Today, day four (4) of the State of Emergency that is limited to Kingston and St. Andrew, normality is returning slowly to Downtown Kingston, as a few businesses are re-opening.
Businesses in St. Andrew are resuming normal working hours.
Selected members of the Press Association of Jamaica, will be allowed limited access to a few sections of Tivoli Gardens, today.
The overseas media will also be allowed limited access, afterward.
Update: There was a gun battle between a joint JCF-military unit and gunmen in the Sterling Castle section of Red Hills, early this morning... 4 soldiers are wounded, a civilian - businessman Keith Clarke, is dead, as the security forces continue to hunt for Mr. Coke and to re-establish the rule of law in the Corporate Area (Kingston and St. Andrew) and St. Catherine.
(JCF is the Jamaica Constabulary Force -the police).
Food for the Poor is seeking experienced volunteers to help distribute food in Tivoli.
Yesterday, we learned that:
1) The Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) is up to 50% staffing and that medical staff are finding it easier to get to the hospital under the security provided.
However the food supply a the KPH and other Kingston hospitals is running low.
2) Members of the security forces, along with certified undertakers, were see on TV burying badly decomposed bodies of persons involved in the civil unrest. They were being buried in the May Pen Cemetary
3) Three (3) people were killed in Mountain View during a gun battle between the police and gunmen there.
4) Two lawyers - Tom Tavares-Finson and George Suter, are expressing concern that children are being held amongst detainees.
5) Commissioner of Police, Owen Ellington, has sent more police personnel into Spanish Town at the request of Mrs. Sharon Hay-Webster, MP for South Central St. Catherine
6) Head of the Red Cross, Jaslin Salmon, reported that he saw hunger distress, despair on the faces of those left behind in Tivoli. (Please understand that this is normal, since persons are not being allowed to leave their houses).
7) The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), the Red Cross, Food for the Poor and various churches are continuing the delivery of food, water and baby pampers to the people of Western Kingston
8) 11 of 12 wanted men have given themselves over to the police.
Gillian
Sources Include
1) Television Jamaica's Nightly News at 7:00 p.m., May 26, 2010
2) Nationwide Radio, May 26-27, 2010