Jamaica
News - Real Estate - Projects (June 28, 2004)
Security
concerns persist over planned US embassy building
When the application for the US Embassy to be
built at Bamboo Avenue, Liguanea was conditionally approved by the Kingston and
St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) Building and Town Planning Committee, the security
concerns of affected residents were ignored, Angella Templer, chairperson of the
Liguanea Area Coalition of Citizens Associations (LACOCA) has charged.
"This is not anti-American
sentiment," Templer insisted. "We have asked what are the citizens'
rights for safety and security, in light of the draconian security measures that
have been made by the US Government worldwide. We have had no answers."
According to Templer, the US is encasing itself
in that environment "because there is a real threat to it and that real
threat becomes our real threat as well".
The June 16 approval paves the way for the
Americans to begin building a chancery, utility building, main compound access
control, marine security guard quarters, service compound access control and
consular compound access control buildings. But LACOCA complained to the
National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) and the Town and Country
Planning Authority (TCPA) that residents were gravely concerned about their
security.
NEPA spokesperson, Zadie Neufville stated that
the TCPA had referred the security plans for the development to the Ministry of
National Security for consideration. What could not be ascertained, however, was
whether the TCPA considered the plan adequate in light of the high security
risks associated with US embassies worldwide.
Of interest to LACOCA, in light of the
al-Qaeda attack on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon building
in Washington D C on September 11, 2001 that left hundreds dead, and the
heightened security risks to US embassies worldwide from terrorism, is the
effect any bombing or other attack on the embassy would have on their community.
The citizens are also alarmed that in the event
of a terrorist attack or an attack perceived to be terrorist, the exclusion
clause in all insurance policies would make "all coverage of vehicles,
buildings and content, property and persons null and void".
LACOCA believes that the embassy would be more
suitably placed in an area such as the Industrial Park in Ferry, St Catherine,
and argues that in the event of an attack, the US embassy, which is to be built
with bulletproof windows and doors and other security measures, would be
protected, but their homes would not be.
"The US Embassy has already contracted a
company (CompuDyne) to supply bomb and bulletproof doors and windows for the
proposed Liguanea complex," LACOCA said.
With increasing terrorist threats at US
embassies worldwide, security measures have been tightened, according to the
Associated Press and Reuters. These measures must include:
. bollards (large, strong posts like those on a
pier) and other vehicle barriers at all embassies;
. shatter-resistant film on windows; and
. counter-surveillance teams in some countries so the Americans can watch
persons who might be watching them.
How the Mona reservoir, three churches, an old
people's residence, three high schools, three primary and preparatory schools,
four major malls, banks, and hundreds of small businesses in Liguanea would fare
in the event of a bomb attack on the US embassy was also a concern. LACOCA also
wanted to know how a bomb blast would affect access to the University Hospital.
The association points out that in the bomb
blasts at the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salam, Tanzania in 1998,
a total of 258 people were killed and over 5,000 injured. Only 12 of the dead
were Americans, and 173 Kenyans, with no connection to the embassy but who
happened to be working or passing nearby, were among the dead. Properties and
houses up to 1,000 metres away were damaged.
"One thousand metres takes in Wellington
Drive, Wellington Glades, some of Beverly Hills, all of Standpipe, three
churches, Mona Road residences towards Karachi and Mona Heights, the commercial
area down to Sovereign and up towards Jamaica College, to say nothing of the
Bamboo Avenue, Ottawa and Munro Road residents in the immediate vicinity,"
LACOCA noted.
At a recent meeting of the association at Campion
College, Colin Campbell, the former member of parliament for East St Andrew, who
lives in the constituency, said that the siting of the embassy at the corner of
Bamboo Avenue and Old Hope Road, in close proximity to some 30 communities and
within the approximate location of at least eight of Jamaica's premier schools
and an already over-busy commercial area, was not appropriate.
"It is not an expression of hostility, it
is not against visas, it is not against aid, it is just common sense in what is
practical for us, for our investments, for our own safety concerns,"
Campbell said.
LACOCA further charged that in securing its
embassies, the US Government had, in several instances, disregarded the laws and
regulations in several countries. "We are not the only country protesting
against the erection of, or requiring changes to new super-secure embassies, but
to date we are the smallest," LACOCA claimed. "A few of the others are
Germany, Norway, Mali, Bosnia-Herzegovina and South Korea."
"What happens if they determine that they
need a Green Zone or a Yellow Zone to secure the embassy?" the association
asked. "These zones protect the embassy but leave the surroundings
vulnerable."
Campbell explained the implications of a Green
Zone: "When the security situation deteriorates around the US compound,
what they do is block it and you can't even go near there, unless you are
subject to the greatest degree of security checks. Perhaps you would have to
park in New Kingston and walk home, because you definitely would not be allowed
to drive your vehicle in there."
But Orna Blum, public affairs officer at the
US embassy, countered that the Green Zone or Yellow Zone designations were
specific to the situation in Iraq. She said that the embassy had no jurisdiction
for any of the areas outside its property.
"The Government of Jamaica has an obligation
to protect all diplomatic missions in this country under the Vienna Convention
on Diplomatic Relations," Blum said. "We are not able to speculate on
future security requests made by local authorities that would help the
Government of Jamaica meet its obligation under that convention."
But there are countries where the US has not
depended solely on "security requests made by local authorities" to
protect their embassies. According to a BBC World Internet report headlined
"US security angers Mali Merchants", after the 9/11 attacks, American
officials began to erect a new set of barriers in the area around the embassy in
Mali, "ignoring an order from the Malian Government that the work be
stopped".
"Hundreds of merchants who had the
misfortune to find their shops inside the barriers erected around the embassy in
1998, after the bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, are furious. For the past three
years, they have been requesting compensation for business lost because of the
barriers, but to no avail," the report said.
"They say they have been subjected to
further humiliation as embassy security agents search all the merchandise they
bring in to stock their shelves in shops where few clients bother to come these
days."
Security barriers the US Government wanted to
erect at its embassy in Oslo, Norway have also been a source of annoyance for
residents of that city. The Aftenposten English web desk in Oslo in February
2002 reported that the US embassy intended to construct "a three-metre-high
(nine-foot) fence around the embassy, and a 10-metre 'security zone' that would
extend into adjacent boulevards, and concrete blockades ringing the perimeter.
There were also complaints that the embassy's
plans would further impede traffic in the area. The embassy later agreed to
remove from Oslo to a more suitable location. And a LACOCA document also cited
concerns in South Korea where a US plan to construct a new 15-storey embassy
building and an eight-storey residential complex for embassy staff in downtown
Seoul was put on hold in the face of strong opposition from civic activists, who
argued it could harm South Korea's historical assets and ignore local
regulations that prohibit the construction of high-rise buildings near
historical sites.
Like Jamaica, the Korean Government had given the
US Government permission in 1986 to put up the embassy. The embassy will now be
constructed, not in the centre core of Seoul, but at Camp Corner in YongSan
Garrison where US forces in South Korea are stationed. The building plans have
also had to be changed to conform to traditional Korean styles and to be no more
than two-and-a-half storeys, LACOCA said.
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