POLICE COMMISSIONER Francis Forbes announced on June 2 that he had disbanded the complaint-plagued Crime Management Unit and assigned its leader, Senior Supt. Reneto Adams, to a desk job as co-ordinator of the National Anti-Crime Initiative, Mobile Reserve, Kingston, from June 9.
Deputy Commissioner Lucius Thomas is appointed chairman of a management committee to supervise the investigation of the fatal shooting by the police of four persons at Kraal, north central Clarendon, on May 7. Police Commissioner Francis Forbes set up the committee based on recommendations made by investigators from the Metropolitan Police Service, New Scotland Yard, London.
Sgt. David White, 39, sub-officer in charge of the Caymanas Police Station, south central St. Catherine, was elected chairman of the Jamaica Police Federation on June 5 at its annual conference at the StarFish Hotel (formerly Trelawny Beach). He defeated Sgt. Steve Brown.
The Carter Centre, Atlanta, Georgia, on June 5 made 15 recommendations to reform the Jamaican electoral system to enhance the quality of the local polls.
SSP Reneto Adams filed a motion in the Supreme Court on June 6 seeking to restrain Police Commissioner Francis Forbes from removing him from front-line duty and from dismantling the Crime Management Unit, which he formerly headed.
BABY PANSY
The Clarendon couple who had disputed a claim by the Mandeville Regional Hospital that a dead baby was theirs, were vindicated when DNA tests proved them right. Pansy Campbell and Roy McLean, of Gimme-Me-Bit, Clarendon, the couple involved, citing the lack of a birthmark and other features they said their child had, had refused to take the body of the baby the hospital said was theirs.
The police on June 7 seized a twin-engine light plane that landed at Ken Jones Aerodrome, near Port Antonio, east Portland. The police launched a search for the occupants, who they believed left with a consignment of cocaine.
Prime Minister Patterson on June 9 ratified the Caribbean Court of Justice and restated his objection to a referendum on the controversial court, which was scheduled to have its inaugural session in November 2003.
The Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica, Ltd., on June 9, donated $6.5 million to the Hugh Shearer Foundation, which was launched by the family and friends of the former Prime Minister and trade unionist in celebration of his 80th birthday, and his more than 60 years of public service to Jamaica. The foundation's objectives include the encouragement, promotion and propagation of the "trade unionist and political principles and thoughts of Hugh Shearer".
The Government said it was undertaking a study aimed at assessing the impact of the illegal drug trade in Jamaica. The Ministry of National Security said it was putting together a team of local and international experts to conduct a major study of the drug trade.
The Court of Appeal on June 11 ruled that three workers at Jamaica Flour Mills, Ltd., Rockfort, east Kingston, who were made redundant in 1999, should be reinstated. The workers are Michael Campbell, Simon Suckie and Ferron Gordon. Two had been with the company for 13 years and the other, for 28 years. "The employees' dismissal in this case was an outstanding example of man's humanity to man and need not have been so", the Court said in the main judgement written by Mr. Justice Clarence Walker.
A record high 448 police recruits graduated from the Jamaica Police Academy at Twickenham Park, south-central St. Catherine, on June 11. The graduates were 373 men and 75 women.
The Royal Embassy of the Nether-lands was closed for an indefinite period and visa applicants were directed to apply to the nearest Netherlands diplomatic representation in the region.
CVM-TV APPEAL
CVM-TV on June 12, appealed the $20-million awarded against it by a Supreme Court jury to Det. Sgt. Fabian Tewari. CVM said it was seeking a new trial on the ground that Mr. Justice Donald McIntosh erred when he left the issue of qualified privilege to the jury. The detective claimed he was libelled in two CVM broadcasts on November 12, 1998.
Spain's Pinero Group on June 14 signed a sales agreement with the Tank-Weld Group for the transfer of 200 acres of land, allowing for the construction of 1,200 new hotel rooms at Pear Tree River Bay, St. Ann, in the first phase, and 600 more in the second.
Bill Morris, the Jamaican born out-going general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union in England, and Chancellor of the University of Technology in Kingston, Jamaica, was knighted by the Queen.
Godfrey Dyer, the veteran hotelier of Montego Bay, was on June 14 elected president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association. He succeeded Josef Forstmayr who did not seek re-election. Dyer first served as president 20 years ago - in 1983.
SSP Reneto Adams had lost his legal battle in the Supreme Court to be returned to front-line duty, The Gleaner reported on June 17.
The Jamaica Labour Party on June 19 won the 2003 Local Government Elections, taking the KSAC and 11 of the 12 parishes, Westmoreland being the exception.
George Lee, 64, journalist and businessman, was elected the first Mayor of the Municipality of Portmore. The municipality is made up of 11 divisions in St. Catherine, south-west and south-central.
The Jamaica Labour Party on June 21 called for a magisterial recount in the Annotto Bay Division of St. Mary in the Local Government Elections after its candidate, Hugh Anthony Bryan, lost the seat on the flip of a coin. At the preliminary count the JLP led by one but at the final count the candidates were tied 1,768 votes each. With the agreement of the candidates, the Returning Officer flipped a coin to decide on the winner and the seat went to the PNP's candidate Patrick White. Mr. Bryan later won the seat on a magisterial recount.
The Gleaner on June 24 quoted Police Commissioner Francis Forbes as saying that vital pieces of evidence taken from the crime scene at Kraal, north central Clarendon, where four persons were shot dead allegedly in a shoot-out with the police on May 7, were being sent to a crime laboratory in the United Kingdom to be analysed by Scotland Yard detectives.
Thirteen of the island's 14 Mayors were sworn in on June 26.
SAFA MURDERED
Christopher Dixon, 26, upholsterer of Seaview Gardens, Kingston 11, was on June 27 sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering Safa Asuntuwa, 29, a psychic. He is to serve 20 years before being eligible for parole. Asuntuwa was beaten to death and his body found in a gully off the Cavaliers main road, St. Andrew, on June 25, 2002.
Local health authorities lifted their travel advisories, restricting all but essential travel to Hong Kong and China, because of the dreaded SARS virus.
President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, arrived in Jamaica on June 29 for an official four-day visit.
The Rev. Karl Johnson, general secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Union, on June 29 reiterated the church's tough stance against casino gambling and same-sex unions and warned that it would be to the peril of the church to cosy up to those activities and values as they ran counter to its core principles.
Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, Chief of Staff of the Jamaica Defence Force, and French Ambassador Pierre-Antoine Berniard, signed a memorandum of understanding on June 30 for Exercise French Commando 2003, a military exchange between the JDF and the French Force in the Antilles.
Compiled by Lloyd Williams
