Post by Fredo on May 28, 2010 8:31:03 GMT -5
(Reuters) - At least 73 people died this week as Jamaican security forces stormed a Kingston slum and battled armed supporters of an alleged drug lord wanted for extradition to the United States, police said on Thursday.
World
Residents complained of abuse and rights groups questioned whether police and soldiers had used excessive and indiscriminate force.
Most deaths occurred during an assault by police and army troops on Tivoli Gardens, a volatile Kingston slum and bastion of support for suspected drug kingpin Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, Deputy Police Commissioner Glenmore Hinds told reporters.
Coke was still at large. Tension gripped the upper middle class community of Kirkland Heights early on Thursday when word came that he was hiding there in a house owned by a friend.
Police stormed the area and a two-hour firefight broke out. Keith Clarke, the 58-year-old brother of former Minister of Industry and Commerce Claude Clarke, was killed by security personnel, apparently caught in the crossfire.
The violence in the capital started on Sunday as Coke's supporters torched police stations to protest his potential extradition to the United States. He was indicted last year in New York on drug trafficking and gunrunning charges.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding declared a state of emergency, giving security forces broad powers to restrict freedom of movement, search premises and detain suspects without warrants.
Four of the dead were police and soldiers. The rest were civilians, mostly young men.
Violence in Tivoli Gardens eased on Thursday and security forces let journalists tour the bullet-scarred neighborhood, where residents complained of abuse by police and soldiers.
"They shoot up my house and they even killed two men in the house next to mine," one woman said.
"They also killed a youth in my house after they sent me outside," a man told Reuters.
World
Residents complained of abuse and rights groups questioned whether police and soldiers had used excessive and indiscriminate force.
Most deaths occurred during an assault by police and army troops on Tivoli Gardens, a volatile Kingston slum and bastion of support for suspected drug kingpin Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, Deputy Police Commissioner Glenmore Hinds told reporters.
Coke was still at large. Tension gripped the upper middle class community of Kirkland Heights early on Thursday when word came that he was hiding there in a house owned by a friend.
Police stormed the area and a two-hour firefight broke out. Keith Clarke, the 58-year-old brother of former Minister of Industry and Commerce Claude Clarke, was killed by security personnel, apparently caught in the crossfire.
The violence in the capital started on Sunday as Coke's supporters torched police stations to protest his potential extradition to the United States. He was indicted last year in New York on drug trafficking and gunrunning charges.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding declared a state of emergency, giving security forces broad powers to restrict freedom of movement, search premises and detain suspects without warrants.
Four of the dead were police and soldiers. The rest were civilians, mostly young men.
Violence in Tivoli Gardens eased on Thursday and security forces let journalists tour the bullet-scarred neighborhood, where residents complained of abuse by police and soldiers.
"They shoot up my house and they even killed two men in the house next to mine," one woman said.
"They also killed a youth in my house after they sent me outside," a man told Reuters.
www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64Q6BP20100527
If most criminal weren't such dullards, I think we would see a lot more of this kind of thing. Seriously, how many men would it take to take over the Poss homes vs how many it would take to retake it from them?