369 / 494
368
“Even though we had been empowered under the State of
Emergency to act in a particular way, independent of the
Police, I make it very clear that we were always going to be
in support of the Police. Because we were not acting with
the Police all the time, it did not mean that soldiers were to
use this as an excuse to abuse citizens, and violate their
rights. They were very clear about the chain of command
and the level of supervision. In particular, I charged my
junior commanders, platoon commanders, the Cpls. And
L/Cpls., the Sgts. to exercise proper command and control.
Fortunately, the structure of the military means that nobody
is unsupervised at any point. Down to the youngest Private
soldier, there is at least a L/Cpl. There to supervise him and
a Cpl. to supervise the L/Cpl., a Sgt. to supervise the Cpl.
and so on. At the various levels of command and control,
those are the persons that I charged and entrusted to
ensure that the soldiers behaved professionally and in
accordance with their training...”
Responsibility of 1JR
11.23.
1JR was responsible for pacifying the neighbouring areas North of
Tivoli Gardens, including Denham Town and Hannah Town. It was to create a
buffer zone between Tivoli Gardens and communities North of it. In so doing, it
would prevent gangs from entering Tivoli Gardens to give armed support to Coke
and his loyalists. And, of course, it would prevent these loyalists from exiting
Tivoli Gardens to the North.
11.24.
The structure of 1JR was similar to that of 2JR (see para.11.19).
Maj. Dave Walker commanded Alpha Company and Maj. Rohan Hibbert
commanded Charlie Company of 1JR. Maj. Henry commanded Bravo Company
which was the lead unit and had responsibility for creating the buffer zone. It
was involved in most of the fighting outside the boundaries of Tivoli Gardens.
Alpha established vehicle check points and secured critical installations while
blocking possible escapes to the West via May Pen Cemetery. Detachments from
Charlie Company occupied the Blood Bank and KPH.