JAMAICA VOTE TESTS NATION ON VIOLENT CRIME, ECONOMY

KINGSTON, Jamaica - In a land known more for reggae and sun-splashed
vacations, general elections could make or break this nation as it struggles
to stem spiraling crime and revive a sluggish economy.

Three people were shot dead Tuesday in the gritty outskirts of Kingston, the
capital, including an elderly man hit outside his tin- roofed home in Trench
Town, the rundown neighborhood where reggae legend Bob Marley lived.

"Most of these shootings are about money or drugs, not politics," Petunia
Williams, 30, said as her sobbing toddler clasped her legs and police fanned
out in search of the unidentified man's killer. "But you can't help being
scared sometimes. It's become a fact of life."

Former President Carter and 59 observers are part of an international
delegation monitoring the parliamentary elections scheduled for today.
Carter, this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, said the violence is
troubling, but things have improved.

Last year 1,300 people were killed compared with 780 this year. Out of
nearly 50 killings in the weeks leading up to the vote, few were politically
motivated, Carter said. The toll is a sharp drop from the nearly 800 killed
during Jamaica's 1980 elections.

Prime Minister P.J. Patterson of the People's National Party wants to curb
crime by hanging killers.

Jamaica, with 52 people on death row, executed its last prisoner in 1988 but
still hands down mandatory death sentences for crimes such as murder. The
London-based Privy Council, which acts as the highest court of appeal for
most former British colonies in the Caribbean, has rejected many death
sentences.

Patterson's opponent, former Prime Minister Edward Seaga of the Jamaica
Labor Party, said the country's living conditions must be improved. He
blamed political bickering for blocking progress.

"None of the political parties have the answers for what Jamaica needs,"
said Willing Able, 36, a Rastafarian guard at Marley's old home. "They give
us asphalt and pavement, but don't give us land and knowledge to feed our
children. That's the real problem."

Political parties created Jamaica's street gangs in the 1970s to rustle up
votes. Since then, the gangs have turned to drug trafficking. But they
remain loyal to their parties and live in politically divided poor
neighborhoods. As a result, the line between drug-related and political
violence is blurred.

Seaga and Patterson's motorcades were shot at during recent campaign tours.
Neither was injured.