Jamaicans overseas raise concerns

FROM NEW YORK:

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS and community leaders were in unison yesterday when they decried the news of a flare up of violence in West Kingston. Repeated calls to register their concern were made to The Gleaner offices here, and the Jamaican Consulate in New York; and at the Embassy in Washington. Many expressed shock, disbelief and disappointment, as the news of the violence and the rising body count continued.

Many wanted to know "what started it?", the extent of the damage to property, and the exact number of people killed.

Jamaica's Ambassador to the US Richard Bernal was not in office. However, when The Gleaner called, Public Relations and Information Officer O'Neil Hamilton, said "there were challenges to law enforcement in Jamaica and that demonstrated that police having a difficulty gaining upper hand on criminals. Every thing must be done so that the security forces have access to all areas of Jamaica to maintain law and order."

Consul General Dr. Basil Bryan, confirmed that the Consulate was besieged with calls "out of concern and anxiety."

"There is anxiety and relief that the violence is concentrated in sections of West Kingston," he said "We need an immediate solution so that our country can develop and continue on its economic path."

Jamaican-born New York City Council member Una Clarke, whose last term as member expires this year, is "deeply disturbed" and attributed the violence to "political provocation". She said that all the politicians are doing is turning people against themselves, which will result in civil disorder, which will affect the growth of community and nation.

She called on all sides, especially political leaders, to immediately call for calm and order. "All this does is to give criminals an opportunity to exploit the nation," she said. "Any patriotic Jamaicans at home or abroad must call for political debate and this must happen without guns."

FROM WASHINGTON:

UTTERLY SHOCKED is how Dr. Ransford Palmer, chairman of Howard University's Economics Department and Chairman of the National Coalition on Caribbean Affairs (NCOCA) responded to the news of violence in parts of western Kingston.

"I thought somehow the government had gotten this under control. They had set up this Rapid Response Unit. I got the impression that somehow, the situation was getting under control so I'm surprised to hear all this. Certainly, the tourist industry is not going to be helped by this."

Mr. Palmer is working on a major [and perhaps unprecedented] research on the impact of the crime situation on the decision of retiring Jamaicans not to return to live in the island. "It would seem to me these developments would not encourage return of those who reach the age of retirement to return [to Jamaica]," he said.

Barbara Reuben-Powell, an executive member of the Washington chapter of the University of the West Indies Guild of Graduates, finds it "distressing, to say the least," as she mulls a response. "One of my concerns is whether any of the law enforcement agencies is even capable of containing the crime because they are not trusted by anybody.

"The army is not a municipal peace-keeping force, they're for national defence. When you stand to use the army in domestic defence, you wonder what is the role of the police."

FROM TORONTO:

A FORMER member of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) has blamed the Government and the country's politicians for the shootings that have left several people dead.

"Run the country how it is supposed to be run, or step aside," said Gresford Crooks to the present government. "The politicians must not try to dictate to the police and the military how the job should be done."

Crooks, who lives in Toronto, blamed politicians for meddling in the work of the security forces, adding that such interference had fostered the proliferation of violence and criminal activities in the country, that he said was now worst than Haiti - long considered to be the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Dudley Laws, Executive Director of the Black Action Defence Committee (BADC), said that "the current riot in Jamaica is highly unacceptable". He said it seemed as if there was a new group of people, perhaps reacting to economic problems; or perhaps it was a re-emergence of the political violence of the 1980s.

FROM LONDON:

REPORTS IN the British press on the outbreak of gun violence in parts of Kingston have been quite extensive both in the print and electronic media. BBC TV and the news network Sky TV have been carrying reports since Monday. Footage has shown mainly burnt-out cars, roadblocks, members of the security forces in high alert and people running for cover.

BBC's Radio programmes have also been carrying stories which they have been updating on hourly news bulletins. These include BBC Radio Five Live, BBC London Live and the commercial stations Virgin Radio and Capital Radio.

Several of the morning broadsheets and tabloids got in on the act yesterday with reports from correspondents. All the stories so far have been on inside pages and have not attracted the big headlines or front page treatment which the gas riots received in 1999.

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