area. Even if we believe Lt. Col. Cummings
that the Engineers found 6 firearms in Tivoli Gardens on 26 May, where
were the other 12 between 24 and 25 May?
5.79.
With respect to Tivoli Gardens, the main target of the
security forces, the number count of firearms recovered reveals a
disconcerting deficit. By 26 May, the JDF recovered only 6firearms; no
firearms were found on any of the 19 persons whose deaths we report
in Chapter 9. In this context, the evidence of the JCF is singularly