Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee says the time has come for the U.S. – funded Caribbean Basin Security Initiative to roll out programmes to tackle the growing threat of gang violence in the region and trafficking in persons.
Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee (left), U.S. Ambassador Dr D Brent Hardt, Caricom Ambassador-at-Large Juan Guiliani Cury and St Kitts and Nevis National Security Ministry Permanent Secretary Astona Browne at the opening of the second meeting of the CBSI Commission on October 13 at the Guyana International Conference Centre
He was addressing the opening ceremony at the second meeting of the CBSI being held at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC), Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara (ECD). Only recently Caricom convened a meeting in Guyana to discuss plans to roll out the first phase of the Caricom Social Development and Crime Prevention Plan. The first phase of the plan focuses on youth gangs and gang violence and is aimed at strengthening the capacity of youth and community members to design and implement programmes to address gang formation and gang violence among and against youths. In addition, the project aims to increase livelihood opportunities and employability for economically and socially marginalised youth. The meeting, which was organised by the Caricom Secretariat in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Government of Canada, also served to increase knowledge and strengthen the capabilities of at-risk youth to deal with social challenges and to navigate successfully, the transition to adulthood.
Meanwhile, Rohee who delivered the feature address emphasised Guyana’s commitment to playing a role in furthering the partnership between the Caribbean and the U.S. He said while it is obvious more work needs to be done in the region in terms of improving security mechanisms, there needs to be practical solutions to reducing and by extension eliminating, the causes of crime at the local, regional and global levels: “Only through partner ships can we effectively fight crime in all its manifestations.
Partnership at the domestic levels that is cooperation between law enforcement and civil society, non-governmental organisations whether it is the private sector, constitutes an effective tool to crime prevention, and detection.” He added: “Partnership at the international level is a sine qua non for fighting and detecting criminal activities at the regional and hemispheric levels in all its manifestations.
Therefore, as we think locally and not globally in the same way we need to think globally and act locally.” Minister Rohee stated that the time has come for the Commission to roll out strategies and programmes aimed at tackling the many problems affecting the region, pointing specifically to trafficking in persons.
“Further of critical importance is the need to roll out programmes and strategies to deal with gangs and violence, the need to formulate programmes which would divert youth from becoming gang members and this cannot be overemphasised. More youth programmes are of vital importance in assisting to divert youths from becoming gang members. We need to energise the process in order to bring delivery to the peoples of the Caribbean.” Reassuring Guyana’s commitment to the CBSI programme Rohee said: “Guyana is committed to fighting crime in all of its manifestations and in this regard several anti-crime laws were recently passed. The political will to fight drug trafficking is not to be found wanting in Guyana in this regard.
Two task forces were recently established to aggressively pursue the responsibilities of drug trafficking and illicit firearms as well as contraband and fuel smuggling.” He added that it has been accepted that it is only through partnerships at all levels that the issues of crime and violence could be tackled effectively: “Our interdependence forces us to work collectively, for our neighbour’s problems today could be ours tomorrow.”
Genuine partner
U.S. ambassador to Guyana and representative to Caricom Dr D Brent Hardt emphasised that the CBSI had emerged as a genuine partnership among several nations and provided a vehicle through which other nations in the world who are interested in the Caribbean could lend their support to the partnership.
He said the meeting would provide the partnership with the opportunity to take stock of collective accomplishments to date, review the results of the Technical Working Groups and use those results to lay the ground-work for the second Caribbean-United States Security Cooperation Dialogue set for The Bahamas in November.
