DESPITE an effort by members of the Peace Management Initiative (PMI) to broker peace in the troubled Allman Town community in Central Kingston, at least one side of the warring factions is hell- bent on revenge.

The march, which was headed by PMI board member Horace Levy, ventured into the rivalling Wild and John streets communities as well as sections of the nearby Prince of Wales Street, where four persons were shot dead and several others injured during separate gun attacks between Wednesday and Thursday.

From left, Councillor Desmond Bailey walks with a member of the Allman Town Community Development Committee, Lawman Lynch and Peace Management Initiative board members Frances Madden and Horace Levy during a peace walk in the troubled Allman Town community in Central Kingston yesterday.

At Prince of Wales Street, the residents had revenge on their lips.

"Mr Levy, this war cannot finish. We cannot be grieving and they are not grieving, is a joke thing that. If we sit here and don't do anything they are going to take us for fool and come shoot up we place again," one young man said angrily.

There was little participation from the residents of Allman Town, but Levy was not disheartened by the low turnout of residents or the vows of vengeance.

"It serves to reassure the citizens. We are here today because the general public is panicked and we want to show them that we are listening and that something is being done," Levy told the Observer.

Councillor Desmond Bailey and Lawman Lynch, a member of the Allman Town Community Development Committee, accompanied the PMI in the march while a huge contingent of police and soldiers patrolled the tense community.

"Persons are scared, if you notice persons are even fearful to come out and participate in the march today. I believe that with this initiative members of the warring factions will see the impact that crime is having on the community and come together in unity," said Bailey.

Yesterday, as the group made their way through the narrow roadways of the impoverished community, the stifling fear which has gripped the area was evident as several residents peered over bullet-riddled walls and zinc fences.

According to the residents, the feud which has snuffed out the lives of at least two women is far from over, and has taken a toll on the children who tremble in fear as bullets are traded between warring gangsters.

"My son him fraid till him not even eat. Me have to force him to eat and when him hear the gunshot them, to how him fraid him start shake like him a get sick. Sometime me have to pray say him don't die to the way how him start shake," one woman said, as she nudged her son inside a tenement yard as PMI members continued their march through the community.

"This war cannot go on like this, it have to done," screamed another woman holding a four-month-old baby, whose mother was said to be among those gunned down on Thursday.

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