A top security official here is urging Caricom leaders to develop a structure with features similar to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to police the region, while giving impetus and permanence to the menu of measures which emerged from the recently held crime and security summit in Port of Spain.
Retired Brigadier David Granger in an interview with this newspaper last week lauded the regional leaders on the summit, which was held in wake of two mass killings here and also spiralling murders in Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica. He noted that in the Caribbean Community’s (Caricom) 35 years of existence it had never met to address security in such detail. “The April crime summit in Trinidad and Tobago was a landmark event and the importance of such a conference should not be underestimated as it could provide a framework for the management of the region’s security,” Granger remarked. According to him, taken as a whole, the summit was the boldest attempt in the 35-year history of Caricom to address the issue of security in the region.
The summit generated a 31-item menu of measures suggesting new laws and a long list of agreements and agencies. It proposed to put into operation an action plan – prepared by the Standing Committees of Commissioners of Police and of Military Chiefs; the Security Policy and Advisory Committee; and the Council of Ministers with Respons-ibility for National Security and Laws Enforcement – to curb crime in the community. The regional leaders also agreed to sign the regional ‘Maritime and Airspace Cooperation and the Sharing of Assets Agreement’; explore the establishment of a Rapid Deployment Regional Joint Force; enact legislation to allow the security forces to conduct wiretapping and establish a Caricom polygraphing facility. The leaders also approved the conduct of a region-wide information campaign against crime to be facilitated by the Caricom Secretariat. The retooling, retraining, and realignment of national and regional intelligence units to assist law enforcement agencies; the utilisation of current facilities such as the Regional Intelligence Fusion Centre (RIFC), the Joint Regional Communications Centre (JRCC) and the Caricom Watch List are also among the agreements reached.
Granger said agencies such as the Advanced Passenger Information System, the RIFC and the JRCC, which were set up for security co-operation during the Cricket World Cup (CWC) are sound and could be expanded and established on a permanent basis. He said the proposed establishment and introduction of a Regional Integrated Ballistics Information Network; Regional Investigative Management System; Rapid Deployment Regional Joint Force; Advanced Cargo Information System; Caricom Visa; and Caricom Travel Card, and the continuation of the Single Domestic Space, are also great ideas. However, he questioned whether such an assortment of agencies and facilities could effectively counter the challenges from well-connected criminal cartels.
“How will Caricom ensure the compliance of delinquent member states or punish the misconduct of rogue security officials?” Granger asked. In this vein, he said, consideration should be given to setting up an appropriate, permanent institutional framework to manage the plethora of agencies and activities, which came into existence for the CWC last year, and have been agreed to by the summit this year.
“Summit meetings cannot manage an international security system, Caricom should design a structure similar to the Organisation for Security Cooperation in Europe that caters for the human, economic, territorial and environmental security of member states, and other matters,” the retired brigadier charged.
Granger said Guyana stood to benefit greatly from such a mechanism, noting that there would be greater levels of information sharing which could boost this country’s intelligence capacity, a sore point in the security forces here. Granger said that there was much to gain as this country continues to grapple with spiralling street crime and drug trafficking and money laundering seem to have taken root in the society. “To fully deal with these problems our country needs international help and there would be no greater place to get such help than from our Caribbean brothers and sisters,” Granger a former national security advisor said.
The Regional Security System (RSS) supported mainly by the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and Barbados had worked well over the years.
However, Granger said the RSS as is currently constituted could not fulfil the role. He said the RSS established by the Britain in the Cold War era, had always been limited in both the size of its membership and the scope and scale of its operations. He said security threats in the region have changed since 1982.
Asked what should be the fate of RSS should Caricom decide on creating a security body, Granger said there could be discussions between the two groups on arriving at a solution, perhaps a merger of functions. However, he insisted that there should be
no two groupings dealing with security of the region. Supporters of the RSS have argued that many of the bigger states in the region have refused to sign on to RSS because of issues of sovereignty and some member states projecting themselves above others.
National consensus
Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee, when asked whether his government would support an initiative to have a permanent security establishment, said he was not sure, but acknowledged that he had been keeping abreast with the debate for such a body. He said there were a number of legacy legislation from last year’s CWC, which could be examined in that context. “What I would support is for agencies such as the Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) one of the bodies set up for CWC to examine the matter to determine the usefulness of such a body,” Rohee remarked. He argued that any move to create a regional security body would require national consensus and the necessary legislation to make it work.
Granger said any new framework adopted by the region should consider the current criminal threats facing the Caribbean. By this he means, stepped up efforts to bolster the region’s maritime capabilities to deal with cross-border trafficking in arms, persons and drugs. Granger said the smuggling of contraband was also a serious issue facing the region, which security officials have not yet addressed in a holistic manner. He noted that maritime security went beyond the provision of boats and aircraft, as it was also about equipping vessels with radar technology and safeguarding one’s country borders from criminals.
One-man show
Asked if there was any hope for greater cooperation within the security sector in the region, Granger said yes, but pointed out that at present the momentum for Caribbean security was being driven by one man – Patrick Manning, T&T Prime Minister. “But there might be good reasons for this, no other country has the resources and assets,” Granger commented, asserting that Manning might be leading the charge also because of his own country’s crime problem.
“But the question to be asked is when Manning goes would we have someone with the same enthusiasm leading the security charge in the region?” Granger questioned. Manning is currently the lead head for crime and security in the region.
Granger said undoubtedly previous attempts at bolstering the region’s security would have failed because there had not been anyone equally committed to the task as Manning. He reasoned that because of this the security action for the region was being driven by T&T and that Caricom should establish a permanent security structure.
