Declaring that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is a party for “everyone”, Prime Minister and party leader Andrew Holness welcomed a group of Accompong Maroons to its 81st annual conference on Sunday. 

The Maroons were led by their former leader Colonel Fearon Williams. 

“We don't believe in separating ourselves, we don't believe in splitting up the nation, Jamaica is one country, one nation, one people under God,” Holness said. 

The Government and the Accompong Maroons have been at odds over prospective mining and other issues, triggering a Supreme Court case concerning land ownership in the Cockpit Country, where Accompong and other settlements are situated. 

The dispute has led to public clashes between Accompong Chief Richard Currie and Holness and resulted in Currie's exclusion from a meeting with government officials that was held with Maroon chiefs two years ago amid rising tensions.

Additionally, Currie and other Maroon leaders have expressed concerns about the lack of consultation with indigenous peoples during the constitutional reform process.

Currie attended the People's National Party (PNP) annual conference in September where he decried the government's neglect of the Accompong Maroon. 

“We have been soliciting a Government for three and a half years, and to date they have not responded to us. To date they have not attended one function,” he said. 

But, Holness today proclaimed that the party has a strategy to develop the Accompong community to benefit its residents. 

“The people of the Maroons, particularly the Accompong Maroons, the government has a strategy and a plan and wants to work with you in building up your community so that you can take advantage of the heritage assets that you have and build your local economy, and that is how the Jamaica Labour Party posture,” he said. 

- Sashana Small

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