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TRNUC 43rd session - Nurse recounts harrowing story in Brian Victor case |06 February 2020

TRNUC 43rd session - Nurse recounts harrowing story in Brian Victor case

Anne-Marie Bibi, the first medical professional to have provided medical care to Brian Victor during his attack in July 1981, yesterday appeared before the Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission (TRNUC) and gave a harrowing account of the night she assisted Mr Victor.

Mrs Bibi, along with an ambulance driver and a porter, was also the first person to discover Victor’s car which had apparently been pushed down a ravine at Morne Blanc by the perpetrators.

Following assistance from police officers at the Port Glaud police station and the fire brigade, two dead bodies were discovered inside the car; it was those of Michael Hoffman and Sony Elizabeth.

Brian Victor had been the sole survivor of a brutal attack on him, Mr Hoffman and Mr Elizabeth and which he claimed had been perpetrated by Seychelles People’s Defence Forces (SPDF) soldiers.

“At the moment of the incident with Mr Victor, I was working at the Béolière health clinic, which at that point was the regional centre operating on a 24-hour basis for Morne Blanc, Port Glaud, Grand Anse, Barbarons, Anse Boileau, La Misère and Anse Louis,” Mrs Bibi started off.

Ms Bibi recalled that the incident occurred in mid-1983, on a Friday when she was on duty.

On that night, the Béolière clinic received a call from someone at around 9pm or 10pm, from the area near the Tea Tavern, who told Mrs Bibi to send an ambulance because someone had been beaten.

Since the ambulance was readily available, she sent out the ambulance which quickly came back with the injured patient, Brian Victor.

According to Mrs Bibi, Mr Victor was able to walk but with the support of the porter and driver.

Mrs Bibi claimed that Mr Victor was crying and bleeding, and looked like he was in pain.

He also seemed scared, frustrated, and angry and tired, she added.

She quickly brought him to the treatment room and placed him on the couch to look at and treat his wounds.

Mrs Bibi alleged that Mr Victor started complaining that he had been beaten and that his body and head ached.

Mrs Bibi said that Mr Victor was suffering from a bout of “verbal diarrhea”, wherein he was talking incessantly about the trials he had gone through, mostly using short sentences.

“Miss, army officers have beaten me”, Mr Victor was quoted to have told her.

“Miss, a soldier [stated the name of the officer] had asked me for a ride to bring him to work at L’Exile. Miss, he told me to stop when we reached Sans Soucis and then a group of soldiers came out of the bushes and started beating us,” he allegedly told her.

He informed her that they had been beaten with sticks and that these soldiers had pushed the car down into a ravine with him and his friends (Hoffman and Elizabeth) inside.

He told her that his car was an instrumental part of his job and cried even more when he said this.

She said that he also looked at his wrists and complained that they also broke his watch.

He allegedly told her that his two friends were still at Sans Soucis and that he believed they were already dead. According to Mrs Bibi, Mr Victor repeated this statement over 10 times during their interaction.

When asked about the identity of his friends, Mr Victor replied that they were Michael Hoffman and Sony Elizabeth.

She alleged that Mr Victor further told her that, as they were pushing his car down the ravine, one soldier noted that one out of the three victims had not died and another replied that ‘he will’.

Mrs Bibi stated that she attempted to calm him and started applying pressure to his head because the majority of his injuries incurred were head injuries.

She had to observe his blood pressure, check his pulse and ensure that his speech was coherent since these are very important elements to check in people with head injuries.

“His pupils were reacting well and I was satisfied with his sense of orientation; he could answer all the questions I was asking him. He knew his name, address, date of birth, his friends’ names and he was telling me his story which made sense given his injuries. His speech was also coherent, meaning it was not slurred.”

Mr Victor was even able to provide her with a phone number which she called before transferring him to casualty and she informed a lady residing at St Louis that Mr Victor had been implicated in an incident.

She said that she also shaved his hair to examine his cuts and discovered that he had received multiple lacerations.

“I do not remember how many cuts he had on his head but there were a lot,” Mrs Bibi informed the commission.

Mrs Bibi claimed that these lacerations were ragged of nature which confirmed Mr Victor’s story that he was beaten with sticks and gun butts. She noted that if the lacerations had been done with a knife, the cuts would have been straight.

“I remember that at the back of his head, in his occipital region, he had two large cuts, on each side and they were about 4cm to 6cm long,” Mrs Bibi stated.

She noted that he also had an eye injury and two punctured wounds on his wrists.

Mrs Bibi said that one of the staff members on duty that night was a member of the militia and pulled her aside to inform her that the puncture wounds had been done by a bayonet.

Given the high risks of infections and the need for additional treatment, Mrs Bibi decided to transfer him to casualty at the Victoria Hospital since she also believed that his condition could quickly deteriorate.

Mrs Bibi said that she accompanied him in the ambulance because it is normal practice for a nurse to be on hand when a patient is heavily injured or extremely sick.

After being provided the necessary information from Mrs Bibi, a nurse at the Victoria Hospital called and informed the police that Brian Victor had just been admitted, that he had been beaten by army officers and that his friends, Messrs Hoffman and Elizabeth, were still at Sans Soucis and presumed dead.

Mrs Bibi said that after she had handed over Mr Victor and he had been admitted to the surgical ward, her main preoccupations and concerns veered towards Messrs Hoffman and Elizabeth.

With the cooperation of her driver and porter, the ambulance Mrs Bibi was in drove back to Béolière using the Sans Soucis route, instead of La Misère, with the aim of possibly spotting the car and finding Hoffman and Elizabeth.

Mrs Bibi said that they were indeed able to spot the car down a ravine on the left side of the road due to the car’s red rear tail-lights which were irradiating.

This might have been around midnight, she told the commission members.

Mrs Bibi said that she was extremely scared because it was a high security area and Sans Soucis was extremely dark.

Mrs Bibi and her colleagues opted to drive down to the Port Glaud police station to report the incident.

The police officer on duty informed them that the incident had been reported on the police radio.

After the police made its way to the site with the help of Mrs Bibi and her colleagues, they then decided to seek assistance from the fire brigade to get both bodies out of the car.

Mrs Bibi also informed the commission that she recognised the bodies straight away since she knew of Mr Elizabeth because he lived at Curio Road near her sister and also knew Hoffman because he was a resident of Mont Buxton and she was someone who grew up around Victoria.

However, she had never met or knew of Mr Victor prior to this incident.

Mrs Bibi said Messrs Hoffmann and Elizabeth’s bodies showed that they had passed away because rigor mortis (postmortem rigidity, the third state of death) had set in.

Mrs Bibi said that what struck her the most was Mr Elizabeth’s neck which was deformed, crooked and swollen.

The bodies were brought to the casualty where the doctors certified them dead.

Mrs Bibi claimed that James Pillay, the police commissioner at that time, visited her the next day during the afternoon requesting for information about the incident.

According to Mrs Bibi, Mr Pillay seemed sad, frustrated, angry and disappointed, and kept on fidgeting with his hands.

Mrs Bibi was also asked to write a report which she submitted to the Port Glaud police station.

“Brian was lucky, God was on his side. It was a miracle,” Mrs Bibi said when concluding her account of the events.

The members on the TRNUC praised her for her bravery and for providing the commission with additional and unknown information surrounding Brian Victor’s case.

 

Wills Rosette

Wills Rosette, a former member of internal security and intelligence at State House and whom Joachim Antoine said undertook surveillance exercises along with him, yesterday appeared before the commission.

Originally part of the police force, Mr Rosette later joined the military and from then on was posted at State House.

Prior to his testimony, Mr Rosette clarified that he had received the necessary clearance and go-a-head to address the commission and the public, since it had been unclear if he could do so under the Secrecy Act.

As Mr Antoine had done so the previous day, Mr Rosette confirmed that he had been given orders to follow Mike Asher and Simon Desnousse, and later Alton Ah-Time.

They did so in the infamous S1122 State House car.

“At that moment I was working at State House in the intelligence security service. One day I was asked by my supervisor, whose name I will not mention, that there was a man who was a threat to national security and that the man must be kept under watch 24 hours and all his actions should be recorded,” he explained, referring to Mr Desnousse.

Mr Desnousse was said to be a member of the underground movement against President Albert Rene’s rule – the MPR (Mouvement Pour La Resistance).

Mr Rosette said that they kept Mr Desnousse under watch for around a month and a half until one afternoon when they received a call on the radio in the car asking them to stop all surveillance on the man.

He said that they did so and returned to State House where they presented their report.

He said that on the following day he heard in the news that there had been an explosion somewhere in Anse Forbans. He later learnt that the bodies had been identified as Mr Desnousse and Mr Asher.

The same scenario was repeated with Alton Ah-Time; Mr Rosette and Mr Antoine were asked to follow him because Mr Ah-Time had been identified as a national security threat.

After two to three weeks of surveillance, they were asked to stop keeping Mr Ah-Time under watch after which Mr Ah-Time was reported missing.

Mr Rosette clarified that their only job was to report on the actions of the individuals they were asked to follow and nothing more.

He alleged that their reports went to someone ‘higher up’ the chain who analysed the information.

 

Charles Bastienne, former minister responsible for land

The TRNUC also met with Minister Charles Bastienne in his former capacity as the Minister for Habitat, Lands, Infrastructure and Land Transport, a post which he held from October 2016 to April 2018. This was in regards to the case brought by complainant Holden Pierre which alleges that the government acquired parcel C4219R at Anse Royale which his father had allegedly left for him in his will.

“For the short span that I had been with the ministry responsible for land, there was a file for Mr Pierre and in that file, a decision had already been made by my predecessor, Minister (Christian) Lionnet, that the parcel concerned – C4219 – be sold to Mr Pierre,” Minister Bastienne clarified.

“The reason for that was that, yes the property was acquired and compensation had been paid, if I am not mistaken in 1984. Such being the case, the property was in the ownership of the government and former Minister Lionnet agreed to sell the land to Mr Pierre, who in turn had agreed that the land be subdivided and sold to two of his children after government had excised a parking lot for the benefit of the community in that area.”

“This is all I know and during my tenure as the minister responsible for land, I was executing what had been approved by the former minister with regards to the sale of the land. When I left the ministry in April 2018, procedures were on the way to subdivide the land and for all the administrative issues to be sorted out like valuation etc before the offer was to be made to Mr Pierre and the two children.”

 

Roy Beeharry, complainant

The 60-year-old complainant yesterday made his case against the police force and other authorities who he said went about terrorising him.

He alleged that the series of victimisation included certain situations in which drugs were planted in his household.

Mr Beeharry claimed that he has suffered through more than 10 cases of human rights violations and said that he is seeking damages worth R75 million since he was continuously targeted.

 

 

 

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