The Canadian government is providing some TT$12,000 for an initiative aimed at reducing the use of guns in the commission of violent crimes across CARICOM countries, the regional bloc announced yesterday.
The project was launched by the Trinidad-based CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) in partnership with Canadian-based NGO Project Ploughshares, the Institute of International Relations of the University of the West Indies St Augustine Campus and various regional civil society organizations.
According to a CARICOM news release, the initiative is designed to strengthen the capacity of officials at regional and national levels by providing training, technical assistance, research and a much needed infrastructural upgrade. “Civil society organizations will also be strengthened in order to better engage with both CARICOM Governments and Regional Agencies on issues related to Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW). All expectations are that this initiative will have a major impact on policy development as well as the day-to-day operations of law enforcement across the Region,” it stated
The project is intended to run for three years and the Counselor from the High Commission of Canada Laurent Morel-a-l’Huissier explained that the funds would be provided through the Anti-Crime Capacity Building Programme of the government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
Executive Director of IMPACS Lynne Anne Williams is reported as saying that CARICOM is “severely challenged” on the issue and that “no country in the Region had escaped the effects of the crippling reality which was weakening prospects for prosperity.” Acknowledging that “few issues are as complex,” Williams went on to describe the project as an important addition to the menu of responses already mandated by the Conference of Heads of Government to counter crime and promote regional security, the release stated.
Project Ploughshares Executive Director John Seibert also reportedly raised the issue of complexity, opining that the problem had “no solution that was either, quick, simple or free.”
According to the release, Seibert said that his experience in different parts of the world had taught him that solutions must be based on “the smart use of the results of research and intelligence work; law Enforcement that is trained and equipped to connect intelligence and interdiction; and, local communities of ordinary, law-abiding citizens who are given the opportunity to be part of the solution.”
At an event organized in observance of Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence last May in Georgetown, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Kiari Liman-Tinguiri had said 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.
At the same event, Assistant Commissioner Seelall Persaud, Head of the Criminal Investigation Department, said there were no official statistics on the number of illegal guns in the city but that the police seize about 150 illegal firearms annually. He added that there had been 698 cases of armed robbery in 2008 but the number had dropped to 513 in 2009.
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 Force has formed a new unit specially to investigate the illegal firearm menace. Commissioner of Police Henry Greene had reported at the end of 2009 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.
