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enable residents to make proper arrangements to leave their homes.
To compound the situation, there was a power outage in the area.
Secondly, the invitation to go to the National Arena as guests of the
JCF was limited to the residents of Tivoli Gardens. The residents of
Denham Town were not considered in the text of the announcement.
To the extent that the buses were stationed at one pick up point South
West of Tivoli Gardens meant that the buses were inaccessible to
residents of Denham Town. Some of these residents were also
barricaded in their community and under the eyes of some of Coke’s
gunmen. A third reason for refusal of the offer was probably a fear
about leaving property unoccupied. Since the public announcement
did not give an assurance that vacated properties would be properly
looked after by the security forces, the fear was not unfounded or
unreasonable.
7.60.
Beyond any issue of adequacy of the measures to protect
life, limb and property, no reliable evidence was adduced to us that
some persons in Tivoli Gardens were threatened with death if they
attempted to leave. At best, suggestions to that effect were made by
Counsel to witnesses, but these suggestions were not supported by
actual evidence.
7.61.
We find that those residents who were aware of the JCF’s
offer but rejected it, did so mainly because of a deep distrust of the
security forces. That distrust, which we were told is prevalent among
the general population of Jamaica, is rooted in the history of conflicts
between the security forces and gunmen embedded within the Tivoli
Gardens community.