From the Sunday Gleaner

Yesterday, a group of women, with horror and dread etched on their faces, observed a team of police and soldiers patrol the Tredegar Park, St Catherine, community.

That, they said, gave them little comfort, as experience has taught that as soon the security forces leave the streets, once again, they would be at the mercy of marauding gunmen.

“Me don’t have anywhere to go, but me have fi move out. This is enough!” a clearly frustrated woman told The Sunday Gleaner last Friday.

“We are tired of the constant killings. It is really not fair to those of us who are not involved in the violence,” another woman said.

Read more here www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100815/lead/lead21.html

Queen’s Council and one of Jamaica’s Constitution’s framers, The Honourable David Coore, has agreed with the Opposition’s non-support for an extension of the State of Emergency.

Read full Gleaner article here: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100801/focus/focus5.html

‘Flip-flopper in chief’ – PNP chides Bruce Golding

Goes on offensive over State of Emergency vote abstention

THE Opposition People’s National Party (PNP), five days after its members of Parliament abstained in a vote to extend the limited State of Public Emergency, and in the face of mounting criticisms, yesterday accused the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) of playing politics, and labelled Prime Minister Bruce Golding a “flip-flopper-in-chief.”

In her address to conclude the party’s two-day National Executive Council meeting at the University of the West Indies, Mona, PNP President Portia Simpson Miller charged that the Government had no intention of extending the State of Emergency.

“Everybody is coming at us, and they are not even recognising that we tried to find a compromise. They not even recognising that the Government came to Parliament with no intention of having an extension,” Simpson told the comrades.

“…But, of course, we have become accustomed to the flip-flopper-in-chief. Say one thing yesterday, and another thing today,” she charged.

In her attack on Golding, Simpson Miller cited an October 9, 2003 letter to the editor, which she claimed was written by Bruce Golding on his return to the JLP, which was then in Opposition.

In the letter written to the Gleaner, which has been making the rounds on social networking site Facebook, she said Golding suggested that the State of Emergency at the time, should, and must be resisted, as police officials would seek to use the conditions to violate the rights of ordinary Jamaicans.

The letter also chastised supporters of the State of Emergency, which was called after the passage of Hurricane Isabel.

At the time the letter was written, Golding was not yet opposition leader, but Simpson Miller believes the prime minister speaks from different sides of his mouth for expediency.

“When we moved the motion of no-confidence they had everybody in Parliament. One even had to be called back to rejoin the team. When the motion in the Senate (the motion against the Minister Lightbourne), all were there. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all the time,” Simpson Miller said.

During the post-NEC press conference, party chairman Robert Pickersgill said the JLP was clearly unaware that it required more than a simple majority for the extension.

“Personally, I don’t know that this is a party position, but based on the reaction when Peter (Bunting, PNP general secretary and spokesman on national security) mentioned the 31 votes, I saw the reaction of the JLP and the person went up to the clerk, and when the clerk said yes, meaning Peter was right, they were very surprised,” Pickersgill said.

According to the chairman, the action was one of incompetence, as no prime minister should ever go to Parliament without the majority he needs.

“Which prime minister would go to Parliament with a matter that they regard so important and didn’t take the count? He obviously thought it was a simple majority. So he would have outvoted us,” Pickersgill said.

He said the offer of 15 days was done in a spirit of compromise despite not being given any information it had requested.

Meanwhile, Simpson Miller told comrades that the PNP was being set up to be blamed for any upsurge in violence since the discontinuance of the State of Emergency. She claimed that a “sinister plot” to cause mayhem in communities was being hatched, and she warned them to be vigilant.

“I have already heard it said that the people murdered in Linstead was part of that plot,” she said.

Thursday night, four persons were shot and killed by gunmen who invaded their Pleasant Hill home in Bog Walk, St Catherine.

While not giving details of the so-called plot, she said the PNP would not be daunted by those who believe the safety of some should come at the expense of others.

“The fight against crime is of paramount importance to the lives of the people of Jamaica. It is a principle for which the party would not retreat,” she said.

Source: The Observer http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Flip-flopper-in-chief_7828556

National Security Minister Senator Dwight Nelson is seeking to assure the nation that plans remain under way to refurbish the Metcalfe Street Remand Centre and relocate all children now in police lock-ups, albeit a month later than hoped.

Nelson was responding to concerns raised by Children’s Advocate Mary Clarke who scolded the Government for continuing to hold juveniles in lock-ups.

“Unfortunately, the recent situation in west Kingston has set us back about four weeks, but we are continuing to work, the army is continuing to work, and hopefully (the refurbishing) will be completed by September, at which time we will be able to move all the children out of lock-ups,” Nelson said.

Read full Gleaner story here: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100712/lead/lead3.html

Lawyers for several persons jailed under the state of emergency have charged that blank detention orders are being presented before the Emergency Powers Review Tribunal, a practice they claim prejudices their clients’ cases.

“What is alarming is that detention orders are being issued without any particulars – whether factual or evidential – to justify detention,” fumed one lawyer who has appeared before the tribunal.

Read full Gleaner article here: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100712/lead/lead1.html

THE government on Friday, for the first time, clearly admitted that it had engaged in discussions with United States officials about the adverse impact the “timing” of the extradition of former West Kingston strongman Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke could have on Jamaica.

Attorney General and Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne, speaking in the Senate during a no confidence motion brought against her by Opposition Senators for her handling of the extradition matter, made the statement even while dismissing claims that the government had delayed or dithered in honouring the request for Coke.

Read full Observer story here: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/US–JA-held–Dudus–destabilising-ta…

Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, once the highest-ranking crime-fighter in the army and the police force, seems destined to engage in a fierce legal battle waged by a government minister.

National Security Minister Dwight Nelson yesterday launched a broadside at Lewin over damning statements he made on a CVM TV interview programme on Wednesday night.

Lewin alleged that Tivoli Gardens enforcer Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, who the United States indicted on drug-smuggling and gunrunning charges, got word of the extradition request for him within 15 minutes after Lewin, then the police commissioner, advised Nelson.

Read full story at the Gleaner here: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100702/lead/lead1.html

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Opposition Spokesman on National Security, Peter Bunting, has commended the police and military’s handling of the recent capture of Christopher “Dudus” Coke and his swift processing for extradition.

Coke was arrested on Tuesday on the Mandela Highway and today appeared before a Resident Magistrate and waived his rights to an Extradition hearing in Jamaica. Then later, in the afternoon, Coke was safely airlifted to the United States to face drug and gun-running charges.

“Our security forces have done a commendable job handling this very sensitive process” Mr. Bunting said. “The Police and the Military have displayed professionalism in carrying out their duties. The intelligence collection process which led to Coke’s capture, and his consequent safe custody, have both contributed to building confidence in our law enforcement process.”

The Opposition Spokesman personally commended Police Chief Owen Ellington: “Commissioner Ellington and his team have displayed a committed, professional leadership that encourages trust in the security forces that is essential during this State of Public Emergency.”

Contact:
Peter Bunting
Opposition Spokesperson on National Security

It wasn’t even close. Despite tough economic times triggered by a global recession, crime and violence remains the most urgent concern for most Jamaicans.

A Gleaner-commissioned poll, conducted by Bill Johnson on April 24, 25 and May 1 across the island’s 14 parishes, shows that 58 per cent of Jamaicans, or close to six in every 10, believe crime and violence is the most pressing problem the country now faces.

Read full article at the Gleaner here: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100621/lead/lead6.html

Kingston, Jamaica (CNN) — An Organization for American States body expressed “deep concern” Thursday over the violence engulfing the Caribbean nation of Jamaica and wants an inquiry into the unrest that has left at least 67 dead.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said it “deeply regrets the deaths that have occurred in this context, and urgently calls on the State of Jamaica to conduct a diligent, effective, and impartial investigation of these events.”

The attempt to arrest Christopher “Dudus” Coke, a suspected drug kingpin in the Jamaican capital of Kingston, has resulted in the arrests of more than 500 people and the confiscation of firearms and ammunition.

Source: CNN.com

read full article here
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/05/27/jamaica.violence/index.html…