St Catherine awakens to state of emergency
Published:Wednesday | June 23, 2010 | 12:00 AM
The Golding administration yesterday declared a state of public emergency, effective midnight, for the parish of St Catherine, while lawmakers voted unanimously in Gordon House on Tuesday for the extension of the measure in Kingston and St Andrew until July 22.
Extension of the state of emergency in the Corporate Area requires a majority vote by parliamentarians. The vote was taken and 53 legislators said 'yes'; there were six absentees.
St Catherine South Central Member of Parliament (MP) Sharon Hay-Webster had made an impassioned plea for the Government to declare a state of public emergency in St Catherine to quell the bloodshed in the parish.
More than 170 persons were murdered there between January and May. This compares with 120 murders for the similar period last year, Golding said.
"We recognise that the actions we are taking involve the curtailment of the rights of citizens but we are determined that these operations must be carried out with respect for the human rights that Jamaicans are entitled to," the prime minister explained.
Decline in murders
Debating a resolution to extend the state of emergency in the Corporate Area yesterday, Golding, who piloted the motion, said murders have declined 35 per cent in the three weeks of June when compared with the figure for the same month last year.
Opposition Spokesman on National Security, Peter Bunting, said his party would give critical and cautious support to the extension of the state of emergency for 30 days.
"It is only fair and effective to give the security forces time to complete the operations they started and we would not want to prematurely bring an end to the operation," he said.
But despite general consensus on the 30-day extension of the emergency measure, there were contentious moments during the debate.
Everald Warmington, St Catherine South Western MP, raised serious concerns about the actions of "rogue" members of the security forces in the Tivoli Gardens incursion which left 73 civilians and one soldier dead.
"The reports coming out, if they are correct, we need to find out if these atrocities took place, and these atrocities that took place are worse than what we hear coming out of Darfur," Warmington charged.
"I do not believe that the public defender or the parliamentary ombudsman is competent enough to investigate these cases, if they are so, and no commission of enquiry can bring out the truth," he said.
He urged the security forces to carry out their duties professionally during the state of emergency in St Catherine.
Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller suggested that the Government carry out a public-education programme to inform Jamaicans about their rights during the state of emergency.
She said this would lead to greater cooperation between the security forces and citizens.