ttgapers.com

Sting 2009 will be without Vybz Kartel and Mavado unless both dancehall giants appear together vowing to agree and maintain a peace agreement. The Gully and Gaza supporters, Mavado and Kartel respectively, have been blamed for an upsurge of violence in Jamaica recently. Police sources have indicated that nothing has been agreed to but the ban would include other events as well as Sting 2009.

The tensions between the Gaza and the Gully was one of the reasons given to the management team of Mavado after his application to host his birthday bash at Temple Hall Estate was recently declined. The event has now been moved to the much smaller venue of The Building nightclub. The police have stated that they hold the right to prevent an artiste from performing at a public event, or even the staging of an event, if they believe it threatens national security.

After the management team of Mavado received the official news that the application was declined, they filed an appeal with Commissioner Of Police. The appeal was also accompanied by a signed statement from Minister of Culture, Olivia 'Babsie' Grange. The appeal was declined the next day.

News media in Jamaica got a hold of the letter that was returned to Mavado’s team and some of the reasons cited were “the Stony Hill area where the party will be held has had an upsurge in crime recently (and they have received intelligence that malicious plans were afoot), the Gully/Gaza conflict, the strong possibility of gunfire at the function, traffic congestion, oud noise nuisance and the inability of the police to effectively monitor the function.”

In response to the Gully/Gaza conflict, Mavado’s management said, “Vybz Kartel is booked to appear on Usain Bolt’s show, coincidentally the same night as (Mavado’s). Does (this) apply to that event also?” They seem to think that only Mavado is being singled out by Jamaica law enforcement.

Yesterday, Mavado said, “Di best mi and Vybz can do right now is show di people dem seh a music we only dealing with, because dem (police) a show di people dem di wrong message, because we a dem scapegoat.”

Head of the St Andrew North Division, Superintendent Anthony Castell, was unapologetic about his decision when contacted yesterday. He insisted it was best for the safety of his division. He stated, “We had information that they wanted to kill five men at the dance and we could not have that in our area.”