( L - R ) Garth, Madden

THE CHURCH wants the chance to negotiate with gunmen as part of a thrust to help to fight crime in Jamaica.

The Reverend Dr Peter Garth, president of the Jamaica Association of Evangelicals, said during a Gleaner Editors' Forum yesterday that the Church should be allowed to play a more active role in fighting crime.

"Those persons who are holding guns, they are actually human beings and we need to take a different approach," Garth said. "If you look at it, you realise that we need to be involved in negotiating and I think the Church is still the best organisation to do that."

Securing ceasefires

The Church has been involved in many social intervention programmes within warring communities and has been able to secure ceasefires as well as a rebirth of commercial and social life within such areas.

However, it has been knocked for having close relationships with criminals. But Garth said that criticism should be ignored.

"We really need to rise up and forget about the criticism that even came from the police force concerning hugging up gunmen," he said.

Jamaica's murder tally has consistently soared over 1,200 every year since 2004. More than 700 people have been murdered since January, including almost 200 in May.

Most of these murders have taken place in communities identified as political garrisons and inner cities.

Garth said a new approach must be taken in dealing with persons from these communities who are suspected to be involved in crime.

"It is not about more equipment, more squads, more this and more that," said Garth, who is the pastor of Hope Gospel Assembly.

The Rev Len Anglin, executive chairman of the Church of God in Jamaica, said that in the past, the Church collectively offered cooperation and total involvement, especially in the area of community policing.

Proposal ready

He said a proposal has been developed and was given to the commissioner of police, the Government as well as the Opposition. Among the proposals is an adopt-a-gang initiative to be undertaken by the Church.

Aulous Madden, elder at the Maranatha Gospel Hall in Vineyard Town, St Andrew, told the Editors' Forum that church interventions continue to be valuable.

He pointed to the recent incident in which he claims the Church was able to get 10 young men from south-east St Andrew to put down the guns. These men, he said, have transformed their lives.