Global IssuesCARIBBEAN: High-Tech Systems Trace Influx of Illegal Arms
The figures are staggering. About half a billion small arms are in use around the world and nearly half a million people are killed by them annually.
For Caribbean countries like Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, where more than 100 people have so far been murdered this year, the illicit trade in small arms is especially worrying.
'It is not unusual for one gun to be used in one member state or territory for one crime, and then show up in another member state for another crime,' said Lynne Anne Williams, executive director of the Trinidad-based Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS).
'Sometimes there is connectivity between the victims and the perpetrators of the crime and we have not been able to aggressively pursue those links,' she said.
Both the Jamaican and Trinidad and Tobago governments have linked the illicit gun trade to the illegal drug trade, identifying Colombia, Haiti, Honduras and Venezuela as countries from which sophisticated small arms find their way into the local markets.
Martin Joseph, chair of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Council of Ministers responsible for National Security and Law Enforcement, told IPS that in a significant number of cases, there is a correlation between the illegal narcotics trade and that of the illegal trade in small arms and light weapons.
'These weapons are used to protect contraband goods, intimidate users and competitors, protect turf, coerce recruits into gangs, maintain discipline within these gangs and to execute those who threaten to curtail the lifeline of the trade,' said Joseph, who is also Trinidad and Tobago's national security minister.
Joseph said that gun-related violence was also weighing down public health systems, as well as creating social and economic problems for many Caricom states.
In its 2007 report, 'Crime, Violence, and Development: Trends, Costs, and Policy Options in the Caribbean,' the World Bank said that 'the high rates of crime and violence in the Caribbean are undermining growth, threatening human welfare, and impeding social development.'
Last year, the United Nations called on the Jamaican government to institute strict gun control regulations as a means of stemming the heavy inflow of guns and ammunition into the island. In Trinidad and Tobago, Joseph told Parliament last week that 'we had a situation in 2008 that was totally unacceptable in terms of homicide'.
A recently commissioned U.N. report on the impact of small arms on children and adolescents in Central America and the Caribbean said illegal arms dealers earn millions in foreign exchange annually from the deadly trade.
'Small arms are widely available in the region, and the trade in arms is highly lucrative, with U.S. 3.5-10.1 million dollars for the legal trade and much more for the illegal trade,' the report said.
According to the report, Latin America and the Caribbean account for 42 percent of all homicides globally, and this region has 'the highest rate of armed violence in the world'.
Figures released by the Jamaican police indicate that between Jan. 1, 2005 and May 31 last year, 5,068 people were murdered. Of that number, 78 percent were killed with a gun. More than 2,000 others were shot and injured during the same period.
In Trinidad, 544 people were murdered last year and official statistics show that 295, or 54.2 percent, were killed as a result of gang-related activities involving the use of firearms.
Three years ago, Caribbean governments agreed to the formation of IMPACS and now the agency is developing a regional integrated ballistic information network (RIBIN) to help member states combat the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons and the crimes involved in their use.
'The rise in gun-related crimes in the region is indeed a troubling aspect of our current reality,' Joseph told a meeting of firearm examiners and ballistic experts from the region here last weekend. 'Virtually every member state of Caricom is being afflicted by this scourge.'
'In 2000, firearms were responsible for less than one-third of all homicides in many Caricom states. However, by May 2006, gun related crimes accounted for over 70 percent of criminal activity. Illicit firearms are now a significant aspect of a growing culture of violence within the region,' Joseph said.
Williams said that the meeting, which allowed the high-level delegations to further formulate plans for RIBIN, represented an important step forward 'and a concrete example of how we are working to improve investigative and prosecutorial capacity to support law enforcement'.
RIBIN is intended to support Caribbean territories that lack the forensic technology to identify the 'fingerprint' of the ammunition used in a crime and to record the details about the firearm used.
'There are three or four member states that own such systems and we are seeking to establish at least one or two systems in strategic locations across the region where member states that do not have resources to have their own system can have access to a system,' Williams told reporters after the meeting.
She said the initiative would allow for greater cooperation with countries like the United States and Canada.
'We know that we have several criminals who have expanded their operations to be regional in scope. It will allow us to put a legislative framework in place to prosecute those criminals,' she said.
'RIBIN will facilitate the sharing of intelligence across jurisdictional boundaries, enabling national and regional law enforcement agencies to overcome the obstacle and delays associated with logistics of physical evidence exchange and to discover and analyze links between crimes, guns and suspects.'
Washington has already warned Jamaica, where more than 1,500 people were murdered last year, that the high crime rate was affecting businesses and that it could impact negatively on investments.
Karen Hilliard, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) mission director to Jamaica, said data from a World Bank report showed that small companies in Jamaica spent an average of 17 percent of their annual revenue on security costs. 'This is alarmingly comparable to an approximate 23 percent spent by small firms in war-torn Iraq,' Hilliard said.
The World Bank study indicated that the costs of crime totaled five percent of Jamaica's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the World Bank's Doing Business Report 2009 gave Jamaica a ranking of 63 out of 181 economies assessed, showing a minimal decline from 62 in the 2008 report.
© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service