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A weekend of police fighting with criminal gangs in the capital, Kingston, forces the closure of the downtown shopping district.
©Associated Press
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 9, 2001
KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Security forces and criminal gangs waged gunbattles in Jamaica's capital during politically charged street shootouts over the weekend that have left at least four dead and 24 injured.
At least one soldier was wounded Sunday on the second straight day of clashes, said police spokeswoman Georgia Brown. On Saturday, a police officer, a soldier and two others died in the fighting, police said.
Opposition leader Edward Seaga, who represents the area in Parliament, said in a written statement that at least eight people had died since Saturday, but police could not confirm that report.
Jamaican television broadcast images of police and soldiers exchanging gunfire with unseen gunmen on streets littered with burning vehicles.
The violence shut down Kingston's busy downtown shopping district. The nearby Kingston Public Hospital was accepting only critical cases because the fighting had kept much of the staff away.
Police and soldiers entered the Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town neighborhoods before dawn Saturday in an attempt to quell weeks of gang fighting.
The police officer and soldier killed Saturday died when snipers hidden in buildings strafed the streets with automatic weapons. Police have not identified the two other victims.
The gang violence in Kingston has left at least 41 people dead in the past two months.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Kingston's many gangs were used to rustle up votes for Jamaica's two main political parties. Although the gangs now focus on drugs, most have political loyalties and often clash over party affiliations.
Seaga has accused the police and army of provoking violence in the stronghold of the opposition Jamaica Labor Party. In his statement Sunday, he said authorities "invaded" the area this weekend, "firing hundreds of rounds of ammunition largely indiscriminately into homes and crowds."
The governing People's National Party has denied it provoked the gangs, countering that the recent gang fighting was part of a campaign of violence orchestrated by Seaga to force early elections.