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The News
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A Terrible Missed Opportunity |
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 Over 20 months before black aspiring architect #Stephen #Lawrence was murdered, the Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had the opportunity to save his life, but institutional racism prevented it. 15-year-old Rolan Adams was brutally murdered on February 21st 1991. His then 14-year-old brother Nathan escaped the killers. By the time he returned – it was before everyone carried mobile phones – Rolan was dead. His carotid artery had been cut.
A group of 15 racist thugs who had been involved in racist attacks before and since were responsible. They hurled ugly racist abuse at the two boys who had just been waiting for a bus and attacked them. Mark Thornburrow was the only one of them convicted of murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 10 years in jail. Despite that Rolan’s father Richard still feels betrayed.
“They connived to remove the racist element from the murder,” an angry Richard Adams said at the time. “We knew that we would not get justice when they started saying that territorialism rather than racism was the main motivation for the murder.”Both police and CPS saw it as a triumph as Mark Thornburrow was jailed for life for the murder of 15-year-old Rolan Adams, but 15 racist youths attacked Rolan and his then 14-year-old brother Nathan, who survived the attack. Only 7 of the gang who had racially abused and attacked other black youths on the Thamesmead estate, were charged and that was reduced to 4, and only 3 eventually got 120 hours community service for violent disorder. “The others are as guilty as Thornburrow,” Mr Adams told me. “my sons could not defend themselves from all of them. They should have been charged with murder by joint enterprise. If the police and CPS had done that my son’s murder might have been the last in the Borough of Greenwich instead of the first of three racist murders.” Justice has finally taken its course in the notorious case of the murder of Stephen Lawrence, but the ordeal of the Richard and Nathan Adams and their family continues. It could and should have prevented the murders of Rohit Duggal and later Stephen Lawrence and many other knife-crimes too. Mr Adams is dissatisfied with Thornburrow’s tariff. “10 years for the cowardly murder of my son is not enough,” said Mr Adams. “The judge acknowledged that it was racist and he carried and used a knife. What kind of deterrence is that? If Thornburrow had received the sentence he deserved, the knife-carrying culture that followed could have been stopped in its tracks. He should have been charged with the attempted murder of Nathan as well, which should have increased the tariff. The Lord Chief Justice could have increased his tariff and so could the Home Secretary at that time. Why didn’t they?” Their lives were torn apart by Rolan’s murder ? a crime that should have been the pivotal moment in race relations in Britain. Mr Adams believes that the actions of the criminal justice system not only made their ordeal worse, but left other families vulnerable too. “I have no doubt that institutional racism played a major part not just in the failure to give us justice, but encouraging the racists,” Mr Adams said. “We wanted victim’s rights back then, but we were left to fend for ourselves. The thugs hurled racist abuse at my sons before attacking them because they were black. They did nothing wrong. If the police and CPS had done their jobs properly, Rolan’s murder would have been seen as the racist crime it was and the families of Rohit Duggal and Stephen Lawrence would not have faced that same racism by a system that should have known better.” Witnesses, including Nathan, testified that it was a racist attack and the judge was satisfied that they were right. “The CPS should not have relied on the police alone,” said Mr Adams. “The police had a racist view that this was not a racist murder. They were wrong and they made a terrible ordeal for us even worse. The CPS should have relied on the witnesses. They were there and they knew it was racist. When the judge agreed with us that the thugs who attacked my sons were racist, the police and CPS should have agreed to an independent judicial inquiry to find out why we were failed so miserably. That could have prevented other tragedies.” Richard and Nathan and their family suffered a terrible ordeal. Nathan turned his back on a promising career in football. He went off the rails as a result of that terrible February night. He has got back on track without any help from the authorities. “The police and CPS should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves,” said Mr Adams. “Not only did they fail us miserably in the prosecution, but they gave us no support either. Nathan especially really needed help. It took us many years to recover and ensure that Rolan has the fitting legacy he deserves.” They have established the Rolan Adams Legacy Trust to make sure that this important story in Britain’s race relations is never forgotten. They also want justice for both Rolan and Nathan. “Thornburrow got a minimum recommendation of 10 years, but he eventually served only 13,” said Mr Adams. “Why? It was a cowardly racist murder and he claimed he acted in self-defence. 15 against 2 and he had a knife as well and he is allowed to get out too soon.” His thoughts on that are understandably unprintable. He has no doubt that institutional racism robbed his family of justice and that if the CPS had prosecuted the others through joint enterprise it would have sent a message to others not to encourage racist attacks and even restrain knife-wielding thugs like Thornburrow. He thinks that had those lessons been learned early enough, Rohit Duggal and Stephen Lawrence might still be alive. But he wants more – a legacy for Rolan and the justice he and his family were denied 20 years ago. “There have been fantastic advances in forensic science in the last 20 years,” said Mr Adams. “The police and CPS have a chance to redeem themselves by investigating Rolan's murder and the attempted murder of Nathan properly through modern investigative methods and forensic science. Both Rolan and Nathan are entitled to justice even if it is 20 years later than it should have been.” |
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Fiddling While Colombia Burned
Dr. Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala had looked almost certain to become Colombia's President at the second attempt in the elections due in 1950. His assasination in April 1948 plunged the nation into an orgy of violence. The aftermath of the rioting that followed his murder ensured that Colombia trod a disastrous path and that a plethora of conspiracy theories were spawned, all but ensuring that the full truth of Gaitán's assassination will never be known.
A split Liberal Party fielded two canditates in 1946, allowing the Conservatives to win and initiate a brutal policy of land seizures that resulted in armed resistance by dispossessed peasants.This was seen by some commentators as the true beginning of one of the darkest periods in Colombia's modern history – La Violencia – rather than the murder of Gaitán.
Despite his sympathies with the peasants who had been robbed of their land, Gaitán eschewed violence as a means of effecting social change. Nevertheless, he was seen a formidable threat to communists, opponents in his own Liberal Party and conservatives alike. He had no shortage of enemies, who would benefit from his death, even if they played no part in it. That gave rise to an industry of conspiracy theories and all but ensured that the assassination posed more questions than answers.
Gaitán was assassinated on April 9th 1948 – ironically, given his beliefs, an event that unleashed at least a decade of bloody reprisals and counter-reprisals. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had completed its take over of Eastern Europe with barely a whimper of protest from the western nations. However, the USA was detetrmined that the USSR would not get a foot-hold in Latin Amrica. Bogotá was hosting the Inter-American Conference when the events that shook Colombia to its core occurred. The delegates to the conference decided to continue their business, maintaining a deafening silence on the assassination. Meanwhile, Bogotá and Colombia burned and the devastation continued for decades.
Conspiracy Theories
The assassination was quickly pinned on a young man, suffering from delusions, which included believing that he was the 19th century Colombian national hero Francisco de Paula Santander y Omaña. Juan Roa Sierra had tried to get close to Gaitán previously seeking employment, but never got an appointment. He was certainly near the scene of the crime and had possession of a gun, but Roa may well have been one in a long line of patsys. There is no evidence that he was proficient with firearms, but the assassination of Gaitán was clinically efficient – two shots to the head and one to the chest.
Roa took refuge with a police officer, but irate supporters of Gaitán stormed the building and beat him to death, later dumping his naked body, giving rise to numerous cospiracy theories. One blamed communists, even claiming that future Cuban President Fidel Castro and another Cuban Rafael del Piño were responsible, based on del Piño having been in Roa's company just 90 minutes before the assassination.
The plan, it was alleged, was for Soviet influence in the Caribbean to be increased and that Castro tried and failed to recruit Gaitán to the cause. The minor inconvenience with this nonsensical hypothesis is that Castro was not a communist but a nationalist wanting closer ties to the USA at the time and remained that until the refusal of the USA to deal with his government a decade later gave him little option but to change his political allegiance.
This inconvenient fact appears lost on conspiracy-theorists, anxious to take advantage of Castro's presence in Bogotá at the time of the assassination and its aftermath. Castro was present during the Bogotazo Riots that followed the assassination and therefore got a first hand view of the power of the people when aroused to anger. It certainly may have influenced his beliefs and strategy for the future, but there is no credible evidence that Castro was involved in the assassination of Gaitán.
On any view, the death of Roa was convenient. If he was part of a larger conspiracy to assassinate Gaitán, he took his knowledge of the others involved to the grave. There were no shortage of suspects and Roa was definitely a convenient suspect. The Conservative President of Colombia, Mariano Ospina Pérez, who benefited to some extent from the assassination, is one of many who believed that Roa was not the assassin. There is certainly evidence questioning his involvement – something modern forensic science may have been able to resolve.
Roa had no fire-arms training and was, according to Ospina, used as a pawn – paid to stand nearby with a recently fired gun. The gun used to kill Gaitán had only been sold two days prior to the assassination and Roa did not have the opportunity to learn to shoot. Gaitán was shot dead precisely – twice in the head and once in the chest. He stood no chance. It was a clinical and efficient kill, which supporters of Roa's innocence, which include the 1982 Nobel Literature Prize winner and Colombian treasure, Gabriel García Márquez, argue points to Roa's innocence. With Gaitán and Roa dead, the violence spiralled out of control and plagued Colombian history ever since.
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The Day Colombia's Path Took A Terrible Turn |
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Bad Rep
Some struggles have gone on so long that fighting becomes a way of life where few can remember how and why it started, or even what it was originally designed to achieve. Is it still a valid form of struggle today? In a fortnight Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos arrives in Britain for a brief visit. In this series of articles the Fitted-In Journal reviews the recent history of that country and the efforts of Santos to ensure that Colombia takes its rightful place on the world stage.
Few countries have suffered from such a bad international reputation as Colombia. It is remembered for all the wrong reasons. Armed insurgencies that have lasted over half a century. Paramilitary violence began long before its supposed creation in the 1980s. Kidnappings and disappearances were rife and the pervasive power of drug cartels cast its long shadow over many aspects of life in the land that Simón Bolívar struggled to create. Disappearances were widespread too. Journalists and writers bold enough to try to expose and inform about these atrocities received death threats or worse. The exodus cost the country much-needed talent, and some who refused to leave were murdered, but now Colombia has an unlikely champion – Santos.
He faces a daunting task to undo many wrongs, but where did it start?
Long before Pablo Escobar and other drug lords came to prominence, Colombia was still a dangerous place. Social iniquities in its largely agrarian economy came at a high price. Power was concentrated in the hands of a rich minority that defended its privilege through violent means, including political assassinations – one of which would send this beautiful country on a path that threatened destruction.
The Rise of the People's Champion
The FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) has been fighting the governments of Colombia for 45 years. It was established in 1964 purportedly as a response to a dark period in Colombian history known as La Violencia, but the conditions that gave birth to the FARC can be traced back to pivotal event in Colombia's history that is widely believed to have bee the trigger of La Violencia – the assassination of Liberal Party leader and radical politician Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala on April 9th 1948.
It was a crime that spawned an industry of conspiracy theories – many outlandish, but the legacy of this assassination was nourmous. It set Colombia on a dangerous track that it is only now beginning to emerge from. Gaitán was just 45 when he died. He was widely tipped to be the Liberal Party's candidate for a bid for the Presidency of Colombia – it would have been his second attempt, as he lost in 1946 to the Conservatives, which resulted in land seizure from peasants and armed resistance. Some argue that was the real start of La Violencia.
Gaitán had previously served as Minister of Education in 1940, Minister of Labour in 1943 and 44 and Mayor of Bogotá in 1936. His early activism earned him powerful enemies of all political persuasions, including a split from the Liberals, which he rejoined in 1935. Internal divisions saw the Liberal Party defeated in the elections of 1946 and policies that set Colombia on a violent path that continues to this day.
Gaitán became the undisputed leader of the Liberal Party the following year and was a shoe-in for the nomination of his party for 1950, or would have been had fate not intervened. The thought of a Gaitán was too much for some to even contemplate.
The Assassination
Nevertheless, Gaitán was a walking contradiction. His speeches were full of defending the rights of peasants – his rhetoric often inspiring and fiery – but despite being their champion Gaitán didn't trust them to govern in their own right.
Contradictions notwithstanding Gaitán remained popular and a threat, especially to the powers that be. Whether he was silenced through them or that was a convenient circumstance, Gaitán's voice was silenced permanently on April 9th 1948.
He had spent the morning preparing the defence of a client – a military man – and that afternoon he had an appointment to meet a Cuban delegation that included a young Fidel Castro. Gaitán never made that appointment. Just after 1.00 in the afternoon he left his office to walk to his appointment. An assassin shot him three times, twice in the head and once in the chest. It was an efficient assassination, suggesting that the murderer had expereience of firearms. That would prove controversial later, but the immediate aftermath of the assassination would not be a time for reason. Anger and fury would reign and give rise to events that affected the course of Colombian history to such an extent that its impact is still being felt over 60 years later.
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The Forgotten Victims #Knox Case |
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Tragedies – the Primary Victims
There are no winners – just tragedies and several of them arising out of the appalling events that took place in Perugia on November 1st 2007. 21 year-old University of Leeds student Meredith Kercher fell in love with the scenic Italian city. Kercher was sexually assaulted, repeatedly stabbed and robbed that night. The precise time of death would become a contentious issue – one of many in this especially vexed case. It soon became a very high profile murder inquiry – one that put police under great pressure.
#Kercher's family lost her far too soon and in an extremely callous manner. Nobody deserved what happened to them, but they were to be cheated of justice as well, because this investigation did not reach the standard society has a right to expect and demand. Kercher will always be the primary and most important victim of this tragedy, but her fate and the ordeal her family has suffered has been pushed aside as the focus shifted to and then remained on her flatmate, 20 year-old American student Amanda Knox.
The original verdict and sentence of 26 years on Knox and 25 on her then boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito was welcomed by Kercher's family. They cannot understand how it could have been overturned earlier this week. Knox and Sollecito had long argued that the DNA evidence was unreliable – they were proved right. They also argued that the evidence against Ivorian-born Rudy Guede was compelling and that Guede alone was responsible, yet Guede's trial, which may have provided answers occurred behind closed doors – an absurd decision given the level of interest in Kercher's murder.
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A shameful error that denied innocent people the help they needed to assist them to cope with the trauma of wrongful imprisonment has finally been corrected, almost a decade later. Sadly it is too late for Yusef Abdullahi, one of the Cardiff Three, who died in January, aged just 49. Eight years ago the Miscarriages of Justice Project (MJP), which is now known as the Miscarriages of Justice Support Service, (MJSS) was established, but its remit wrongly excluded anyone who had been freed on a first appeal. Despite the conviction of real killer, Jeffrey Gafoor, the Cardiff Five (John and Ronnie Actie were acquitted of the 1988 murder of Lynette White in 1990, while Abdullahi, Stephen Miller and Tony Paris were wrongfully convicted), did not qualify for help to rebuild their lives.
We can now reveal that they were excluded, along with the vast majority of victims because the consultant hired by the Home Office Working Group (HOWG), Peter Shore, (not the former MP) to scope the service required, did not follow his terms of reference and the HOWG did not notice when it delivered its report in April 2002. Shore was asked to investigate whether those who had been in prison longer (people referred back by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, or had appealed out of time) should be priority users of the service. He only looked at the needs of those appellants and never considered if others who had been in prison for shorter periods had needs too.
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