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More than 200 residents of Tivoli Gardens have so far registered complaints with the public defender's office, which has been set up in the community last Friday.

The complaints centred around claims that members of the security forces executed family members, physically abused them, or took their personal belongings during last week's police-military operation.

An official at the public defender's office explained that the first step was to get the names and telephone numbers of complaints so that arrangements could be made for them to give more detailed statements at a later date.

Yesterday, when The Gleaner visited the tiny office set up inside the Tivoli Gardens Community Centre, fewer than 10 residents showed up during that time.

The office is staffed by four persons, including director of investigations in the public defender's office, Limberg Simpson, and is equipped with four computers.

Simpson pointed out that the majority of the complaints were made at the weekend.

Public Defender Earl Witter told The Gleaner yesterday that things were proceeding satisfactorily.

He explained that his office would first try to determine the number of people affected by the operations in Tivoli Gardens and the nature of their complaints.

This, he added, would enable his office to determine "which rights have been infringed so that we can proceed in an orderly manner".

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com