RELATIVES of persons who were killed during last week's operation by the security forces in West Kingston had an opportunity to identify their loved ones yesterday.

The relatives visited the Denham Town Police Station and the Tivoli Gardens Community Centre, where pictures of the deceased persons were placed on display.

The media were not allowed on the grounds of the community centre but grief was etched on the faces of persons who visited the police station.

Two women, after viewing pictures of the decomposing remains of a man they identified as 'Bassa', broke down in tears inside the Criminal Investigation Branch at the station.

They said that they were his cousins.

"Look pon him, Bassa gone, him gone," cried one of the women, hugging her relative for comfort.

It was a tedious task for a man who identified himself only as Mr Wilson. After repeatedly searching the album with the graphic images, he was still unable to identify the remains of his son.

"I know that he is dead. Many of us went to look at his body at the May Pen Cemetery. But I don't see him in the album," said the man, who left the police station with a pall of gloom hanging over his face.

Wilson later told the Observer that he had an opportunity to recognise his son on a computer at the Tivoli Gardens Community Centre.

Yesterday, Public Defender Earl Witter said that the procedure gave concerned residents the opportunity to know for certain whether or not their missing loved ones were among those killed.

However, he said that the process was just the start of the identification drive, and that further identification would have to be conducted at the morgues as some relatives could not readily recognise their loved ones on photographs due to their advanced state of decomposition.

That process, he said, should facilitate the smooth flow of post-mortem examinations. Witter said that he could not tell the number of bodies that were identified yesterday, as he did not know.

In the meantime, Witter blasted the security forces for preventing members of the media from observing the identification process in Tivoli Gardens.

He said that he was investigating complaints by at least one reporter, who claimed that he was assaulted by the security forces while he tried to enter the community.