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CARICOM tackles the scourge of illegal guns

Jan 22, 2009 News

Firearm examiners and ballistics experts from across the Caribbean Community are currently working on the development of an integrated ballistics information network for the region.

It was explained that this new security initiative will augment the Caribbean Community’s capacity to combat the scourge of illegal guns and the crimes involving their use.

A press release from the CARICOM Secretariat stated that a high level team met at the Hyatt Regency in Port-of-Spain last Friday. They came from Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. Associate Member States Anguilla and The British Virgin Islands were also present.

According to the press release, each presenter during the session lamented the escalation of crime that CARICOM Member States had witnessed in recent times.

In his capacity as chair of the Caribbean Community’s Council of Ministers responsible for National Security and Law Enforcement, Trinidad and Tobago’s National Security Minister, Martin Joseph, explained that virtually every Member State of CARCOM was being afflicted by this scourge.

He assured delegates of CARICOM’s commitment to address these challenges.

“This conference reflects our awareness of the severity of the problems associated with this illicit trade, as well as our determination and urgency to build sustainable capacity and strengthen regional and international cooperation against this transnational scourge,” he said.

The minister acknowledged Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s leadership in his capacity as Lead Head with responsibility for crime and security in the CARICOM quasi cabinet, and applauded the work of the Implementation Agency for Crime and Security, headed by Executive Director Ms Lynne Anne Williams.

When Ms Williams took the podium, she reminded the regional collective that “crime is both a human security issue and a development issue.”

“We must take meaningful steps to prevent further human suffering and destruction of life,” she told the gathering.

She explained that the development of the Regional Integrated Ballistics Information Network (RIBIN) represents for the region an important step forward, a concrete example of how they are collectively working to improve investigative and prosecutorial capacity to support law enforcement.

“It will facilitate the sharing of intelligence across jurisdictional boundaries, enabling national and regional law enforcement agencies to overcome the obstacles and delays associated with the logistics of physical evidence exchange, and give them the tools to discover and analyze links between crimes, guns and suspects,” Williams noted.

The chair of the proceedings was the Director of CARICOM IMPACS Liaison Office, Mr. Francis Forbes, who pointed out that the escalation of crime was a universal phenomenon, before celebrating the fact, as he put it, that “CARICOM had gone into action.”

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