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.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
RSS