The guns of death kept silent for the second straight day in August Town yesterday, as Jamaica Defence soldiers fanned out across the main trouble spots, ramming home Security Minister Peter Phillips’ promise that the soldiers would be called from barracks to assist the police in tackling para-military criminal gangs.

Joint army-police patrols were seen in operation in areas such as Jungle 12, Judgement Yard, Vietnam, Bryce Hill, Duppy Lane and Angola.

The first task for the joint army-police initiative was to sterilise the borderlines between the warring communities of Vietnam and Jungle 12. From early Friday morning soldiers used a front end loader to scrape up old cars, appliances, boulders and other forms of debris which were used to block a section of the road in Jungle 12.

“We are going to clear the roadblocks along the borderlines so as to facilitate the free movement of the people and also the patrols,” said a soldier who did not wish to be identified.

The garbage was loaded onto a National Works Agency truck and dumped at a nearby quarry.

But some residents questioned the wisdom of the move.

“We put roadblock there fi stop man from drive by and shoot up the people dem,” one woman said, “When them move the block and gone, the man dem going come fire up shot over here.”

But the soldiers were not planning to leave any time soon.

“Them have nothing to fret about because we will be living in August Town until them decide to cool,” one soldier said.

Yesterday some residents of Jungle 12 showed brave faces and sat on sidewalks as the police and soldiers cleared the roadblocks. Other groups of youth smoked marijuana about 200 yards from the soldiers and police.

Some of the youth were incensed with sections of the media.

“Them a use the media fi fight we and make it look like a Jungle 12 a look war. We are the ones who getting shoot down,” one youth, his hair twisted in thick corn rows, said. “Everything you hear is about Jungle 12 like a we one a fight.”

Other residents used the opportunity to purchase groceries while some schoolchildren, fear evident in their eyes, made their way to school. Others, mostly women, conversed with a group of blue denim-clad officers who were patrolling the area.

The Jungle 12 section of August Town has been embroiled in conflicts with different sections of August Town since last year. In February, a bitter feud broke out between a gang from the community and one from a section of the town called Judgment yard, which is owned by Dancehall star, Sizzla Kolonji.

Persons from Jungle 12 and Judgment Yard traded accusations and blamed each other for the shootings and murders committed in the depressed area.

The feud led to the loss of over a dozen lives, the torching of homes and dragged on for over six months, until an uneasy peace deal was brokered between the warring factions.

Then earlier this year, the Jungle 12 gang and men from the neighbouring Vietnam community became involved in another feud which led to a number of murders and drive-by shootings on both sides.

On Thursday, police recovered six AK47 rifles, three sniper rifles, an M16 assault rifle, two shot guns, a tech nine sub machine gun, 23 AK47 rounds of ammunition, 31 nine millimetre rounds, four M16 rounds, two bullet-proof vests, 11 assorted magazines, and a silencer inside a fowl coop at Judgment Yard.

Sizzla, along with 31 other men and a female were taken into custody in connection with the arms and ammunitions find.

On Friday, Judgment Yard looked like a ghost town.

But while the soldiers were visible in August Town, no soldiers were seen in Spanish Town and McKintyre Lands, the other areas earmarked by the security minister for occupation .

The old capital was a bustle of activity on Friday afternoon. Commuters loaded into taxis and buses at the municipal bus park. An area which has been the bone of contention between the warring One Order and Klansman gangs since the October 2003 parish council elections.

Traffic police and others from the Island Special Constabulary Force conducted routine checks on route taxis and other vehicles.

The entrance to Ellerslie Pen was blocked while persons milled about on the outskirts of the Tawes Pen community which lies across the street from Ellerslie Pen. Both communities are known to be the turf of the One Order gang.

In the De La Vega City, Dempshire Pen, Shelta Rock, Jones Avenue and Fish Ground areas, the atmosphere was tense but calm.

In McKintyre Lands, more popularly known as “Dunkirk,” few residents were seen on the road during a drive along Windward and Portland Roads. While there was police presence, no soldiers were seen in the area.

Last Saturday, the brutal triple-murder of 65 year-old Eugene Thompson, her cousin known only as Dave, 33, and her 33 year-old female tenant, Marian at Bryden Street in the area forced many residents to pack their belongings and flee the neighbourhood.

The police have since imposed nightly curfews in the area which have seen at least 12 murders in the last six weeks.