POLITICS: Troops Deployed, Jamaica Mulls Anti-Terror Law

By Zadie Neufville Reprint | | Print |

Zadie Neufville

KINGSTON, Oct 17 2001 (IPS) - Jamaican security forces have began yet another initiative to wrest control over the streets of a capital city rent by crime and political violence.

Some 900 people have been killed so far this year in violence that is broadly understood as related to political jockeying ahead of general elections due in December 2002. The violence pre-date last month’s terrorist attacks in the United States but the events of Sep. 11, and their effect of further depressing Jamaica’s economy, have fuelled calls for new “anti-terrorism” legislation to clamp down on unrest in this country.

“The agreement is that we move urgently to bring the passage of appropriate legislation aimed at terrorism (and) that we develop an anti-terrorism bill to be considered by Parliament,” National Security Minister Keith Knight told a parliamentary committee last week.

The Committee is reviewing a proposed bill that would make wiretaps and other communication intercepts legal in specific circumstances. Terrorism is defined in the bill as “any act involving the use of violence by a person, which, by reason of its nature and extent, is calculated to create a state of fear in the public or any section of the public”.

Human rights activists have warned against giving the police and soldiers more “ammunition to abuse people”. But public demand for a tougher security stance has been so loud that the activists have opted to wait and see how the situation and the government’s response to it develop.

Over the weekend, reservists joined regular army troops and police as they began a month-long programme of extended patrols under an anti-crime strategy agreed Oct. 4 between the Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, Knight, and senior members of the police and military.

Patterson and Edward Seaga, head of the main opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) presided over a weekend of prayer to commemorate national heroes in hopes the call to worship would restore some restraint, if not actual calm, in hot spots including the gangland of West Kingston, which abuts the capital’s business district.

On Friday, however, as army reserves prepared to deploy, West Kingston’s shaky ceasefire crumbled under new gun violence that killed eight people and forced the country’s main trauma centre, the Kingston Public Hospital, to close its doors to all but emergency cases. The near by Denham Town police station was firebombed in the third attack on the facility since Oct. 9.

Two hours later, police and soldiers made their second major discovery of illegal weapons: two submachine guns, a rifle with bi- pod, a semi-automatic pistol, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and several suits of army fatigue. The previous week, they said they had uncovered 13 guns and some 1,500 rounds of ammunition.

Since the start of the year, police report having seized 410 guns – including 29 high powered weapons, 191 semi-automatic pistols, and 73 stolen handguns – and about 6,957 rounds of assorted ammunition including “cop-killer” bullets. Last year, 486 guns were seized and in 1999, 511.

“It could be a combination of the intelligence community increasing their co-ordination with people on the ground,” head of the Constabulary Communications Network James Forbes said of the gun finds.

The recent acquisition of dogs trained to sniff out firearms and establishment of the Caribbean Search Centre, set up with British government help, has improved the searching techniques and provided modern search technology, Forbes added.

Some local businesses welcomed the new crime-fighting strategy, saying their profits had fallen by one-third since May. The current drive – which includes increased patrols, roadblocks, spot searches, and curfews – is due for review Nov. 9 and may then be extended.

“Anything that will assist in curbing the state of violence is welcome, as we cannot continue to live in this state,” said Beverley Lopez of the Jamaica Exporters Association.

Soldiers patrolling the streets of the toughest inner-city communities have become a normal part of city life over the past decade, however, so others expressed scepticism about the latest push as well as Pattterson’s and Seaga’s weekend appeal to prayer.

“We have to change something since we are not getting any results. Calling out the reserves may help temporarily but we have to look at the medium- to long-term and decide how to deal with the problem over that time,” said Anthony Chang, president of the Jamaican Chamber of Commerce.

Publisher Lloyd B. Smith dismissed the weekend’s prayer meetings as “political posturing”.

Patterson, whose People’s National Party is seeking a fourth term in office at the next election, will face off against and Seaga, whose JLP has complained that security forces have fuelled the West Kingston unrest by targeting party supporters and strongholds for their crackdown on criminal activity and illegal weapons.