- RUDOLPH BROWN/Chief Photographer
Bishop Herro Blair (right), chairman of the Peace Management Initiative (PMI), talks with Paul Burke (second left) during a tour of west Kingston on October 14, 2004. Also present at left is Mayor of Kingston, Desmond McKenzie.
Earl Moxam, Senior Gleaner Writer
NEARLY THREE years after it was established, the Peace Management Initiative (PMI) has gained widespread acceptance as an important instrument of bringing tranquillity to communities torn apart by violence, having touched about 50 communities since its inception.
It's an acceptance that gratifies Donna Parchment, deputy chairman of the PMI, who has been a central figure in the process.
According to Miss Parchment, however, that response is not just short-term, but one which will see the PMI remaining as long as necessary to work in partnership with the community to foster a sustainable peace.
This, she said, was being demonstrated most clearly in Mountain View, a community that, up to two years ago, was dominating the news headlines for the number killings taking place, almost on a daily basis.
OUTBREAKS OF VIOLENCE
"There was a spate of killings in the community and basically Mountain View had locked down. Motorists were not using Mountain View avenue to go to the airport. People had stopped leaving their houses to go to work; the basic schools were closed down and the community was in urgent need of attention", she said. The PMI, led by Bishop Herro Blair, 'did a lot of walking, providing opportunities for people to talk about how they were affected and what they would like to see done about it.' Established by National Security Minister, Dr. Peter Phillips, in early 2000, the PMI has become an integral part of the response to outbreaks of violence across the Corporate Area and elsewhere in the country.
The political representatives on the PMI, she said, were very helpful in facilitating this dialogue and the process of working with various groups in the community.
"Then we began holding regular meetings with the various streets in Mountain View followed by large group mediation where we allowed a space in which people could talk about the problems, create an agenda of issues that needed to be worked through and brain storm on an agenda on a way forward." Then there came the need for all involved to demonstrate that they were serious about changing the situation."
"So we all had to agree to walk through the various sections of the community, and with each section joining in this led to a large movement, including people who for years had been hostile towards each other", she said.
COMMUNITY WALK-ABOUT
But it was not all smooth going at first. Miss Parchment related one standout occasion when a community walk-about received a hostile reception because those in the area being visited had not been adequately informed beforehand.
"So we learnt a lesson from that, and over time we had regular meetings with the leadership of Mountain View so by the end of the first six months there was a sense that something was happening here."
That confidence-building process, she said, led to a number of small but important projects like the painting of walls and fixing the basic schools.
"The important thing is that the residents themselves were carrying out the work, involving people across borders. We were providing the materials and moral support, but this was a way of developing a structure through which the initiative could work. We developed a Mountain View football programme, established a link with EXED (community college) for people to attend classes first on a part time and later on a full time basis."
One young woman who grew up in the Mountain View area is breathing a sign of relief today, taking comfort in the respite that is being enjoyed by residents.
Where, two years ago she was numb with fear for her own safety and that of other family members, she now speaks optimistically of the future.
"Life is back to normal. The basic schools have reopened, small traders are back on the streets, the guys on Jarrett Lane and on Jacques Road are coming out of their homes and are comfortable on the side of the road; In fact there's life in Mountain View after six o'clock in the evenings once more," she said.
Above all, the young woman said, her mother and her friends are now glorying in the fact that they are able to attend night services at church, even walking to church, something that they had been forced to stop doing during the period of hostilities, when the sounds of guns barking replaced the tinkle of the tambourines and shouts of hallelujah.
MULTI-AGENCY RESPONSE
Miss Parchment, whose substantive job is that of chief executive officer of the Disputes Resolution Foundation, was quick to point out that the work in Mountain View was not confined to the PMI, but was rather a multi-agency response to a serious crisis.
One such organisation she says is the Area Youth Foundation, which uses art and animation "towards building a sustainable peace as well as helping people identify their own skills and provide opportunities for economic empowerment."
She said that the Social Development Commission and Kingston Restoration Company (KRC) were also playing important roles in the process, while the Rural Agricultural Develop-ment Agency (RADA) was being asked to come in and assist with small economic projects to give the unemployed other avenues for income generation.
The PMI, she reported, was an idea of the Minister of National Security, Dr. Peter Phillips. He named Bishop Herro Blair as Chairman, and appointed a diverse membership including academics Horace Levy and Barry Chevannes, Reverend Renard White, Laban McDonald, representing the police commissioner; three representatives each from the two major political parties, and a permanent staff, comprising two social workers - Berthlyn Plummer, and Camile Jackson, and development officer, Damion Hutchinson.
She credits Horace Levy, chairman of the development committee of the PMI for the work he did in organising residents of the community to repair the fire-bombed houses as soon as hostilities had died down, to demonstrate the seriousness of purpose inherent in the initiative. Asked to comment on the PMI's work, Dr. Phillips told the Sunday Gleaner that he was pleased with the work that it has been doing.
The initiative, he said, "was born of a realisation that, given the existing law enforcement capability and the extent of alienation that existed in various communities it was time to start a dialogue so that they could be made to see that their conflicts represented a route that led to nowhere." But for the PMI to be successful, he said, it was recognised that "it had to have people who had credibility and who could meet with the most destitute and deprived in the society, and we found those people." One of those people referred to by the national security minister is Bishop Charles Dufour of Montego Bay, who has started a Western chapter of the PMI.
ESCALATING CRIME PROBLEM
Dr. Horace Chang, Member of Parliament for North West St. James, while welcoming the PMI's efforts in his constituency, is calling for more funds to be provided to underpin the work of the organisation, pointing to the escalating crime problem in that part of the country.
"Everyone over 14 years old in some inner-city communities now have access to a firearm. They are ordinary young men who need an opportunity. There are not many wild-eyed killers out there; but it can't just be about better policing, which is necessary. It has to be more comprehensive. We need to train the young men for jobs that are available," Dr. Chang warned. Dr. Phillips, in affirming his own recognition of the need for more resources, told the Sunday Gleaner that his ministry had already received some commitments towards that end "from some of our international partners that can be devoted to this kind of activity".
"It is just a matter of completing some of the administrative arrangements which are involved when you are securing funds from those sources. We have also developed linkages between the PMI and the Citizens and Social Justice Programme - a IDB/ GoJ programme administered out of the ministry," he said.
