Gareth Manning, Gleaner WriterThis is the second of a five-part series on the findings of a commission of enquiry conducted by the late Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court Justice Ronald Small into the forced eviction of residents from Wilton Gardens (Rema) in early 1977.
THE TESTIMONIES of the first witnesses, Senior Superintendent of Police Eric Sibblies and Superintendent Roy E. Thompson, were heard on Monday, February 21, 1977.
The two senior police officers made it clear that the Minister of Housing, Anthony Spaulding, was determined to get "those squatters" out of the apartments once and for all, though they were being encouraged by JLP leaders not to pay rent in order to embarrass the Government.
They also made it clear that it was the minister's intention to move quietly and quickly with the eviction and reoccupation exercise, though they claim the police had no knowledge of an intention to move in other residents the same day.
On the morning in question, they testified that Junglists gathered in large groups ready to move into Rema even before the police, housing officers and their workers were prepared for the eviction. They turned away the crowd, but they filtered into the community by way of various side roads where they were surprised by a barrage of gunshots fired by Remaites. One woman from Jungle lost an ear during the incident.
The Junglists continued in their efforts. While this was proceeding, Minister Spaulding had arrived and by making signs to them, he was able to quickly and effectively turn them back. The turn of events was reported to the commissioner of police who was angry that his original orders were not carried out by the two superintendents and called off the eviction exercise.
The decision angered Minister Spaulding who called the commissioner, lambasted him and told him his orders would be observed if all the people who were not to be there, were dismissed.
CONTINUE EVICTION
The commissioner then instructed Mr. Sibblies to continue with the eviction. They returned to the scene with 94 policemen and a handful of soldiers led by Major Ormsby, to cordon off the area, while housing officers pointed out the apartments that were to be evicted and workmen removed furniture from the houses.
Witness accounts of this procedure were varied. There were those who testified that the exercise was smooth until tear gas was used to disperse the angry crowd of Remaites when Junglists, who were eviction workers, came to put them out of their homes shouting party slogans as they did so. The occupants of the houses replied with insults and threw bottles, stones and sticks and iron pipes. An elderly man's arm was broken during that event. One hundred soldiers were called in as reinforcement and the eviction continued.
Supt. Thompson testified that articles of furniture were thrown from upper floors and were smashed in the morning session of the eviction. A complaint was made about the destruction. Minister Spaulding later declared that the victims would be compensated.
THE NEWCOMERS
Supt. Sibblies said about this time, several truckloads of people and furniture arrived to take over the vacated apartments. The newcomers, who were all Junglists, declared they wanted an entire high-rise building for themselves and by this time they began to throw out legal tenants.
"The position is while the security forces went to lunch and rain was falling, a number of the people took up the things that were ejected and replaced them in the rooms. That was one. Two, there were legitimate tenants there and the people took out their things, also occupational families threw out their things. So they were throwing out the things of those people and they were throwing out the things evicted people had replaced in the rooms. This is where some degree of panic came about because people around the rectangle were shouting and screaming for murder and things like that; and people spoke to them but these people obviously were not willing to be controlled but there was not physical violence to anyone in the area," Supt. Sibblies told Robert Pickersgill, the attorney representing the Housing Ministry.
"I was told, when I asked, by the ministry people, that there were 40 families," he continued. "I may mention this that when they are throwing out the things, they said that they wanted one block for themselves and that was the 'D' building."
The housing officers made an effort to stop the new tenants but pandemonium prevailed. One gunman was eventually shot and killed by soldiers.
