LOCAL cigarette giant Carreras Group Limited yesterday donated near $5 million to two projects, given symbolically on the day the company launched its Corporate Social Investment initiatives for 2006.

The larger grant of $3 million goes to the Dispute Resolution Foundation for the establishment of a Peace and Justice Centre in violence-plagued Spanish Town, while $1.75 million was handed to a university-run Patios project.

The Dispute Resolution Foundation grant will seed the centre, whose job will focus on gang and political conflicts in the crime-ridden town, once the island’s capital.

Spanish Town is controlled by two gangs – One Order and Clansman – who use violence to drive fear into residents and businesses to facilitate their lucrative extortion rackets.

Yesterday, a day after reports of security concerns by St Catherine parish councillors, whose meeting chambers are in the centre of one troubled and gang-controlled area, Mayor Dr Andrew Wheatley denied that parish representatives were fearful for their safety, saying their demand for police security was really a cry for equal treatment.

The councillors had threatened to boycott their next meeting unless the police were present, saying they were concerned about their safety.

But, calling a report in yesterday’s Daily Observer misleading, Wheatley said councillors only demanded that the police be present at the council because they “felt that since steps are taken to ensure the safety of parliamentarians at each sitting of the House, then the same courtesy should be extended to all councillors”.

The new peace centre, whose efforts will be concentrated mainly on communities such as De La Vega City, Tawes Pen, Central Village, Ellerslie Pen and Portmore, will also handle political conflicts, and train persons in conflict resolution.

Donna Parchment, Dispute Resolution Foundation chief executive officer, said the Carreras donation would boost her organisation’s work in the old capital.

“This action by Carreras will help to improve the reputation of the city and should be emulated by other peers to help in crime prevention and community development,” said Parchment.

“We plan to use these funds for the benefit of the people of Spanish Town because over 70 per cent of crimes are caused by unresolved conflicts.”

Sharon Palmer, the assigned administrator for the peace centre, told the Observer that a launch is planned for the end January or early February.

The $1.75-million donation to the Jamaican Language Unit at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, is for the production of an official guide to the Jamaican language and a 500-word glossary of basic Jamaican language, a boost to the bilingual research project led by Professor Hubert Devonish.

Both publications will be used to promote improved access by members of the Jamaican Diaspora, to legal and health services abroad, and will serve as reference work for those who seek to implement the formal use of the Jamaican dialect in official and administrative contexts.

“This is a very significant part of our company’s programme of contributing to nation building,” said Carreras Managing Director Michael Bernard.

“A part of Carreras’ mandate, through the direction of its key stakeholders, is to play an active role in corporate social investment activities,” he said.