The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE Grand Bahama Human Rights Association yesterday called for Prime Minister Perry Christie to “put a stop to” Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell’s request for a police investigation into alleged comments of incitement made by non-nationals at a town hall meeting two weeks ago.

GBHRA Vice-President Joe Darville said the move by Mr Mitchell was a “callous bid to further his political ambitions”. Blasting the Fox Hill MP for seeking to “frighten those who he would like to silence by setting the police on them,” Mr Darville suggested that the move was an attempt by Mr Mitchell to “deflect attention from all the failures of his government over the past three years”.

Rather than pay heed to Mr Mitchell’s “silly witch hunt,” Mr Darville also called for Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade to look into the GBHRA’s previous complaints to him regarding a protest against the organisation’s president Fred Smith and conservationist Louis Bacon that took place at the New Year’s Day Junkanoo parade.

Two weeks ago, while a guest on the talk show “Jeffrey” with host Jeffrey Lloyd, Mr Mitchell said he had requested police look into comments allegedly made at a town hall meeting held on August 7 at the Church of God Auditorium on Joe Farrington Road for members of the Haitian community.

Hosted by the Connection community group, the meeting had representatives from the Haitian Embassy, the American Embassy and the GBHRA. More than 100 people attended.

In a statement yesterday, Mr Darville, who said he attended the meeting and also made a presentation, denied that the meeting was laced with “insurrection or any of the other wildly irresponsible words (Mr Mitchell) has been throwing around”.

“At the end of the day, it is nothing more than a callous bid to further his political ambitions,” Mr Darville said. “(Mr Mitchell) thinks that by being ‘strong’ on immigration he can ingratiate himself to the Bahamian people and deflect attention from all the failures of his government over the past three years. He must know that we, and the country at large, see right through him.”

However, rather than give any credence to Mr Mitchell’s request, Mr Darville called on Mr Greenslade to instead investigate complaints lodged to the Royal Bahamas Police Force in reference to persons donning Ku Klux Klan hats and parading in protest of Mr Smith and Mr Bacon in January.

Mr Darville went on to say that since the GBHRA began to speak out against the “harsh and illegal” immigration policy launched by the government last year, he and his colleagues have been branded as “traitors, insurgents or enemies of the Bahamas” by PLP supporters and cronies.

However, he said it was an “effort to shoot the messenger instead of address the message”.