By Caribbean News Now contributor
ROSEAU, Dominica — Leader of the opposition United Workers Party (UWP) in Dominica, Lennox Linton, described government ministers as “rapists”, during an address at a youth rally on Sunday, CBN4 News reported.
“Our government harbours rapist ministers and we oppose extortion of sexual services for young people seeking facilitation to their own development,” Linton said.
He did not identify the ministers in question; however, the crowd, especially the women, made it loud and clear that they agreed with that statement by chanting, waving and shouting Linton’s name.
Linton said that there was a report at the police station filed on June 19, 2013, seeking assistance from one minister, who asked a young lady to come to his home at 12:15 and then tried to force himself on to her.
He added that those who continue to sit there and not say anything are simply giving comfort to the politics of pollution and mark themselves as providers of silence to the ministers.
Rape and other forms of sexual assault by government ministers and others in a position of power is by no means an uncommon phenomenon throughout the Caribbean. Inevitably, however, the allegations are covered up or otherwise “settled” before coming to court.
It is a matter of public record that, in Saint Lucia, Lorne Theophilus, minister of tourism, heritage and creative industries, and Claudius Francis, the president of the senate, have both been arrested and charged with rape. In each case the matter was settled “out of court”.
It is also a matter of public record that Dr Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, has twice been publicly accused of indecent assault and rape, once by a female member of his security detail and again by a Toronto human rights lawyer. In each case, a private prosecution brought on behalf of the alleged victim was taken over by the director of public prosecutions and “discontinued”.
In 2007, an unnamed American citizen tried unsuccessfully to file a complaint of rape against then premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) Michael Misick with the local police. However, after testing positive for rape in Miami, she returned to the TCI where she then successfully filed charges against Misick. After a one year delay, the then attorney general Kurt De Freitas dismissed the case for “lack of evidence”.
In 2011, Guyana’s then police commissioner Henry Green (now deceased) was placed on leave following allegations that he violently raped and falsely imprisoned a 34-year old mother of two at gunpoint. Guyana’s chief justice Ian Chang later intervened and enjoined the director of public prosecutions from charging Green. The chief justice ruled that there was an insufficiency of evidence for the DPP to base her decision to prefer rape charges against Green.
