OPPOSITION Leader Michael Dunkley (pictured) is backing calls by Government for witnesses to last week's fatal shooting to come forward.

But the United Bermuda Party chief also claimed that Government should lead by example ¿ and was failing to do so by maintaining its own veil of secrecy on certain issues.

On Wednesday, Public Safety Minister David Burch said a code of silence within the community was allowing killers to escape conviction.

Sen. Burch said police knew the likely killer of Shaki Crockwell ¿ the 25-year-old national footballer shot in the neck on the Railway Trail in Devonshire last Friday night ¿ but could not pursue the case without support from the community.

Governor Sir John Vereker also appealed for the family and friends of Mr. Crockwell to do everything they could to help track down his killer. Yesterday, Mr. Dunkley also condemned the code of silence, saying it posed a threat to a fragile community, but insisted that Government was failing to practise what it preached.

"I would like to endorse the comments by the Governor, the Premier and Colonel Burch urging the public to pass on to the police any useful information they might have about the murder of Shaki Crockwell, and about other serious crimes committed recently," he said.

"We in the United Bermuda Party have also warned of the threat posed to this fragile community by members of the public who sign on to a code of silence about criminals and their behaviour.

"But in a small community like Bermuda, leadership plays an important role. It must come from the top and right now we do not have it.

"How credible is a Government that on the one hand imposes a code of silence on their involvement in the BHC scandal and a gag order on the press and then endorses the arrest of whistleblowers, while on the other hand admonishes members of the public for not coming forward with information about the tragic murder of Mr. Crockwell and other crimes?

"I am concerned that this Government's behaviour contributes to the very code of silence they are now urging people to step away from. People nowadays are less willing to speak freely on public issues because of the level of intimidation stirred up by this government.

"The Government itself has always been reluctant to come forward with information about issues of public concern, always reluctant to stand in the sunshine of public scrutiny as it once pledged to do.

"Our political leaders can't have it both ways. It's not good enough any more to talk the talk and not walk the walk. You can't say: 'Do what I say, not what I do'.

"We have serious trust issues at play in Bermuda. One way to make progress on them is to make sure we have a government that practises what it preaches."