Lead Stories

Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter

IF YOUR relatives were buried in the May Pen Cemetery in the last few decades, chances are their tombs have been disturbed. It is also possible that their remains may be among the morbid mosaic of bones which litter sections of the burial ground.

The Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC), which runs the age-old, 200-acre heavily vegetated property, said it is aware that more than two dozen human skulls lay bare in the cemetery.

"We are aware of it and we are aware that it poses a public-health risk," Town Clerk Errol Greene told The Gleaner yesterday.

The Gleaner yesterday observed countless pieces of ivory bones protruding from shallow graves in sections of the cemetery. Skulls and other bones lay scattered about the burial ground like toys abandoned by children.

Paupers' bones?

Cemetery workers told The Gleaner that many of the bones were from paupers' graves. They say these persons are very often not buried as deep as others and, in some instances, their remains were dragged from shallow or eroded tombs by scavenging animals.

By law, all coffins must be at last four feet below the level of the surface of the ground adjoining the grave. All graves for adults must be dug to a depth of at least five feet.

Cemetery workers say that in many instances, paupers are buried no deeper than three feet deep.

However, Greene has dismissed the suggestion that the bones belonged to paupers. He said the paupers' section of the cemetery is nowhere close to the bones our news team identified.

According to the town clerk, many of these bones appeared to have come from graves which have either collapsed or have been removed by humans.

"Whenever the cemetery is bushed, we have to put aside some money to replace those graves and vaults and to reinter remains," Greene said.

Funds sought for reburials

He told The Gleaner that it will cost "a lot of money" to reinter the exposed remains but steered clear of providing an estimate. The Gleaner was informed that both the Ministry of Health and United Nations Development Programme have been contacted for funds to help rebury the disturbed dead.

However, it is unlikely that the exposed bones will be reinterred any time soon, as Green said it is normally done after the landscaping is completed.

Approximately one-tenth of the 200-acre burial ground has been cleared since the military incursion into nearby Tivoli Gardens. The clean-up bill so far is $9 million.

When the machetes stop swinging and the chainsaws cease buzzing, the masons will be summoned. Perhaps then many souls in the May Pen Cemetery will do as relatives wished at their funerals - rest in peace.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com