Gender, Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean

JAMAICA: Women Caught Between Police and Loyalty for Gang Leader

Kathy Barrett

KINGSTON, Jun 13 2010 (IPS) - “I am very much afraid…I’m traumatised,” sobbed Marsha, as she recounted the violence that ripped through the constituency of West Kingston last month as police and soldiers searched for Christopher “Dudus” Coke, the reputed head of one of the most notorious criminal organisations in the Western hemisphere.

“I was born in Tivoli Gardens in 1976,” she told IPS. “I’ve never lived anywhere else. I have lost close friends, I saw them [the police] murder three men in front of my eyes. I want the world to know that this was a nightmare.”

She refused to disclose her real name and spoke in a hushed whisper. “I don’t want the soldiers or police to hear me,” Marsha said. “If they do, I could be in trouble.”

The events she spoke of began on the morning of May 24, when a joint police/military team stormed into West Kingston hoping to find Coke, and ended three days later with 73 civilians and three officers dead.

It was only a few days earlier that Marsha and hundreds of women from the area, all dressed in white, had paraded through the streets of the volatile constituency bearing handmade placards as they pleaded with authorities to leave their hero, Christopher “Dudus” Coke, alone.

For nine months, Coke was at the centre of a diplomatic row between Jamaica and the United States. Last year, a grand jury in the United States indicted him on conspiracy to distribute drugs and traffic weapons. The U.S. sought his extradition for trial, but Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding initially refused to comply.

Coke is revered in Tivoli Gardens in West Kingston – a constituency represented in Parliament by the prime minister. When Golding finally signed the extradition request, it sparked widespread fears – apparently justified – that mayhem would result when officers tried to locate and arrest him.

But women from Tivoli Gardens neighbourhood were staunch in their support, declaring that they were prepared to die for this man, also known as the “president”, who they said has been their provider and protector.

“The president educate them and make little girls to walk on the streets and people can walk freely,” they shouted. “Leave Dudus alone, he is a law abiding citizen, he is a peacemaker…”

Unknown to the marchers, things were about to take dramatic turn. Faced with calls for his resignation, Golding bowed to public pressure and announced that Coke would be extradited. Some angry residents of West Kingston armed themselves with high-powered weapons and stockpiled petrol, mounted massive roadblocks, and ripped down high tension wires and wove them into barricades as they prepared for a possible confrontation with the security forces.

Officers traded fire with gunmen, who in turn attacked police stations. For two days, the bullets tore through buildings and people. When the dust settled, 73 men were dead and the target, Coke, was nowhere to be found.

Marsha said she was forced to flee her tiny apartment, seeking refuge in a neighbour’s two-room flat.

“Nearly one hundred people were in the house and when they came, the entire building shook,” she said. “We prayed and prayed, only God kept us through. When the soldiers came …they started cursing us, they told us to come out or they would blow it (the building) up. I was forced to sit on the ground for eight and a half hours, I couldn’t leave to buy anything to eat, I could only drink water.”

Much of what she and others in Tivoli Gardens witnessed was not new. In most households, at least one person has been a victim of some kind of criminal violence. However, the magnitude of this latest chaos was extreme.

“I saw three persons murdered. They (the police) called two brothers out of a house, they were in there with their mother. Then they called another boy who lived next door. They put them outside in the yard and shot them two of them, 16 and 17, (they) died right away. The other didn’t die, he lived for another day, when he wouldn’t die they just killed him, just like that. He was still in high school, only 15. I saw that,” she said.

And what of their “protector”, Christopher “Dudus” Coke, who according to reports fled his stronghold and left his supporters to fend for themselves? While the search for him continues, the women of Tivoli Gardens continue to place their “president” on a pedestal.

“He is a good man,” Marsha insisted. “They are telling so much lies… I blame the prime minister, we blame him. He should have dealt with it (the extradition request) better than how it happened.”

Dr. Glenda Simms, a leading feminist and former executive director of the Bureau of Women’s Affairs, says that the women of Tivoli Gardens are on “the extreme end of the female dependency syndrome or the continuum of oppression under the patriarchal system that has formed the solid bedrock of the Jamaican social, political, economic and religious institution.”

According to Yvonne McCalla-Sobers, founder of the group Families Against State Terrorism (FAST), the incident should be a wake-up call to the women of Tivoli Gardens.

“They should have learnt lessons about vulnerability,” she said. “(Such as) ‘I cannot protect the males in my family, whether from those inside or outside of Tivoli Gardens, from gangs or from the security forces. The males in my family cannot protect me….Dudus ultimately protected himself and left me on my own with his mess to clear up’.”

Today, a one-month state of emergency remains in effect. Golding has announced that the safety of Jamaicans is his top priority and security personnel would be taking back troubled communities from criminals. Meanwhile, human rights groups are calling for an impartial investigation into what they say are credible reports of extrajudicial executions by the police during the operation.

But for the residents of Tivoli Gardens, the legacy of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke will live on regardless of his reputation.

“Even if they say he deals in drugs, a lot of people are doing the same thing. For me, he still did a lot of good, if the Jamaican and U.S. people knew how good he is maybe they would leave him alone,” Marsha declared.