WHEN the Heads of State for the islands in CARICOM hold their next meeting, one of the topics that must be high on the agenda is how are they going to effectively tackle crime not only in their respective nations, but also across the Caribbean as a whole.
This is according to Attorney General and Minister of Home Affairs, Adriel Brathwaite, who delivered the feature address at the CariSECURE Sensitisation Workshop for the Caribbean Citizen Security Toolkit in Barbados yesterday at UN House.
He stated that he makes sure that he listens to the news every morning and one of the news items that he heard on the morning prior to attending this workshop is an update that was given on statistics on crime in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
One of things that stood out to him during this broadcast was how many murders took place in a country as small as St. Lucia, which has an equally small population.
“Every morning, I like many of you I suppose, listen to the various news broadcasts and one station has an update on the OECS … and what is clear to me is that we have a very serious crime issue in the region… St. Lucia has about 49 murders for the year. Little St. Lucia with a hundred and eighty thousand people… It is a regional problem.”
It is therefore with this in mind, that this issue of crime and violence along with disaster and emergency management (DEM) be among the talking points when the Prime Ministers from across the region meet next, said the Attorney General.
“And here is what I really want to say. I believe that there are only two issues that our Heads of Government should tackle when they next meet – crime and security and disaster management. Those are the two most crucial issues that this region faces at this point in time. No other issues as far as I am concerned should be on the agenda.”
Brathwaite stated that these two issues would be critical to ensuring that each nation individually and collectively as a region can move forward towards further development as well as making sure that we keep our tourism industry – which is the main source of income for many nations – alive and well.
“So these two issues can and will determine how we go forward or if we go forward as a region. We, as I say – and I say it continuously – we depend on tourism more so as a region than any other part of the world and therefore we must continue to be seen as a region of peace and unless we put the resources in place to tackle the challenges that we are having all across the region, then we are shooting ourselves in the foot as it were.” (PJT)