THE international news network Al Jazeera has called Jamaica one of the most violent societies on earth in a documentary highlighting the turf wars, armed gangs and police killings on the island.

With a population of less than three million people, police kill hundreds of people every year in what they claim are crime-related shootouts, making Jamaica's police force among the deadliest in the world, said an AlJazeera.net report, which used as example the police killing of DJ Robert Kentucky Kid Hill last year.

Rights groups say that these shootings add up to a campaign of extra-judicial executions carried out by police who have taken the law into their own hands, it added.

Kentucky Kid was one of 224 people killed in police shootings last year, Al Jazeera said.

"In the last ten years, 1,900 of our Jamaican citizens, officially, have been killed by the police, more than 1,900. In that time, one policeman has been convicted of manslaughter and he has been freed on appeal," Jamaicans for Justices Carolyn Gomes told the network.