He’s doing a ‘heckuva’ job

Jul 21, 2013 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee, in his six and a half years, has been unable to improve human safety or ensure a higher level of public security. Proof of the Administration’s failure has been the current high rate of armed robberies.  It was not surprising to learn that, by mid-year, there had been 472 armed robberies – an average of nearly three per day. Fourteen persons have been killed during armed robberies so far this year.
The surge in armed robberies, of course, is neither sudden nor surprising. A demoralised Police Force, ‘phantom’ death squads, drug-traffickers, gun-runners and assorted smugglers, combined with lax border security resulted in a flood of handguns in the country over the last decade or so. The number of legal and illegal firearms will continue to grow unless law-enforcement agencies impose stringent limits on the issuance of firearms licences and strict border controls in order to suppress the illegal trade.
The Police reported that, by mid-year, only 49 illegal firearms – 19 revolvers, 18 shotguns, 10 pistols, one sub-machine gun and one rifle – had been confiscated. About 60 per cent of these were manufactured in Brazil with which Guyana shares a lengthy and largely un-policed 1,120 km border. Brazil is the world’s third largest exporter of small arms after the USA and Italy. Many armed robberies in Guyana involve the use of the famous ‘Taurus’ Brazilian handguns. Gun-running, however, will not stop of its own accord. The administration, admittedly, is doing little to eliminate the crime.
The everyday use of handguns has become a grave threat.  Many shootings, often fatal, occur during minor robberies where the criminals’ spoils are paltry. Armed robberies nowadays are so commonplace that they are often carried out by only one or two persons; frequently without masks to conceal their identity; in broad daylight and at public places along busy thoroughfares.
Every place that handles valuables seems to have been targeted to be raided, more because of the opportunity it presents than because of the prospect of a big haul. General stores in the crowded central business district; hair-dressing salons; internet cafés; jewellery stores; gas stations; guest houses; mining camps; money-transfer services and municipal markets have all been targets of fleeting, shoot-and-snatch raids.
The PPPC administration has impaired the State’s capacity to ensure public security. The response of criminals to the spate of extra-judicial killings by the Police Force in the 1990s was to acquire handguns of their own which they do not hesitate to use. The instinctive response of business persons and rich people who think that they might be targets of armed robberies has been to seek to acquire firearms of their own. This has triggered a sort of ‘arms race’ – a cycle of gun-acquisition – in which both businessmen and criminals seek weapons to defend themselves from each other. The result has been that, the more guns there are, the more gun crimes there will be.
The Administration seems either unable or unwilling to promulgate a plan to prevent the influx of illegal weapons into this country or to conduct an aggressive programme to search and seize illegal firearms.  The consequences have been costly. The Administration could make a real impact on public security if the resources of the hard-pressed Police Force were directed at reducing the number of handguns in the country.
Crime statistics for the first half of 2013 confirmed fears that the public security situation is parlous. The lethal use of illegal firearms continues to push the rate for serious crimes. The worst effects of the surge in armed robberies have been the murders in the ‘big empty’ spaces of the undermanned and unmanageable hinterland comprising 152,000 km² or about 70 per cent of the national territory. It is evident that the most likely supply routes for illegal weapons pass through the same hinterland from Brazil.  Gun crimes on the coastland cannot be controlled without controlling the borders which surround the hinterland.
The Administration boasted of having wiped out the last of the gangs with the killing of Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rollins five years ago. It is now clear, however, that previously unknown gangs have begun operating with astonishing efficiency and regularity to attack vulnerable targets. Gangs of bandits pounce on isolated gold-mining camps in the hinterland. Gangs of riverine pirates continue their depredations undeterred on the waterways. Gangs of armed robbers invade business premises in urban areas. These new gangs have contributed to what the police call “a very high level of violence and fear” in the country.
The Administration, despite the deteriorating security situation, actually has no plan to counter the current spate of armed robberies. It seems not to understand that the first thing to do is stop illegal weapons entering the country. The Administration must therefore recruit personnel to bring the police force up to its required establishment levels; it must provide the police marine unit with fast boats to pursue pirates; it must implement stricter border surveillance to staunch the influx of illegal weapons. It must, in short, start its strategy by preventing illegal weapons from entering the country.
The Administration, despite the abundant evidence of a serious armed robbery situation, continues to keep Clement Rohee as Minister of Home Affairs. Clearly, he is doing a heckuva job!

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