Chin Lee — Kidnapping figures bogus

NATIONAL SECURITY Minister Howard Chin Lee said yesterday that the kidnapping statistics which placed Trinidad and Tobago second to Colombia in 2003 were “bogus” and “lacked foundation.” Chin Lee told Newsday there was no single calibration mechanism to analyse kidnappings in all countries and this data needs to be properly checked out before any pronouncements could be made. The Minister said it was unclear whether the kidnappings for ransom listed for TT included “bad-on-bad” (drug-related kidnappings) and false kidnappings. He added that if these abductions were included, then the final information would be flawed.  Chin Lee also said “any O’Level Maths student” could determine that the actual figures regarding kidnapping in TT were drastically lower than what the statistics were showing.

Chin Lee also questioned the accuracy of the sources from which the statistics were obtained. He added that “some of the conclusions drawn are difficult to comprehend,” given the actual numbers regarding bonafide kidnappings in TT, Guyana and elsewhere in North America and the Caribbean for 2002. The Minister said he was not trying to deny there was a kidnapping problem in TT and Government’s plans to deal with kidnappings were well-known to the population such as the newly-formed Special Crime Unit. This unit will have access to the intelligence arms of all branches of the protective services and focus on areas such as kidnapping, drug-trafficking, murder and anti-terrorism.