A motorist was yesterday shot and injured during crossfire between gangs in the volatile Mountain View community in Kingston.

The police said the motorist, whose name was not released, was shot in the hand when he was caught in the middle of a gunfight between gangs from Jarrett Lane and Top Jacques Road in the afternoon. He was taken to hospital where he was treated.

The shooting came on the heels of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's warning at the People's National Party's 68th annual conference on Sunday of increased political tension in the tough east Kingston community. She had accused the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) of pushing political tribalism that has disturbed the fragile peace in the area.

Yesterday, Simpson Miller reiterated calls for an end to rising political tensions in sections of the Corporate Area, and urged supporters of both major political parties to do everything in their power to protect the lives of all Jamaicans.
Speaking at a post-conference press briefing at the PNP headquarters on Old Hope Road in Kingston, the prime minister said she would be writing to Opposition Leader Bruce Golding for both to come up with ways to end the rising hostilities.

".I am going to be naming a team from the People's National Party side, and ask that he names a team from the Jamaica Labour Party side, to ensure that as people get on the road, and as people launch their campaign, we do not have confrontation or challenges," the prime minister said.
Yesterday's shooting was the second time in a week that a motorist was caught in crossfire between gangs in Mountain View. Last week Monday, a motorcyclist was shot in the leg as rival gangs exchanged bullets along the busy Mountain View Avenue.

Police and soldiers have been patrolling sections of the community in an effort to contain any further escalation of the violence, which has threatened to shatter a peace agreement between warring factions.

But Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields yesterday expressed concern that the peace deal that had been brokered between rival gangs could be shattered, and blamed political tension for the resurgence of gun violence in sections of the Mountain View community.

"It's like a tinder box down there. Tension is high and it is ready to explode," Shields said. "Since the politics, free movement between communities has been restricted and it is a shame that after so much work has been done in this area, it is about to be shattered because of political antagonism.".

Apart from an internal flare-up between sections of the JLP-aligned Jacques Road in September last year, the volatile community has been relatively peaceful for more than two years after a peace deal was inked through the efforts of the Bishop Herro Blair-led Peace Management Initiative.
The violence which raged in the area and restricted the lives of residents of the community forced the setting up of a permanent police station at Mountain View Avenue.
Simpson Miller told reporters that the code of conduct signed between political representatives in South East St Andrew, of which Mountain View is a part, had resulted in 'peace', and individuals were able to walk in an area known as "No-man's Land" to get to Mountain View Avenue.
However, the rising tensions in the area have forced residents to once again erect a fence to provide safe passage for the residents of the PNP strongholds of Jacques Road and Jarrett Lane to enter Mountain View Avenue.

"I think all of us would like to have a peaceful Jamaica, and when I announce the election date, that we will have peaceful campaigning by both sides," Simpson Miller said.
Both the JLP and PNP have been targeting the South East St Andrew constituency, which was won by a narrow margin in the last general election by the PNP's Maxine Henry Wilson, who defeated the JLP's Phillip Henriques.

Simpson Miller, flanked by her four newly elected vice presidents, deputy general secretaries, party chairman and general secretary, said yesterday that she would be "hurt" if a member of the JLP or PNP was injured as a result of campaigning.

The prime minister told reporters that graffiti was used to deface the property of one of the party's candidates in Chapelton, Clarendon, and underscored the need for an end to the hostilities now in the embryonic stage.

She said there was a large section of the society which did not support neither the JLP, PNP nor NDM, and that they have a right to function, to go about their daily lives uninterrupted.

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