Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter

PERSISTENT RAIN throughout yesterday could not quench the thirst of scores of Jamaicans who journeyed to the gates of the National Stadium in Kingston to get answers about their relatives whom they believed had been detained during the west Kingston operations.

Troy, 23, told The Gleaner that his heart had been aching since he was told the police took away his 17-year-old brother from Tivoli Gardens.

"Mi did a fret dat dem kill him, but him just come up inna di truck and as mi si him, mi heart gawn down," Troy told The Gleaner.

He said his younger brother was detained in Tivoli where he had gone to spend the weekend with his girlfriend.

"Him come market come sell him yam, but because di market slow, him neva get fi sell off him load, so him go ova deh and was to go home on Monday," Troy said.

However, as fate would have it, the security forces entered Tivoli Gardens on Monday, seeking to capture Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, who is wanted in the United States for drug and weapon smuggling.

More than 500 detained

More than 500 persons have been detained by a joint police-military team during its operations in west Kingston.

Carla, a 27-year-old woman, is hoping that her brother is among those detained because she was told he had been taken out of his house. She has not seen or heard from him since.

"I am just praying that he is in there and he is OK," a worried-looking Carla said.

But Mark, who hours before had been released from detention by the police, says many persons at the gate would not find their loved ones.

"Nuff people out yah a look fi dem yute and nah go find dem cause dem dead. Dem get murdered, burnt and den buried," Mark said.

Meanwhile, a detainee yesterday escaped the grasp of police personnel transferring him from the Mobile Reserve to the National Stadium and threatened to commit suicide.

The man, who was covered in what appeared to be flour-like dust, took refuge atop a building at the South Camp Road police base. He spent close to two hours on the roof threatening to jump. He even appeared to ignore the pleas of relatives who had climbed on to the roof to convince him to change his mind.

He was eventually tackled, floored and quickly dragged down from his precarious perch and taken into detention.

While the man was fearful of going back into detention, there are some persons who have expressed fear for their lives. A few detainees, who were released early Friday morning, decided to sleep at the entrance to the arena for fear that if they returned home, they would be killed.

- daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com [2]

Names changed to protect the identity of interviewees.