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Toppa_Toppa · 09-07-2008, 04:12 PM

It was eight years ago, after nearly a decade of severe beatings, rapes and mental torture, that Indravani Pamela Ramjattan finally decided she had nothing left to lose.

Her husband, Alexander Jordan, a close friend of the local police in their rural Trinidadian town of Cumuto, had tracked her down at a friend’s house in a nearby village, she later testified. She had been hiding from him with two of their six children for more than a week.

“He kicked down the door and began smashing up the property,” Ramjattan recalled in an affidavit last year. “He said that he had ‘come to shed blood.’

“When we arrived back home, Jordan locked me in the bedroom. He threatened to blow my head away with his shotgun. He took the piece of wood he had brought in the van and told me he was going to sink my head into my neck with it.”

And he nearly did.

The 4-foot-11, 102-pound Ramjattan was beaten unconscious by her much larger 47-year-old husband, she and her eldest daughter later testified in their sworn statements. And an hour later, when the 28-year-old Ramjattan came to, they said, Jordan had lined up all six children in their unfinished shack and asked each child, one by one, if he should kill their mother.

That was Feb. 4, 1991. A week later, Jordan was beaten to death by two men whom Ramjattan had called to rescue her–one her lover. Ramjattan swears she never asked them to kill Jordan, and prosecutors concede that she never raised a hand against a man they acknowledge had abused her for years.

Still, Ramjattan was convicted of murder, and the Trinidadian government says it is her turn to die.

Now sentenced to hang after a succession of judges also acknowledged her years of abuse but refused to accept them as justification for murder, Ramjattan has filed an appeal that is scheduled to be heard Tuesday by the Privy Council in London, which remains the supreme court for Trinidad and other Caribbean nations that are former British colonies.

The case could set a precedent for these island nations where, women’s rights advocates say, wife-killers routinely get minimal prison terms while wives who retaliate against abusers often are prosecuted to the maximum extent of the law.

A Cause Celebre for Women’s Groups

Ramjattan vs. the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is the first such case to reach the highest court for the region, and it has become a cause celebre in recent months for women’s solidarity groups here and abroad that say they are trying to balance the scales of justice.

The case also has become powerful ammunition in the hands of abolitionists fighting the death penalty in Trinidad and several other Caribbean nations.

But mostly, this slight woman on death row, who left school at 13 and mothered her children while enduring nine years of physical and mental torment, has become a prototype for social workers and rights groups battling domestic violence in more than a dozen nations of the English-speaking Caribbean.

Women’s rights activists say studies done so far on domestic violence in the Caribbean offer no clear picture of the extent of the problem, but they believe it is widespread.

“If you take a rough rate of 1 in 10 cases being reported, I estimate there is an incident of domestic violence taking place in Trinidad every 20 minutes,” said Diana Mahabir-Wyatt, a Trinidadian senator who has led the fight against domestic violence here.

“That may not seem to be very high in comparison to the United States or other countries outside the region,” said Mahabir-Wyatt, who founded the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition Against Domestic Violence in the late 1980s. “But in small societies like ours, it is very high, because there’s nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.”

Official statistics show that, on average, about 20 women and children are killed by domestic violence each year in this twin-island nation of about 1.2 million people.

Trinidad is hardly unique in the region. Cathy Shepherd, who heads the 14-nation Caribbean Assn. for Feminist Research and Action, cited other studies:

* Police in Jamaica attributed 39% of their murders in 1995 to domestic disputes. The overwhelming majority of the victims were women.

* Out of 97 women ages 20 to 45 surveyed in Antigua, 30% said they had been battered as adults.

* The same percentage of 264 women surveyed in the same age group in Barbados said they had suffered domestic abuse as adults.

But such figures fail to show the extent of the problem, women’s activists here say, because most abuse in the region is not reported.

“It’s a cultural thing,” said attorney Roberta Clarke, one of the Trinidadian attorneys representing Ramjattan in her appeal. “How do you charge the man who is the father of your children? If he goes to jail, he doesn’t work. If he doesn’t work, he can’t support the children.”

A Society Where Education Is Strong

Clarke and other women’s rights advocates say it may seem ironic that Ramjattan’s case arose in Trinidad; the oil- and gas-rich nation has a strong economy and a quality educational system that should foster a higher awareness of such social issues.

Parliament, in fact, passed the region’s first law against domestic violence, in 1991. A pioneering Community Police Unit created three years ago to specialize in domestic-abuse cases has won high praise from women’s groups and victims of such violence. And private organizations have opened half a dozen shelters for abused women during the past decade.

But activists assert that little has been done to institutionalize the progressive 1991 law and change traditional attitudes.

“We have found that many of the women coming to our shelters still don’t know they have a right to live a violence-free life,” Mahabir-Wyatt said. “Wife-beating is not treated seriously by the police, and it is not treated seriously by the courts.”

Clarke and other attorneys point to volumes of testimony not only in the Ramjattan case but in several other recent domestic violence cases that they say show a judicial double standard, although they have yet to conduct a systematic analysis to document the claim.

Using anecdotal evidence, though, Mahabir-Wyatt’s coalition seized on the issue last year after the courts sentenced former Trinidadian police officer Don Renaud to 10 years in prison for killing his fiancee, Allison Majardsingh. That came soon after another islander, Christopher Sirju, received a five-year sentence for killing his wife, Indra, and an additional six years for attempting to drown their two children. And after Winston Joseph received a five-year prison term for fatally strangling his wife, Pansy Wiltshire, who was six months pregnant when she died.

09-07-2008, 04:12 PM	#3 (permalink)
Toppa_Toppa ...... Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Platform 9 3/4 Posts: 21,833 Credits: 3,896	It was eight years ago, after nearly a decade of severe beatings, rapes and mental torture, that Indravani Pamela Ramjattan finally decided she had nothing left to lose. Her husband, Alexander Jordan, a close friend of the local police in their rural Trinidadian town of Cumuto, had tracked her down at a friend’s house in a nearby village, she later testified. She had been hiding from him with two of their six children for more than a week. “He kicked down the door and began smashing up the property,” Ramjattan recalled in an affidavit last year. “He said that he had ‘come to shed blood.’ “When we arrived back home, Jordan locked me in the bedroom. He threatened to blow my head away with his shotgun. He took the piece of wood he had brought in the van and told me he was going to sink my head into my neck with it.” And he nearly did. The 4-foot-11, 102-pound Ramjattan was beaten unconscious by her much larger 47-year-old husband, she and her eldest daughter later testified in their sworn statements. And an hour later, when the 28-year-old Ramjattan came to, they said, Jordan had lined up all six children in their unfinished shack and asked each child, one by one, if he should kill their mother. That was Feb. 4, 1991. A week later, Jordan was beaten to death by two men whom Ramjattan had called to rescue her–one her lover. Ramjattan swears she never asked them to kill Jordan, and prosecutors concede that she never raised a hand against a man they acknowledge had abused her for years. Still, Ramjattan was convicted of murder, and the Trinidadian government says it is her turn to die. Now sentenced to hang after a succession of judges also acknowledged her years of abuse but refused to accept them as justification for murder, Ramjattan has filed an appeal that is scheduled to be heard Tuesday by the Privy Council in London, which remains the supreme court for Trinidad and other Caribbean nations that are former British colonies. The case could set a precedent for these island nations where, women’s rights advocates say, wife-killers routinely get minimal prison terms while wives who retaliate against abusers often are prosecuted to the maximum extent of the law. A Cause Celebre for Women’s Groups Ramjattan vs. the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is the first such case to reach the highest court for the region, and it has become a cause celebre in recent months for women’s solidarity groups here and abroad that say they are trying to balance the scales of justice. The case also has become powerful ammunition in the hands of abolitionists fighting the death penalty in Trinidad and several other Caribbean nations. But mostly, this slight woman on death row, who left school at 13 and mothered her children while enduring nine years of physical and mental torment, has become a prototype for social workers and rights groups battling domestic violence in more than a dozen nations of the English-speaking Caribbean. Women’s rights activists say studies done so far on domestic violence in the Caribbean offer no clear picture of the extent of the problem, but they believe it is widespread. “If you take a rough rate of 1 in 10 cases being reported, I estimate there is an incident of domestic violence taking place in Trinidad every 20 minutes,” said Diana Mahabir-Wyatt, a Trinidadian senator who has led the fight against domestic violence here. “That may not seem to be very high in comparison to the United States or other countries outside the region,” said Mahabir-Wyatt, who founded the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition Against Domestic Violence in the late 1980s. “But in small societies like ours, it is very high, because there’s nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.” Official statistics show that, on average, about 20 women and children are killed by domestic violence each year in this twin-island nation of about 1.2 million people. Trinidad is hardly unique in the region. Cathy Shepherd, who heads the 14-nation Caribbean Assn. for Feminist Research and Action, cited other studies: * Police in Jamaica attributed 39% of their murders in 1995 to domestic disputes. The overwhelming majority of the victims were women. * Out of 97 women ages 20 to 45 surveyed in Antigua, 30% said they had been battered as adults. * The same percentage of 264 women surveyed in the same age group in Barbados said they had suffered domestic abuse as adults. But such figures fail to show the extent of the problem, women’s activists here say, because most abuse in the region is not reported. “It’s a cultural thing,” said attorney Roberta Clarke, one of the Trinidadian attorneys representing Ramjattan in her appeal. “How do you charge the man who is the father of your children? If he goes to jail, he doesn’t work. If he doesn’t work, he can’t support the children.” A Society Where Education Is Strong Clarke and other women’s rights advocates say it may seem ironic that Ramjattan’s case arose in Trinidad; the oil- and gas-rich nation has a strong economy and a quality educational system that should foster a higher awareness of such social issues. Parliament, in fact, passed the region’s first law against domestic violence, in 1991. A pioneering Community Police Unit created three years ago to specialize in domestic-abuse cases has won high praise from women’s groups and victims of such violence. And private organizations have opened half a dozen shelters for abused women during the past decade. But activists assert that little has been done to institutionalize the progressive 1991 law and change traditional attitudes. “We have found that many of the women coming to our shelters still don’t know they have a right to live a violence-free life,” Mahabir-Wyatt said. “Wife-beating is not treated seriously by the police, and it is not treated seriously by the courts.” Clarke and other attorneys point to volumes of testimony not only in the Ramjattan case but in several other recent domestic violence cases that they say show a judicial double standard, although they have yet to conduct a systematic analysis to document the claim. Using anecdotal evidence, though, Mahabir-Wyatt’s coalition seized on the issue last year after the courts sentenced former Trinidadian police officer Don Renaud to 10 years in prison for killing his fiancee, Allison Majardsingh. That came soon after another islander, Christopher Sirju, received a five-year sentence for killing his wife, Indra, and an additional six years for attempting to drown their two children. And after Winston Joseph received a five-year prison term for fatally strangling his wife, Pansy Wiltshire, who was six months pregnant when she died.