Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter

After 24-hours of sporadic gunfire in sections of the Mountain View Avenue community of South East St. Andrew, the political directorate met yesterday and agreed to mend the two-year-old peace which was broken on Monday.

The agreement followed a meeting between Colin Campbell and Karl Samuda, the general secretaries of the governing People's National Party (PNP) and opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) respectively. Other participants included Member of Parliament Maxine Henry-Wilson and the JLP caretaker-candidate, Joan Gordon-Webley. The agreement include several measures to guide campaigning in the lead up to the next general election, which is constitutionally due next year.

Yesterday's meeting was chaired by Political Ombudsman, Bishop Herro Blair, who stressed that part of the agreement was that there should be no restriction of movement in any constituency.

In addition, he said there should be open communication among the various leaders of both political parties on the ground. At least three persons, including a Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldier were shot and injured since the outbreak of violence on Monday.

In the meantime, the security forces vowed to remain in the war-torn community as long as it takes to restore normality to the area. This is according to Superintendent Assan Thompson, head of the East Kingston Police Division.

Targeting trouble makers

"We are not targeting the community, we are going after some people who we have identified as the trouble makers," Supt. Thompson told The Gleaner yesterday.

According to the officer, the streets of the problem areas of the community are saturated with police and military personnel, doing static and operational duties. Supt. Thompson said he is committed to take back the streets from the gunmen.

Classes at several basic schools as well as homework programmes in the community were suspended yesterday.

"I am hoping that the homework programmes will resume this afternoon (Tuesday)," said Collie Allen, who has lived most of his life in the community.