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Golding warns of ‘smarter generation of criminals’

Jul 06, 2010 News

…as Caribbean leaders look to tackle crime, drugs

Prime Minister of Jamaica, Bruce Golding, warned his fellow Caribbean leaders on Sunday, to step up job creation and opportunities that offer hope or else the Caribbean would be filled with “a new, smarter generation of criminals.”
Leaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are meeting in Montego Bay to discuss ways to clamp down on crime and the drug trade.
Golding said that crime does not exist in a vacuum, but thrives in an environment in which poverty is prevalent and hope and opportunities limited.
“Let us also be clear that fighting crime is not just a law enforcement exercise. It is a major development issue. Rooting out criminal gangs that have embedded themselves in communities will leave a huge space, which, if not quickly filled by meaningful programmes that empower people, provide training, create jobs, generate new opportunities and offer hope, will shortly thereafter be filled by a new, smarter generation of criminals,” he stated.
“Social intervention and transformation is the dimension of the fight against crime that we dare not ignore,” Golding declared at the opening of the CARICOM Heads of Government Summit.
But Golding is continuing to face the heat at home for failing to acknowledge his governing Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) lobbying efforts against a US extradition request for alleged drug lord Christopher “Dudus” Coke.
When he finally made the acknowledgement and said that the government had agreed to extradite Dudus, a virtual war erupted in the alleged drug kingpin’s hometown of Tivoli Gardens where Dudus offered support for scores of families.
There have been several calls for Prime Minister Golding to step down over the affair, but he hasn’t and is hosting leaders of the region, and assumed a firm posture on the drug trade.
He said that the Caribbean is located along one of the principal routes for the trafficking of illicit drugs but the region is unable to fight the drug trade.
“We lack the institutional capacity to secure our border, patrol our waters and mount an effective counter-offensive against the powerful narcotics trade. The infestation of our societies and the corruption of our institutions present a challenge to which we must respond, but one that requires resources we do not have,” he stated.
Golding said that while the regional security system in the eastern Caribbean and the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative recently launched by President Barack Obama are important mechanisms, regional government’s need to do much more.
“The transnational nature of organised crime requires much greater collaboration among us and our international partners with equal emphasis being given to supply, transit and demand sides of the international drug trade,” he stated.
“And we must continue to press for more effective measures to stem the flow of guns into the Caribbean, because not only are they the symbol and tool of criminal organisation, but they filter down to itinerant criminals with grave consequences for the peace and safety of our countries,” Golding added.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, addressing the opening of the Summit, expressed concern over organized transnational crime and the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.
Mr. Ban said that CARICOM and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime have developed a joint action plan to combat the problem.
“We must address security issues and social causes simultaneously. In this regard, I welcome the fact that the recently launched Caribbean Basin Security Initiative goes beyond traditional law enforcement approach, and I applaud CARICOM States on all your efforts to combat illicit trade in small arms and light weapons.
“It is important to consider the problem of drug control and the prevention of crime and terrorism in a regional context – and through the prism of development, human rights, the rule of law and security reform,” Mr. Ban said.

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