TOUGH-talking young men who have turned the once peaceful rural settlement of Canaan Heights, Clarendon, into an almost raging war zone, now say they are willing to call a truce following the intervention of the National Transformation Programme (NTP).

During a recent visit to the community with members of the Pastor Al Miller-led NTP and the Peace Management Initiative (PMI), the men from either side of the divide - who have been warring for the past two years - expressed their willingness to attend an arranged peace meeting.

However, despite their longing for a truce, the men said it will take more than a peace meeting to rebuild the trust for each other again given the emotional wounds are still fresh in the minds of those who have lost loved one and friends to this violence.

For the last two years, the community has been drenched with the *lo** of the very old and even a child as young men who grew up playing marbles along the dusty rural tracks suddenly became each others' worst enemies.
The older persons, some of whom have lived in the area for more than 20 years, said it is still not clear what started the war.

One resident believed it began when a man was murdered at the community centre about two years ago.
The resident claimed that men who "badmind" him for what he had killed him. "Fi dat ah whole heap ah man dead," explained one man.

Since then the youths of an area - unofficially named Big Lane, and its counterpart, Love Lane, have been trading bullets not only at each other, but anyone deemed to have any association with either areas or certain individuals.

No one knows the pains of the past two years than a 58-year-old woman whose two sons were shot and killed in one year while she, her other son and a small granddaughter almost lost their own lives after being shot and seriously injured.
The woman, who has been living in Canaan Heights since 1982, says she has no idea what caused the problems.
What she knows is that she is fearful in her home and is ever on the lookout.

"At nights me and me daughters take turn sleeping as we are always on the lookout," she said.

The guns have been silent for sometime now, but the tension is very much alive as residents from one area of the community cannot go to another, trapping many in their homes.

Not even a friendly football competition can get the men of Love Lane to venture to the community centre as they say they do not trust those from Big Lane.

"The violence can start back up at anytime and when it heat up it bad because soldiers and police deh right yah so and yet dem shoot man round deh so and run go bout them business," one said, pointing to the vast stretch of woody terrain.

A resident of Love Lane who is related to someone who was shot and injured accused the Big Lane youths of being the instigators.

"No man round yah nah push no war but we ah defend weself," he said.

Despite this feeling of doom, most of the men who spoke with the team said they would welcome any intervention for peace. They are, however, adamant that until they are sure that a real truce is reached they would not be venturing to that side of the community.

However, a group of young men who were seen hanging out at a house in Big Lane and playing board games in the middle of the work day, were quite verbal also in their accusations, as they claimed the men from Love Lane are the instigators.

One young man who assumed a hard exterior said Love Lane youths cannot be trusted. According to him, a football competition intended to bring unity back to the community was not attended by any of them which he believes is a clear indication they are not desirous of peace.

When it was suggested to them that the Love Lane men shied away from the football game because of fear for their lives, the man who was visibly angry said this is not true.

"How dem fi fearful and when women and children come here we nuh do dem nutten? Yet if a woman from over yah go over de dem kill her? All in a church dem go and kill people," he said, referring to the murder of a woman who was killed as she left church one night.

When told by Miller that forgiveness would have to be the order of the day if peace is to reign in that community, one man said they have been doing that for sometime now.