Security forces with M-16s and rotating machine guns at the ready on Sunday patrolled a hostile slum in Jamaica’s capital where angry defenders of a fugitive underworld boss complained of unprovoked attacks and the deaths of innocents.
Nearly a week after security forces started a deadly four-day assault in search of reputed drug lord Christopher “Dudus” Coke, residents of the Tivoli Gardens slum, nicknamed the “wild, wild West,” were trying to live their lives amid concertina wire and military checkpoints.
Slum dwellers across the bullet-pocked complex voiced rage and frustration at having to live alongside security forces that they see as an occupying army and accuse of killing innocent people during the fighting. They insist the death toll is higher than the official tally of 73.
“We are thankful that God spared our lives, but we are fearful of the soldiers,” a woman who identified herself only as Lilleth told reporters on Sunday as a military helicopter buzzed overhead. “I’m not saying everybody was innocent here, but we don’t deserve this. More than 100 people died, many for nothing, no matter what they say.”
Nearby, a small congregation gathered inside an evangelical church and reflected on the ordeals of the neighborhood, where the 41-year-old Coke solidified his authority by providing handouts, jobs and protection in a poor downtown area where the government and police typically have little presence.
Allegations of abuse are rampant across West Kingston, where Tivoli Gardens is located. During the operation, police blocked streets in the patchwork of gritty slums and prevented journalists from entering.
Across the street from the slum, a tavern owner insisted Sunday he witnessed young men being beaten to the ground by security forces and then shot execution-style.
“They execute the youth. ... See it with my own eyes. They go: Boom! Boom! Dem a wicked, man. And after, dem fabricate pure lies!” Charley Dread, a Rastafarian whose Northside Tavern has been largely empty since the violence, said in Jamaican patois.
A young man who had been held for days at Kingston’s National Arena said hundreds of detainees were forced to crawl around a filthy floor by interrogators and kicked as the officials sought information about Coke and gang activities.
Jamaican Information Minister Daryl Vaz has said that the government will conduct an independent investigation into police actions during the raid. He said Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding’s government is “very concerned” about allegations of deliberate killings by security forces, which have long had a reputation for slipshod investigations and for being too quick on the trigger.
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