SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — The Jamaican Parliament abolished flogging as a means of judicial punishment in 2013.

However, Ferron Williams, who was returned as colonel of the Accompong Maroons in an election last Thursday, told journalists he intends to have the practise revived for criminal and anti-social behaviour, subject to the dictates of the Maroon Council.

In such matters, Williams told the Jamaica Observer Central in a follow-up telephone interview on Saturday, Accompong should not be considered subject to Jamaican law since it was “a State within a State” with its own customs, traditions and culture.

Indeed, according to Williams, under the terms of the Peace Treaty agreed between the Maroons and British colonisers in 1738, murder was the only crime which should require the intervention of the Jamaican authorities.

“In such cases we should hand them (alleged murderers) over,” said Williams, who recently retired as a member of the Jamaica Constabulary.

Maroons are the descendants of African slaves left behind by Spanish colonisers when the British captured Jamaica in the 1650s, as well as runaway slaves from British sugar plantations. Maroon communities in the Blue Mountains of eastern Jamaica and in the Cockpit Country, including Accompong in the island’s west, resisted British occupation for decades prior to the 1730s peace treaty.

Williams’s assertion of the intention to resume flogging came in the context of recent incidents, including the destruction by fire of his home in Accompong.

He said he was determined to ensure that “Accompong will not be any safe haven for wrong doers”.

Williams told journalists that “on the day before nomination my home was burnt, it was torched…” He claimed his life had also being threatened in the build-up to the election.

He said he was prepared to ask the Jamaican authorities for assistance in ensuring stability in the community.

He told the Observer Central on Saturday that he believed the alleged act of arson which destroyed the five-bedroom house was motivated by internal politics in Accompong.

Williams said he had fallen short in terms of a promise to have flogging resumed during his last five-year term as colonel, but this time around he intended to honour the promise.

“My first manifesto did not accomplish two things: a transportation system for schoolchildren and second to bring back flogging in Accompong,” the maroon chief said.

“Irrespective of anything one wants to say, punishment not meant to be easy and those that break the law should be punished, and the only form of punishment we have in Accompong is the cat-o-nine and the tamarind switch and that was placed on my manifesto and I will honour that promise,” he told journalists.

“I will see and cause wrong doers in Accompong to be punished in such a manner,” Williams added.

He insisted, however, that crimes plaguing the rest of the Jamaican society, such as armed robberies and break-ins, were virtually non-existent in Accompong.

Thursday’s election, which followed a stormy campaign, saw Williams polling 218 votes, according to the preliminary count, ahead of Elizabeth Campbell, 182; Norma Rowe Edwards, 135; Meredie Rowe, 131; and Viviene Cornish, 18.

Accompong took on a festive atmosphere, with some Maroons singing and dancing during the count at the cultural centre.

Maroon elder Melville Currie supervised the elections with the assistance of a team from the Electoral Office of Jamaica led by Deputy Director of Elections Earl Simpson.

Voting took place in Accompong as well as in Kingston, Montego Bay and in a number of communities embraced by the Cockpit Country in north-east and north-west St Elizabeth.