Hermangild Francis: IMPACS report will hang PM

Hermangild Francis, former Deputy Police Chief, has told supporters of the opposition United Workers Party (UWP), that the IMPACS report will be Prime Minister Doctor Kenny Anthony’s undoing.

“At the end of the day the IMPACS report is going to hang Kenny Anthony,” Hermangild Francis declared.

He was addressing a political rally of the UWP last evening.

Francis recalled that at the time of Operation Restore Confidence, Saint Lucia was being overrun by criminals.

“The police took a stand and things happened under the UWP,” he said.

Francis disclosed that he had been a police officer for thirty-five years.

He said every time crime got out of control there was an operation to restore peace.

The former Deputy Police Commissioner told his audience he remembered that in 2000, Doctor Kenny Anthony recalled all officers from vacation.

Francis revealed that at the time things were getting out of hand and the police had to “bring things back.”

He said”

“People died. Was there any IMPACS report…?”

Francis asked whether anyone in his audience had seen a document outlining the terms of reference of the Jamaicans who prepared the IMPACS report, after investigating alleged extra judicial killings by the police.

He raised questions as to whether the then Police Commissioner knew that the Jamaicans were coming.

Francis asserted that Prime Minister Doctor Kenny Anthony had amended the Police Complaints Act to facilitate the investigators.

However he explained that Anthony did not realize that part of the act which he amended indicated that after a matter is investigated, the DPP should be given all the evidence.

The former staunch supporter of the ruling labour party noted that Anthony had gone on television to read excerpts of the IMPACS report.

“He said officers planted firearms at the crime scenes. Do you expect that these police officers can get a fair hearing in this country?” Francis wanted to know.

He said that the Coroner’s Act is clear – if an inquest is held and further information is obtained, the Attorney General can reopen the inquest.

Francis suggested that the Attorney General could do so using a foreign Magistrate as Coroner and a foreign Prosecutor.

He also suggested that representatives of the European Union and the United States could be invited to observe the process.

“At the end of the day, everybody could have seen that we are being open and transparent,” Francis declared.

However he said that Prime Minister Doctor Kenny Anthony, whom he recalled had stated publicly that the police had a “hit list” does not want that, preferring instead to jump on the backs of members of the UWP.

The former Deputy Police Chief, who is tipped to be Minister of National Security in a UWP government, stated that when the party gets into power it will deal with the IMPACS matter.

“We did nothing wrong,” he asserted, adding that no Prime Minister in his right mind would tell the police to go and kill anybody.

Hermangild Francis said the job of the police is to deal with crime.

“When criminals are fooling around you have to take care of them and it is as simple as that,” he declared.