Pubdate: Wed, 11 Jul 2001
Source: The Herald-Sun (NC)
Copyright: 2001 The Herald-Sun
Contact:  http://www.herald-sun.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1428
Author: Matthew J Rosenberg, Associated Press

SOLDIERS SEEK TO END JAMAICA VIOLENCE

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) -- Backed by helicopter gunships, soldiers deployed 
in a troubled Kingston neighborhood Tuesday, patrolling streets blocked 
with debris from days of gunbattles between police and government opponents 
that have killed 22 people.

Crouching low with machine gun at the ready, a trooper passed the body of 
an elderly man sprawled face down in a pool of dried blood, apparently from 
a bullet in the back. Residents of Tivoli Gardens, the besieged 
neighborhood, said the man was killed Sunday.

"Anyone who tried to move got shot at. It's pure murder from both ends ... 
the police and the gangs," said Claudia McKay, a 23-year-old seamstress.

The violence has been concentrated in the capital, Kingston, in southeast 
Jamaica, though there have been isolated protests and roadblocks that 
police quickly dismantled in the northern resort towns of Montego Bay and 
Ocho Rios.

There were no reports of tourists leaving, but a new U.S. travel advisory 
against western and downtown Kingston raised worries the disturbances could 
hurt Jamaica's vital $1.3 billion tourism industry.

Prime Minister P.J. Patterson ordered Jamaica's entire army -- more than 
3,000 troops -- to deploy Monday night to reinforce security forces trying 
to put down fighting between gangs affiliated with the two main political 
parties.

"The government cannot stand idly by and allow criminal elements to hold 
this country to ransom," Patterson said.

On Tuesday, there was only sporadic fighting after troops moved in.

"It's an unpredictable situation ... the police and the army are 
maintaining a heavy presence," said police spokeswoman Dahlia Garrick.

But the opposition Labor Party says authorities have been targeting only 
its followers in the crackdown launched Saturday. Since then, at least 22 
people have been killed, including three police officers and one soldier. 
One of the police deaths came Tuesday when an officer was hit in the head 
by a rock thrown by protesters 40 miles from Montego Bay.

Still, travel agents said tourists were not alarmed. "Most of our travel is 
into Montego Bay which is nowhere near Kingston ... so we haven't had any 
cancellations," said Joanie Waskevich of the Caribbean Travel Network.

Britain, the former colonial ruler, said it was reviewing its travel 
advisory for Jamaica, though Prime Minister Tony Blair will still visit the 
island at month's end.

Commerce is hurting since the fighting and roadblocks shut down banks, 
stores and other business, and a few shops were looted, police said. The 
nation's blood bank is out of blood and the cemetery is closed by the unrest.

Anthony Chang, president of Jamaica's Chamber of Commerce, predicted that 
the economy would be damaged. "It's too early to tell, you need some time 
to gauge these things, but this not good," he said.

However, Carnival Cruise Lines said its tours to Jamaica would continue. 
Jamaican tourism officials advised the cruise line that "everything is 
normal in Montego Bay," spokesman Tim Gallagher said.

"It's not affecting tourists in any way," said Dawn Sharp, a Montego Bay 
resident who arrived in Miami on Tuesday. "Everywhere you have ghettos so 
it's just a specific location where you have problems."

In Tivoli Gardens -- a Labor Party stronghold -- police Constable Cecil 
Walker described how he was walking down a street in plainclothes Sunday 
beside a girl of 7 or 8 who was killed when police opened fire.

"She got shot down and I had to run -- I barely made it alive," Walker 
said. "The police were shooting at us."

Hundreds of people poured out Tuesday into streets littered with burned-out 
cars, hundreds of bullet shells and stained with blood. They were taking 
advantage of heavy security surrounding a visit from opposition Labor 
leader Edward Seaga, a Kingston legislator.

"Shower! Shower!" they yelled, making the two-finger victory sign of the 
notorious Shower Posse drug gang, which the FBI blames for 1,400 murders on 
the U.S. east coast at the height of the 1980s cocaine wars.

Saturday's police crackdown was launched after more than two months of 
fighting between gangs in western Kingston that killed 37 people. Police 
say the gang war was triggered by the killing of a Kingston gang leader.

Seaga has said the fighting is a plot by Patterson's party to embarrass 
him. Patterson supporters charge Seaga is orchestrating the violence to 
force an early election while he's ahead in the polls. General elections 
are due before the end of next year.

Jamaica, with 2.6 million people, has one of the highest murder rates in 
the world, with 530 this year. That does not include 75 people killed by 
police between January and last week -- deaths police said were self-defense.

Patterson mounted a similar crackdown two years ago. Jamaica's political 
history is intertwined with the gangs the two main parties helped organize 
and arm in Kingston's poor neighborhoods in the 1970s. The gangs control 
the streets and intimidate voters at election time.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens