By Nagra Plunkett, Staff Reporter 
Residents in Flankers, St. James, demonstrating during recent disturbances there. -File
WESTERN BUREAU:
UNEMPLOYMENT AND lack of proper infrastructure are chief among the modern-day problems faced by residents in several St. James communities that were involved in a 'tribal war' during the 1960s.
The communities, North Gully, Glendevon, Railway Lane, Flankers, Salt Spring Road and Mount Salem, are also grappling with the scourge of crime and violence. Most of these areas border the commercial centre of Montego Bay and are comprised of slums and squatter settlements.
According to residents, the mayhem that erupted was not born out of politics but the need by persons to establish and control territories. But it came with a price. One paid for with lives, the mutilation of bodies and hostility that exists even today.
HORRIFIC PERIOD
Panton Davis, a 59-year-old food vendor, believes that there have not been any major improvements in the lives of residents since the 'tribal war' described by many as the most horrific period in the history of the second city.
"In those days you had more people working, mostly doing construction and hotel work," stated the man, who lived in North Gully at the time. "Nowadays jobs are hardly out there and the youths dem don't want to do certain work that is available. Everybody was living good together until tribal war."
"I was a boy in that time and me had to be running up and down trying to keep safe. In those days, everybody had to stay in their communities and couldn't just go places as they like," added a taxi operator, who overheard The Gleaner's interview with Mr. Davis.
Sixty-nine-year-old Sarah Findlay, a Salt Spring resident, said the war was very frightening. "I remember the first time I see a gun. Some guys were down the road playing football and some men from (North) Gully came to attack them," she recalled. "The guys from up here had to run, some even ran under my bed. When I peeped outside, I saw the men with guns and bayonets searching the place for them."
YOUTH IDLE
She also recalled that her eldest daughter, who was attending Montego Bay High School at the time, was even given a warning note one day to take to the men in the community. In her opinion, the area is calmer but too many young people are left idle.
"More should be done to help, especially the young men," Mrs. Findlay noted. "If certain opportunities are created in the community, then lives could be better."
For Milton 'Teetus' Hayles, even though the war ended more than 30 years ago, a stigma is still attached to the inner-city communities.
"From you step out to look work and give your address as Railway Lane, no work is there for you!" the 48-year-old man said. "The same goes for people who live in North Gully and Canterbury. The perception of us not good."
Mr. Hayles grew up in Railway Lane and believes that his community has made strides in curbing crime in the area. "It is far better off now," he said. "We need some sort of work programme in the area, like a factory to create employment because without work you can't see the changes."
