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Tivoli Tension - Part 1
Story Created: Oct 24, 2011 at 6:31 PM ECT
Story Updated: Oct 24, 2011 at 7:25 PM ECT
In May 2010 the eyes of the world were glued to Tivoli Gardens in Kingston, Jamaica, where a deadly battle between armed forces and residents erupted, after the Jamaican government made a decision to extradite Tivoli don Michael Christopher “Dudus” Coke to the United States to face drug and gun running charges.
Fifteen months later, Senior Multimedia Investigative Journalist Mark Bassant visits a community still considered one of the most dangerous places in the Caribbean to see how the residents have been coping and how the incursion has transformed Tivoli Gardens. Here's the first instalment of this two-part special report:
The Tivoli Gardens buildings are scarred with bullet holes - a grim reminder of the ravages of war.
A bloody incursion in May last year left 74 dead, most of them laying down their lives for alleged drug lord Michael Christopher "Dudus" Coke.
Considered the Don of Tivoli Gardens and dubbed Jamaica's "first president" by the residents, Coke was said to be a provider for the poor and oppressed.
After months of resistance by then Prime Minister Bruce Golding to block the extradition of “Dudus” - wanted by US authorities on charges of drug and gun running - he finally relented.
In late May 2010, the extradition order was signed by then Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne.
Between May 24 and 27 the masses rose up, declaring an all-out war on Jamaican law enforcement as they sought the elusive “Dudus”.
Fast forward to 15 months later, and a drive through the streets of Tivoli Gardens tells a somewhat different story.
There is still some trepidation by residents, who aren't prepared to invite strangers in.
Our guide, Rohan Hibbert, an employee of Real Jamaica Radio (RJR), approaches a corner leading into Tivoli. Three men sit on the corner. One takes a hard drag on his cigarette and looks up as the van approaches; as if to ask ‘who goes there?’
Hibbert slows the van and blurts out, "Him ah take ah shot of the wall, he ah white balance him camera," as he points to CCN senior cameraman Mike Gonzales.
Located in downtown Kingston, Tivoli Gardens is considered the mother of all garrisons, and is still one of the most dangerous places to venture.
The landscape resembles “the plannings”, on Nelson Street in Port of Spain - rows of buildings stacked tightly together.
The streets are noticeably empty for this time of day. Most of the residents are sitting inside their porches, while others peer through the steel bars of their apartments as we drive pass. The order is no longer held by the mighty Don “Dudus”, but by the police and army.
Heavily armed policemen clutch their guns firmly as they pace the courtyard of the army and police headquarters, in the heart of Tivoli.
Simultaneously an army jeep approaches with five soldiers, who hustle out as the vehicle comes to a stop.
The headquarters resembles a war bunker, and is draped by brown military camo netting on one side.
Ironically, this used to be the headquarters where “Dudus” and his Presidential Click allegedly spearheaded their nefarious activities.
Before last year, the police and army were unable to step foot inside the heart of Tivoli Gardens.
Now, they have actually been able to set up a physical presence for the first time ever in a garrison considered a stronghold of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).
Barbara Jackson has lived in Tivoli Gardens for more than 25 years. She has seen it all. She tells Express Online about the murder of a man mere hours before our arrival.
Jackson has no faith in the police. She believes that “Dudus”, who is now sitting in a U.S. jail, would have prevented the killing had he been around.
"When Dudus was here him was right here where the police is and like him the whole area alright. The police here and man ah dead up the road near the corner."
Wayne Bartley, president of the Tivoli Gardens Community Development Committee, says “Dudus” was always available to assist the people.
"You could go up to him and say ‘good afternoon I'd like to speak to you’, if you just wanna go up and say ‘I'd like to have a word with you’, him say just ‘ole on a minute’ and he wanna finish what he is doing, and then he come listen to you. In some communities you cyar go near the Don, nowhere near that Don in some communities, and I have seen that with my own eyes."
Reminders of the deadly incursion are ever present in the Tivoli neighbourhood. Barbed wire and concrete barricades are strewn on the side of the road at major intersections that were once blocked by angry “Dudus” loyalists.
At some intersections police checkpoints remain, the residents still subjected to scrutiny by law enforcement authorities.
Memories of the bloody incursion haunt Mrs. Jackson. She tells Express Online the police did more harm than good.
"It was a difficult time, because when police came in dem mash up a lot of people house including my own, mash up inside meh house, burn inside, even in this office them put us back and we had to start life all over again.”
One year after the incursion, Jackson was finally able to move back into her fully repaired third floor apartment in the three-storey building.
Nearly everyone who survived that three-day incursion had a story to tell.
"Anything move here was dead,” says Bartley. “A young man was in his house and his kids ask him for water, and he get off the ground to go to the fridge, and returning back with the glass in his hand he got shot straight through the mouth. He died in front of them. I tell yuh anything move, dead."
Army snipers had been positioned on the rooftops of high rise buildings in Tivoli, as well as nearby Denham Town, and were given orders to shoot to kill.
The geographical location of Tivoli Gardens - on generally flat land covering an eight-block radius - made it easy for snipers to pick off targets from the outskirts.
Police and army personnel tell Express Online, "it was either kill, or be killed".
Residents say innocent women and children were fatalities during the battle. Some of them are now buried in the Tivoli Gardens cemetery, across the road from the garrison.
The Tivoli community is still fragile and fragmented. But for many, normal day-to-day life has resumed. Children who were trapped indoors during the bloody massacre are hustling to the nearby Tivoli Gardens High School after their lunchtime break.
“It have people that are healing and still hurt,” Bartley laments. “Dey still talk about it and they say they carrying ah feelings, and you cyar blame them.”
Since the incursion, government has sought to transform the landscape. A sign painted on the side of one of the buildings says: “Welcome to Tivoli Gardens Community".
Below the sign is a picture of an old man sitting on a park bench, with a young girl playing in the grass nearby. The goal is to give a sense of a safer community, to help people forget that Tivoli Gardens fell victim to a deadly incursion for the second time in ten years.
Not far from the place that once served as headquarters for “Dudus” is a wall once plastered with the faces of the past dons of Tivoli Gardens - a tradition perpetuated in all garrison communities in Jamaica.
Now, the wall narrates a new tale. Soothing paintings of nature and abstract art have taken over this space.
The image of a white dove with clover leaf in mouth, breaking a black high-powered machine gun in two is powerful. It symbolises the hope that the gun violence in Tivoli Gardens will end.
In the final instalment of this two-part special report, we will look at Bruce Golding's dealings with the people of Tivoli Gardens, and the “Dudus” extradition affair, which some say was one of the factors that led to Golding stepping down as Jamaica's Prime Minister.
Story Created: Oct 24, 2011 at 6:31 PM ECT
Story Updated: Oct 24, 2011 at 7:25 PM ECT
In May 2010 the eyes of the world were glued to Tivoli Gardens in Kingston, Jamaica, where a deadly battle between armed forces and residents erupted, after the Jamaican government made a decision to extradite Tivoli don Michael Christopher “Dudus” Coke to the United States to face drug and gun running charges.
Fifteen months later, Senior Multimedia Investigative Journalist Mark Bassant visits a community still considered one of the most dangerous places in the Caribbean to see how the residents have been coping and how the incursion has transformed Tivoli Gardens. Here's the first instalment of this two-part special report:
The Tivoli Gardens buildings are scarred with bullet holes - a grim reminder of the ravages of war.
A bloody incursion in May last year left 74 dead, most of them laying down their lives for alleged drug lord Michael Christopher "Dudus" Coke.
Considered the Don of Tivoli Gardens and dubbed Jamaica's "first president" by the residents, Coke was said to be a provider for the poor and oppressed.
After months of resistance by then Prime Minister Bruce Golding to block the extradition of “Dudus” - wanted by US authorities on charges of drug and gun running - he finally relented.
In late May 2010, the extradition order was signed by then Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne.
Between May 24 and 27 the masses rose up, declaring an all-out war on Jamaican law enforcement as they sought the elusive “Dudus”.
Fast forward to 15 months later, and a drive through the streets of Tivoli Gardens tells a somewhat different story.
There is still some trepidation by residents, who aren't prepared to invite strangers in.
Our guide, Rohan Hibbert, an employee of Real Jamaica Radio (RJR), approaches a corner leading into Tivoli. Three men sit on the corner. One takes a hard drag on his cigarette and looks up as the van approaches; as if to ask ‘who goes there?’
Hibbert slows the van and blurts out, "Him ah take ah shot of the wall, he ah white balance him camera," as he points to CCN senior cameraman Mike Gonzales.
Located in downtown Kingston, Tivoli Gardens is considered the mother of all garrisons, and is still one of the most dangerous places to venture.
The landscape resembles “the plannings”, on Nelson Street in Port of Spain - rows of buildings stacked tightly together.
The streets are noticeably empty for this time of day. Most of the residents are sitting inside their porches, while others peer through the steel bars of their apartments as we drive pass. The order is no longer held by the mighty Don “Dudus”, but by the police and army.
Heavily armed policemen clutch their guns firmly as they pace the courtyard of the army and police headquarters, in the heart of Tivoli.
Simultaneously an army jeep approaches with five soldiers, who hustle out as the vehicle comes to a stop.
The headquarters resembles a war bunker, and is draped by brown military camo netting on one side.
Ironically, this used to be the headquarters where “Dudus” and his Presidential Click allegedly spearheaded their nefarious activities.
Before last year, the police and army were unable to step foot inside the heart of Tivoli Gardens.
Now, they have actually been able to set up a physical presence for the first time ever in a garrison considered a stronghold of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).
Barbara Jackson has lived in Tivoli Gardens for more than 25 years. She has seen it all. She tells Express Online about the murder of a man mere hours before our arrival.
Jackson has no faith in the police. She believes that “Dudus”, who is now sitting in a U.S. jail, would have prevented the killing had he been around.
"When Dudus was here him was right here where the police is and like him the whole area alright. The police here and man ah dead up the road near the corner."
Wayne Bartley, president of the Tivoli Gardens Community Development Committee, says “Dudus” was always available to assist the people.
"You could go up to him and say ‘good afternoon I'd like to speak to you’, if you just wanna go up and say ‘I'd like to have a word with you’, him say just ‘ole on a minute’ and he wanna finish what he is doing, and then he come listen to you. In some communities you cyar go near the Don, nowhere near that Don in some communities, and I have seen that with my own eyes."
Reminders of the deadly incursion are ever present in the Tivoli neighbourhood. Barbed wire and concrete barricades are strewn on the side of the road at major intersections that were once blocked by angry “Dudus” loyalists.
At some intersections police checkpoints remain, the residents still subjected to scrutiny by law enforcement authorities.
Memories of the bloody incursion haunt Mrs. Jackson. She tells Express Online the police did more harm than good.
"It was a difficult time, because when police came in dem mash up a lot of people house including my own, mash up inside meh house, burn inside, even in this office them put us back and we had to start life all over again.”
One year after the incursion, Jackson was finally able to move back into her fully repaired third floor apartment in the three-storey building.
Nearly everyone who survived that three-day incursion had a story to tell.
"Anything move here was dead,” says Bartley. “A young man was in his house and his kids ask him for water, and he get off the ground to go to the fridge, and returning back with the glass in his hand he got shot straight through the mouth. He died in front of them. I tell yuh anything move, dead."
Army snipers had been positioned on the rooftops of high rise buildings in Tivoli, as well as nearby Denham Town, and were given orders to shoot to kill.
The geographical location of Tivoli Gardens - on generally flat land covering an eight-block radius - made it easy for snipers to pick off targets from the outskirts.
Police and army personnel tell Express Online, "it was either kill, or be killed".
Residents say innocent women and children were fatalities during the battle. Some of them are now buried in the Tivoli Gardens cemetery, across the road from the garrison.
The Tivoli community is still fragile and fragmented. But for many, normal day-to-day life has resumed. Children who were trapped indoors during the bloody massacre are hustling to the nearby Tivoli Gardens High School after their lunchtime break.
“It have people that are healing and still hurt,” Bartley laments. “Dey still talk about it and they say they carrying ah feelings, and you cyar blame them.”
Since the incursion, government has sought to transform the landscape. A sign painted on the side of one of the buildings says: “Welcome to Tivoli Gardens Community".
Below the sign is a picture of an old man sitting on a park bench, with a young girl playing in the grass nearby. The goal is to give a sense of a safer community, to help people forget that Tivoli Gardens fell victim to a deadly incursion for the second time in ten years.
Not far from the place that once served as headquarters for “Dudus” is a wall once plastered with the faces of the past dons of Tivoli Gardens - a tradition perpetuated in all garrison communities in Jamaica.
Now, the wall narrates a new tale. Soothing paintings of nature and abstract art have taken over this space.
The image of a white dove with clover leaf in mouth, breaking a black high-powered machine gun in two is powerful. It symbolises the hope that the gun violence in Tivoli Gardens will end.
In the final instalment of this two-part special report, we will look at Bruce Golding's dealings with the people of Tivoli Gardens, and the “Dudus” extradition affair, which some say was one of the factors that led to Golding stepping down as Jamaica's Prime Minister.
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