Last week’s forum – “In Harm’s Way: Girls in Settings of Endemic Armed Violence” – that was organized to observe the ‘Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence’ by the International Action Network against Small Arms was cause for both controversy and concern.
Ms Glynis Beaton, General Secretary of the Young Women’s Christian Association, created a stir by declaring, probably with some hyperbole, that there were “at least 150,000 persons in possession of illegal guns” in Georgetown. It would be difficult for her to provide proof of such a precise number, of course. She surmised that the influx of weapons was “linked to organised crime and gang violence” adding that levels of armed violence were “at epidemic proportions.”
Concrete evidence to support her claim that guns are used to protect contraband trade during transportation, that they are smuggled along with illegal narcotics “often by the same people, using the same routes, including vast borders, rivers as well as the coastline, small ports and clandestine airstrips,” would also be hard to come by.
Mr Kiari Liman-Tiniguir, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, who also addressed the forum, noted more diplomatically that existing national and regional controls continue to contain “significant loopholes” and there was a crucial lack of an appropriate international treaty to regulate international arms transfer.
The Guyana Police Force is aware of the gun problem. Assistant Commissioner Seelall Persaud, Head of the Criminal Investigation Department, however, refuted Ms Beaton’s claims. He iterated that there were no official statistics on the number of illegal guns in the city but that the police seize about 150 illegal firearms annually. As for the “epidemic” of violence, there had been 698 cases of armed robbery in 2008 but the number had dropped to 513 in 2009.
Mr Persaud admitted that gun violence – defined as the use of a firearm to threaten or inflict violence or harm – has been a source of concern. The Police Force in fact recently formed a new unit specially to investigate the illegal firearm menace. Commissioner of Police Henry Greene had reported at the end of last year that his statistics over the years showed that “most robberies are committed with guns” and that the availability of illegal guns was a major challenge for the Force. There had also been an increase in the rental of illegal guns, most of which were used by bandits. Despite the number of gun crimes, however, gun seizures have been decreasing and gun violence is continuing.
President Bharrat Jagdeo had promised in June 2005 that, owing to increased gun-related crimes caused by the influx of illegal weapons, his administration would improve intelligence, expand the Guyana Revenue Authority’s ability to detect smuggled weapons at sea ports and airports and increase the Guyana Defence Force’s presence in the border areas “for better interdiction [and] increase international co-operation to combat trafficking in firearms.”
Although Ms Beaton might have gotten her numbers wrong, she is correct about the connection between guns and violence. Mr Persaud confirmed that Brazil with which Guyana has a nearly 1,200 km border, is one of the major sources of illegal guns. That country is home to Taurus International Manufacturing Inc – the parent company of one of the largest firearm manufacturing companies in the world.
It should not require the ‘Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence’ to remind the administration of its responsibility to ensure public safety and human security. If it is aware that Brazilian-manufactured small arms have been flowing into the country, why hasn’t the military presence on the borders been strengthened as the President promised five years ago?