Published 31 August 2017
Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
Soldier’s bullet reportedly injures female resident in her Conaree home
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, AUGUST 31ST 2017 – A female Conaree resident is nursing a bullet wound to her hand after shots were discharged by law enforcement Wednesday night.
According to a source the bullet, allegedly fired by a soldier, went through a house, missed a head of a male occupant and struck the woman in her hand. It was not immediately known whether the police and soldiers were on a joint operation in the area.
The injured woman was taken to the J. N. France General Hospital for treatment.
It was not immediately known whether she was detained or discharged.
Leader of the Opposition, the Right Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas recently expressed concern following the publication of a proclamation calling out the St. Kitts-Nevis Defence Force “for service in aid of the civil powers with their arms and ammunition for six months.”
The Proclamation by the Federation’s Governor General His Excellency Sir Tapley Seaton was dated June 23rd, 2017, in which he indicated in an Extra-Ordinary Gazette Statutory Rules and Orders No. 10 of 2017, that he was advised by a Cabinet meeting of 22nd day of May 2017 to implement the provisions of Section 7 of the St. Christopher and Nevis Defence Force Act.
“While it is necessary that the Police and the Defence Force collaborate in the fight against crime, it is the withholding of information from the public, the lack of the requisite police training for the Defence Force, the risk of abuse of fundamental human rights of the citizens and residents of our country and collateral civilian causalities like what happened during the Tivoli Gardens (Jamaica) Massacre that have generated due concern on the part of the Opposition,” Dr. Douglas said in a statement issued in July.
“I also take particular note that the Proclamation to call out the Defence Force coincided with the official announcement by Prime Minister Harris that retired Major General Stewart Saunders of Jamaica, known for his involvement in the Tivoli Gardens (Jamaica) affair, has been appointed National Security Advisor for St. Kitts and Nevis,” Dr. Douglas said in the statement.
