Grenada is a month away from the 43rd anniversary of the collapse of the 1979-83 Grenada Revolution created by the New Jewel Movement (NJM) of late Marxist leader Maurice Bishop who was executed in a Palace Coup in October 1983 at Fort Rupert which has returned to its old name of Fort George.
The Bishop Killers who were associated with a hardline Marxist-Leninist group within the NJM known as OREL, are today walking around freely in the community after spending quarter century in prison for the crime.
However, there are hundreds of Grenadians who are in their 60’s and 70’s and living in our midst but suffering silently from the acts of torture committed on them by persons linked to the disbanded People’s Revolutionary Army (PRA).
As a nation, we have failed these people as no government since the return of democratic rule of law in 1984 has seen it fit to hold a South African-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission to bring both sides together – the Torturers and the Tortured – to bring about genuine forgiveness and healing.
THE NEW TODAY has been exposed to some of the persons tortured by their own fellowmen during the days of the Grenada Revolution.
In several cases, it was not the ordinary rank and file members of the PRA who did the atrocities but persons who were involved in the day-to-day running of the country as members of the powerful body known as the Central Committee (CC) of the NJM.
It was the CC that dictated the policies that had to be implemented by the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) and not the other way around.
Some of the members of this highest decision-making body in the country were heavily involved in the most gruesome acts of brutality and unfortunately are revered by some of the political and religious leaders in the country.
This is an account given by a man from Mt Rich, a once stronghold of the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) of Eric Gairy who was overthrown on March 13, 1979 by Bishop’s NJM in the first armed overthrow of a government in the English-speaking Caribbean.
The man is bed-ridden and suffering from the acts of torture.
“He showed me his hands. The fingernails were all damaged, and looked shredded. I asked him if they had tried to pull out his fingernails, and he said no, they were crushed with a gun butt.”
How do we expect forgiveness when as a nation we did nothing to get the tortured to “free up themselves” by creating a platform for them to tell their story.
Some of the tortured are aged and want to get a number of these things as we would say “off their chest” before the Good Lord calls them home for eternal rest.
There is a man called “Mano” in Mt Rich whose story came out this week and wanted the whole world to know what was done to him by these barbaric torturers.
After the collapse of the Revolution, Mano was able to confront the PRA Officer who had handcuffed him for hours to a coconut tree that left serious injuries to his hands that are still paining him at the moment.
In the words of Mano, he went up to the ex-PRA soldier and asked him if he remembered him and what he had done to him.
Who can blame Mano for wanting to “kill” the man? Within days after the encounter the ex-PRA army officer purchased an airline ticket and flew out of the Island to go and live in the United States.
The case of the Pascall family from Mt Rich is a most interesting one.
Several members of the family were taken into custody and placed at the Richmond Hill prison as political detainees.
Among the persons held captive was a newly born whose mother was among those detained.
Sadly, the child had to be christened from within the Walls of the Prison.
How do we expect these people who were tortured and humiliated to just get up one morning and forgive their captors?
Our government has unfortunately addressed Public Holidays for October 19 – the bloodiest day in our history due to the carnage on Fort George/Rupert and also October 25 – the day of Liberation as thousands welcomed the U.S and Caribbean troops that landed on our soil to put down the Bishop Killers.
Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell and his Congress government along with previous governments have short-changed those who suffered acts of cruelty, torture and brutality during the four-and-a-half years of NJM rule on the island.
This chapter in our history is not closed and Congress needs to go back and look at ways at ensuring the nation goes through a genuine period of Reconciliation.
All of us are Grenadians – whether we come from the poor and depressed villages of Mt Rich and Telescope as opposed to those who did these atrocities and are now being treated as respectable citizens of the land by virtue of their educational qualifications and achievements and their family ties and connections.