PSOJ willing to make the sacrifice
Published:Thursday | May 27, 2010 | 12:00 AM
As merchants yesterday began the official tally of multimillion-dollar losses from the shutdown of the downtown Kingston commercial district, the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) said it was willing to pay the ultimate price for the restoration of law and order to the capital.
"... The sentiments that have been expressed to me are that if that is the price that is to be paid for this country, in terms of our politics and in our approach to gang-related and organised crime elements to take an altogether different path, then that price will be one that is very well worth the kind of sacrifices that we have had to make," Joseph M. Matalon, president of the PSOJ, told The Gleaner yesterday.
Matalon, however, expressed regret at the dozens of lives lost in a blitzkrieg launched by the Jamaican army as it repelled gangsters who protected the fiefdom of an alleged Mafia godfather.
The suspected crime boss, Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, is thought to have escaped before or in the early stages of the military incursion on Monday.
"Obviously, we very much regret the loss of life that has been occasioned by the events in the communities of western Kingston in the last days and, in particular, in those cases where innocent and law-abiding citizens of Tivoli may have been caught in the crossfire. That is something that is to be abhorred," Matalon said.
Go get him!
The PSOJ president, however, urged the security forces to pursue the execution of the warrant of arrest against Coke.
"We will certainly be providing the security forces with any support that we can possibly give them in that effort," he said.
The PSOJ also expressed condolences to the families of the members of the security forces and those law-abiding citizens who have died in the conflict.
Two policemen and one soldier were killed by thugs in clashes which have rippled across other volatile communities in the Corporate Area.
The business group also said it was considering the opening of a special account at the Blood Bank, as well as providing financial assistance to the families of the slain lawmen.