Going by the number of communities where calm rather than conflict is now the order of the day, the Peace Management Initiative (PMI) has been a relative success over the past seven years.

Indeed, Damian Hutchinson, the PMI’s programme manager, would have been particularly proud to hear the testimony of the men in Woodford Park during a recent visit by his organisation and members of the National Transformation Programme.

The men, regarded as leaders in the tough community, told the Sunday Observer that unlike other times when they would have retaliated, they have since sought the assistance of the PMI to resolve conflicts. According to a youth, one of their own was fired on by men from a nearby community, but instead of fighting back they requested intervention from the PMI.

Started in Kingston through the initiative of former minister of national security, Dr Peter Phillips, the PMI is an early intervention mechanism mandated to prevent conflict from rising to the level of violence. It is also charged with strengthening civic organisations that provide stability, sustainable development, security and pride within inner-city communities.

The group, which works with 50 inner-city communities in Kingston, said it has already seen significant impacts in gritty neighbourhoods where gun violence was once rampant.

“Despite crimes trending up in some areas, we are seeing real success in Kingston,” said Hutchinson.

During a recent visit by the Sunday Observer to several of these communities, such as Woodford Park, Dunkirk, Mountain View, Rockfort, Bhurger Gully, Bayshore, Nannyville, South Side, Cassava Piece, Telaviv, Whitfield Town, Allman Town and August Town, area leaders lauded the efforts of the PMI which they claimed have played a role in sustained peace in their areas.

Hutchinson told the Sunday Observer that through their intervention, peace has also been maintained in communities such as Majestic Gardens, Brown’s Town also known as Dunkirk, Central Kingston, and Waterhouse.

But even as it basks in the pride of that kind of success, the PMI believes there can be a one-third reduction in homicides if it is given additional resources as well as the right security and political inputs with which to work.

Donna Parchment, vice-president of the PMI, said last year the group submitted a proposal for $100 million a year which would, among other things, establish more peace councils in communities and provide a bridging opportunity for residents of these communities who had opted to sign on to peace treaties.

She said the PMI was hoping to have been granted the amount based on its track record and extraordinary relationships and trust built on the ground.

However, the agency was informed that it was not feasible at the time.

The money, she said, would not have been used by the PMI alone but in collaboration with other supporting agencies. It would also involve administration and governance expenses for staff. She said the 15-member board, which is pulled from a diverse group of academic, faith-based, police and political entities, has never been paid for its services.

“Based on the challenges, we will be hoping to see substantial resources made available for this year,” she said.

The agency’s priorities, Parchment said, would be to increase the staff component from four, as well as to spread the PMI’s intervention to other areas. But all that will cost more than the $1.8 million monthly on which the PMI now exists.

In April 2005, based on the need for its services, the PMI opened an arm in Montego Bay. However, the successes it has experienced in Kingston are not as defined in that tourist resort city.

Hutchinson said this could be attributed to the fact that theirs is a much smaller operation.

“The PMI in Montego Bay needs to be strengthened and greater co-ordination needs to happen,” he said.

Explaining how the PMI in Kingston works, Hutchinson said when violence breaks out in a community they go in immediately to ascertain the nature of the conflict.

“We try to bring persons involved to the table to hammer out the issues,” he explained.

Using August Town and Waterhouse as models, Hutchinson said they were the first two communities to publicly sign peace agreements which they have kept for some time now.

He said a peace council set up in Duhaney Park is another example of great success as the communities of Sherlock Crescent and Brook Valley have kept the peace for five years now.

He said they will be taking it further to have other communities sign on to peace agreements, although some shy away from this public acknowledgement.

“What we do is ask the groups what they are comfortable with and some will say they will hold the peace but they don’t want the formal thing and the publicity,” he said.

This success, however, does not come without its challenges.

Citing a community like Arnett Gardens which was torn apart by violence for many years, Hutchinson said it took the PMI mediators six months of pacing those streets before they could locate the right persons to talk with.

Since then, they have managed to maintain peace in that area.

“Now we have been in every volatile community and we have contacts in every one,” he said, adding that when there is a conflict they immediately know the nature of the disagreement and who to talk to.

Hutchinson admitted, however, that in communities where political division is greatest, the agency’s success is limited.

“We are seeing a decline in political violence, but when this happens it is difficult for the PMI to deal with,” he said and gave as an example Mountain View which, despite sustained peace for two years, erupted in the run-up to the 2007 general elections.

When that happens, he said, the PMI has the hard task of rebuilding, as all the achievements are eroded.

According to the PMI, the traditional definition of a gang does not apply to the operation of most gang activity within the Jamaican context. Instead, the agency makes the distinction between the criminal gangs and community-based gang violence.

The criminal gang’s intention, said the PMI, is to commit criminal offences in a bid to acquire monetary gain or power. This gang is a more hardened group, unwilling to compromise or participate in mediation sessions.

“While they participate in turf wars, their operations include trade in drugs, guns, large scale robbery, extortion, assassination, etc,” the PMI said, adding that the gang’s operations involve the organised exporting of criminals to participate in community conflicts across the island.

The members of these gangs are professional criminals, and they are unlikely to give up criminal activity to become legitimate members of the country’s labour force.

On the other hand, community-based gangs or “corner crews” are much more indigenous creations which emerge from the cultural and structural realities that exist in many marginalised communities, the PMI explained.

Their involvement in violent activities is largely to defend community turf or carry out reprisals.

In these gangs there is more reliance on overseas dons as they seek to acquire guns for engagement in conflict with a similar group and commit homicide mainly on these grounds.

Petty theft, extortion on a minor scale and robbery outside the community, the PMI said, may be frequent.

Many of these gangs, it added, evolved out of corner crews or what used to be political gangs.

The PMI said it has found that the political motivation for gang violence has dissipated significantly and has been replaced by the other factors. Both types of gangs, it said, are however linked to political parties through the community and political representatives.

“Politicians have lost their influence on these gangs, which are now supported by either their criminal enterprises or overseas supporters,” the PMI said.

However, the PMI said despite the attempt by many political representatives to distance themselves from gangs, the agency has found that at election time the political tensions in politically divided communities increase significantly, giving rise to the possibility of gang violence being activated by the availability of resources from any source.