WE ARE IN A STATE OF SIEGE!
Hi Michael!
Well here I am with some sort of report on what's happening here. First of all, we are all fine and managing - so far...

We are really in a state of war in parts of Kingston. It has been going on for a few months now, but was mainly centred in west Kingston (Tivoli, Olympic Gardens and surrounding areas) and it was mostly limited to Gang warfare, but somewhere along the way, it has escalated into much much More than just gang warfare. Last week the war spilled over to Spanish Town Road itself, for while that is technically part of west Kgn, it wasn't really affected so that regular traffic couldn't drive without problems.

But about Wednesday things started to get really bad down there and the area of 'war' widened considerably. Mr Seaga visited the area several times, but to a lot of outsiders looking on, instead of trying to quell the situation, he stirred it up some more by demanding the

resignation/firing/stepping down of one of the top Crime fighting policemen, and by making some inflammatory comments about the government. Well you know that these people do not need anything much to egg them on and so they took up the baton and ran with it. [Who really is the

easiest set of persons to blame when things go wrong with a country, but the Government; plus of course there was nothing he said that could be taken as libellous, as everyone wants to know why the government can't do something to stop the violence that has overtaken us to the point of over 500 persons being killed by violent means since the start of the year!] So the roadblocks within the communities continued with no one being able to go in and no one being able to come out (including the security forces).

Saturday morning (July 7) we heard that Downtown was at war and that some businesses had not been able to open up or that those who opened up had to close real fast and everyone had to get out of the area. That seemed to be under some sort of control by yesterday, and in the evening we heard that the police had arrested and detained some 25 persons who were thought

to be the ringleaders in the downtown affair. We even went to Church (in Half Way Tree) in the morning- and even though it was a sparsely attended service, just figured it was because it wasn't a communion service why not many people were there. Friends were here until late last night and I had to run them home at 11:30 as I wanted to go to bed and didn't want them to hang around, since things were so iffy, but not that bad, that no oneshould be on the road...

Well... this morning we got up and were getting dressed to go to work, only to hear on the news that there were massive roadblocks all over Kingston and that tyres and various kinds of debris -including old cars and pieces of machinery- were being burned at the roadblocks to keep people from reaching them; and that Mountain View Ave was at war and had burned a car -with the driver still inside! (He later turned out to be a district constable who was on his way to Rockfort or Harbour View Police station, whose car was set afire after he tried to go through the block -and when the police who were at the scene tried to get him out they were fired upon and had to abandon him, and between the car fire and gunfire they couldn't do anything).

A relative came down from Red Hills as she insisted she had to go to work. She said they passed a couple of blocks that had been cleared at the foot of Red Hills - but then when they got to Church of the Transfiguration, just a little way up the road, there was a huge fire that reached quite high into the air. She said they just turned around and headed in the other direction to come here -and got here with no other problem. She also said that the streets were very empty, and that contrary to what was on the news, Cassava Piece was not blocked.

My niece called about 7:45 am to say that we were not to leave the house as there were burning roadblocks all over, including Barbican Square, Grants Pen, Olympic Gardens, Spanish Town Road, Stony Hill, Standpipe (in Liguanea), Papine (with gunshots and someone killed), Gordon Town, Red Hills Road, Shortwood Road and many others. She had tried to get her father to stop him from coming into Kingston from St Mary, but he'd already left and wondered if I could try talking to him as his wife had had no luck in trying to stop him either. We also heard that the Stony Hill square block was accompanied by gunfire in the area, so there was no way he Should come into Kingston. I eventually tracked him down in Port Maria and told him not to even think about coming, as if he was lucky in getting in (and his office is near another trouble spot), he would most likely not be able to get out. 

We tried to see if there was anything on the TV, as we were already listening to the radio and heard the news, but they were now playing music, but when we tuned into TVJ and saw the live Wimbledon finals battle being fought (and another programme going on, on CVM), I figured that things were really not as dreadful out on the road as we might have been led to believe - plus we kept getting a message across the screen on TVJ, saying that breaking news would be brought on at 9 am, which was later changed to 9:30 am (which we thought was because the tennis was so VERY exciting) and which eventually came on at about 9:40 am. When that came on, it gave a rundown as things stood, but really didn't give me the feeling that the whole city was blocked and burning. This was borne out when radio talkshow host, Barbara Gloudon came on RJR at 11 am to broadcast her show from Mandeville, and said that there was no road block in Gordon Town and nowhere else that she had passed through to get to Mandeville, so things were not as bad as was being reported. 

Then my co-worker called and said he was at the office and that it was very clear on the roads, with no problems in Barbican Square, so I could come in to work. I got down there a little after 12 to see my boss and family, who'd arrived safely and were setting off to their home in Irish Town - to pass through Papine, which according to the police station was clear. In coming from the airport, they had to drive on the new link road by the private power station, to South Camp Road and then came to the office via Tom Redcam Ave and Lady Musgrave Road and had no problems.

We closed office at about 1:30 and I went up to Liguanea where most of the stores were open, but closing early, then came home via Barbican Road which was quite clear and the only hint of debris was at the Chest Hospital on the edge of Standpipe, where the side road had been blocked, but was now clear.

Then heard part of the 5 pm news feature on RJR, where Mr Seaga was being interviewed and when asked if he has, as is said, the power to stop what is happening, when and would he stop the violence, his reply was that when the time was right and that was only going to be when Renato Adams (the same policeman who was to resign, be fired, or step down) went and he made more inflammatory comments about the police force and the government, then rambled on a bit with his other answers and avoided any admittance of any responsibility for what is taking place and to me and a lot of other people, sounded very like a megalomaniac who was [allowed to get] out of control. But whoever is behind it all is trying very very hard to destabilize the country. We will have heavy fallout from tourism and foreign investors -plus we had reports that some foreign loans came through and it seems like this person who's behind things wants those to fall through too.

At 10 pm, the news reported that there were still roadblocks at Stony Hill (with gunfire again), Olympic Gardens and roads leading to Tivoli, and of course Red Hills Road and Grants Pen. But someone I spoke to in Havendale says that she could not hear the usual gunfire coming from Red Hills Road, which was unusual - and we both agreed that everything is really too quiet...

So tune in again tomorrow evening to get an update of the 'runnings in JA!'

11:50 pm Monday 9 July -
PS
Me again...

Forgot to tell you about the body count from the weekend fall out...19 bodies were recovered late this afternoon from Tivoli and all were in a state of decomposition as no one could go in to retrieve them from the streets before now - they were just left to lay in the streets. Remember that the weather down here is EXTREMELY dry and HOT at this time of year, so you can just imagine the state of the bodies. 

Mr Seaga has written to Mr Patterson requesting a meeting to try to sort out the problems in the area and Mr Patterson has replied to say that he is very willing to meet with him. So maybe some good sense is prevailing in the whole affair. It still remains to be seen though what will happen. Mr Seaga has accused the police force of sending snipers into Tivoli to fire on people walking on the road and to kill the old people and all sorts of crap! Why would the police do that? when all sorts of press are out there covering the situation and in the wake of the Braeton shootings, they would have so much to lose... Of course this has been vehemently denied by the Prime Minister, so there's a lot of ground to cover in any kind of reconciliatory meeting.

Plus of course Mr Seaga has sent out news releases to all the foreign press who have all sorts of stories circulating now, including pictures on th einternet of bloodied dead bodies lying in the streets; and has been complaining about the dead bodies strewn about the streets of Tivoli (but has only allowed the security forces to go in this afternoon to recover them). BUT IT DIDN'T HAVE TO GET THAT FAR! All this could have been avoided if politicians would just stop playing god with people's lives!

PS:
Tuesday 8:10 am:

Wrote that body count part at some hour last night but didn't send it then, so here's a bit of an update. All roads to the airport in Kingston are blocked, so no one can come in or go out! and more roads across the country are blocked, so I am not venturing out to go to work. One

roadblock on Red Hills road is, simply, an old bus rolled right across the road to stop vehicular traffic. Buses are not running either, so no workers can go to work, even if they wanted to. It really is a very sad situation all because of this man and his machinations. I was listening to a late night talk show last night, and was really surprised at the way people referred to Mr Seaga with venom. Even if they were sympathetic to his cause before, I think what did it, was when he demanded to know WHO authorised the security forces to attempt to go into Tivoli...the man has lost it! As one caller to the show asked, "Is Tivoli a republic within the country of Jamaica - why Mr Seaga is carrying on like his country has been overrun by hostile outside forces?"

Take care then...and in case you are wondering, NO I am not a PNP (the present government)supporter - nor a JLP (Mr Seaga's party) one (and not NDM either)- in fact after this debacle I will be very hard pressed to vote for any of the three political parties if and when elections are called. None of them deserve to be voted into power!

Sincerely,

Brooke 
(not actual name as writer requested her name be witheld for fear of reprisals)