Security forces gained a tenuous hold on the slum stronghold of a powerful reputed drug lord, while Jamaica’s embattled leader promised an independent investigation into the roughly 27 civilian deaths during the operation.
Kingston Public Hospital sources, however, have said three trucks unloaded a grim cargo of more than 60 corpses at a morgue on Tuesday.
Thousands of police and soldiers have stormed the Tivoli Gardens ghetto in search of Christopher “Dudus” Coke, who is wanted by the US on drug and gun charges.
Three days of street battles with heavily armed supporters of the underworld boss have spilled into troubled areas just outside the capital, Kingston, and complaints are rising that innocents are being caught in indiscriminate gunfire.
In a Tuesday address to legislators, Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding indicated he was taken aback by the intensity of the assault in the heart of West Kingston’s ramshackle slums, which he represents in parliament.
“The government deeply regrets the loss of lives, especially those of members of the security forces and innocent, law-abiding citizens caught in the crossfire. The security forces were directed to take all practical steps to avoid casualties as much as possible,” he said.
Golding vowed that the “most thorough investigations” would be undertaken to examine all deaths caused by security forces, which have developed a reputation for slipshod investigations and for being too quick on the trigger.
“The violence that has been unleashed on society by armed, criminal elements must be repelled,” he said after opposition members accused him of creating the crisis by earlier inaction.
“The operations being carried out under emergency powers are an extraordinary response to an extraordinary challenge to the safety and security of our citizens,” he said.
Government officials told reporters all the dead civilians in West Kingston were men. But distressed people inside the slums who called local radio stations asserted there had been indiscriminate shootings during the all-out assault that police and soldiers launched on Monday.
Police said they have detained 211 people, including four women.
National Security Minister Dwight Nelson told a press conference that Coke, 42, had not yet been detained.
US federal prosecutors in New York last year accused Coke of running an armed network that has been a major supplier of cocaine and marijuana to New York and other US cities.
Despite rumors swirling among Kingston residents of US support for the effort to arrest Coke, both the US and Jamaican government insisted that the operation was primarily local.
Tourism officials have voiced alarm at the damage to the image of Jamaica, where 1 million tourists each year flock to beaches to soak up some sun and the sounds of reggae music.
Tourism brings in valuable hard currency to Jamaica. Yet most tourists do not dare venture into Kingston, long considered the most dangerous part of a country that has 1,700 murders a year for a population of 2.8 million.
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