Gunmen in blood-stained August Town have agreed to a five-year peace pact under which an intermediary board will be established to work with residents and the police.

President of the August Town Community Sports Development Foundation, Kenneth Wilson, confirmed the agreement but told the Sunday Observer that finer details are being hammered out.

“The central part of this agreement is a commitment to no gunfire in the community,” Wilson explained. “The first phase is to last for five years with a rider, if necessary, for annual reviews and renewal.”

Leaders of warring ‘corners’ in the community will meet again this Wednesday to finalise the agreement, which is expected to be signed at an official ceremony scheduled for June 29 at the UWI Bowl.

Wilson said the agreement has the support of the Peace Management Initiative, his organisation, the police, the August Town chapter of Youth Crime Watch, and the University of the West Indies (UWI), which has committed to further development in the area.

Signatories to the agreement will be corner leaders from sections of the community named Vietnam, Goldsmith Villa, River, Judgment Yard, Jungle 12 and Colour Red.

“These leaders will be signing on behalf of their corners, and from this body will emerge a Corner Leaders’ Peace Council, which will meet on a monthly basis to keep the discussions ongoing, and whatever issues they cannot handle they will refer to the police,” Wilson disclosed.

The cease-fire comes after months of bloodletting and several rounds of meetings to stem the intermittent violence that has claimed dozens of lives over the past five years.

In April, heavily armed gangs fought a more than five-hour street battle in the community, killing two men and injuring three people. Police were eventually able to end the fierce skirmish after they entered the community in armoured trucks at minutes after 4:00 pm through a section near a quarry at Goldsmith Villa.

Early last month, four persons, including a one-year-old child, were shot dead in the continuing violence that has made life unbearable for the residents.

Sources inside the community suggested that those killings, particularly that of the one-year-old child, was the straw that broke the camel’s back, as residents, otherwise not prone to violence, killed three members of the gang that committed the murders.

One man claiming intimate knowledge of the reprisal said it was a message to the gang that the residents would no longer stand by and be murdered. However, he was clear that he wanted the peace agreement to work.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields, who has worked with the community, attending meetings with the leaders, welcomed the pact.

“August Town, I believe, presents us with a perfect example to get the anti-crime efforts right,” Shields told the Sunday Observer. “It is a university town surrounded by two premier universities in the Caribbean, plus the major teaching hospital. There is a high degree of education, and educational reserves within and hovering around the community. There are good, good people here, home owners, so we have a chance to get it right, develop a model and help them make it right.”

Nearly a month ago, at the height of the bloodletting, Shields pleaded at a meeting with the community to realise its potential and urged the community to choose one of two directions – right or left.

“To choose left is to be left behind, but you can choose right and be a part of what’s right in August Town. And I am afraid if you don’t go right, you will be left.” he said to loud applause from the residents.

The community sits in the St Andrew Eastern constituency represented in Parliament by the ruling Jamaica Labour Party’s Dr St Aubyn Bartlett. But Bartlett, who won the seat for the second time in last September’s general elections, has not managed to win kudos from some residents who accuse him of not attending meetings aimed at brokering a peace deal.

A few residents were more forgiving of Professor Trevor Munroe, who sought to represent the constituency on a People’s National Party ticket in the last general elections, saying he was new to the area.

However, they claimed that he, too, was absent from at least two planned meetings.

Efforts to get comments from both politicians were unsuccessful. In the meantime, Shields said his wish was for total disarmament over time, but he was happy to work with the current arrangement.

He said he was aware that the peace deal could leave the community open to attack from gunmen from other communities, but said he hoped that the residents would begin to trust the police and report suspicious activities.

“Three specially trained police officials who have been working with the residents will be assigned to the community,” said Shields. “I have spoken with residents and heard their concerns about abuses from cops. That must not happen, not in August Town, not anywhere across Jamaica, but the citizens also have a responsibility to work together for what is right.”

Professor Barry Chevannes of the UWI agreed, and added that the university had gone past promises and was waiting to put its commitment into operation.

He disclosed that the homework supervision programme offered to students of the community by UWI and University of Technology students will be revived once the violence ceases. The UWI would also be undertaking a scholarship programme to students of the community, guaranteeing them places at the UWI. The programme is aimed at children from the basic school level right through preparation for university.