TT terrorists own sniper rifles, says report

Local terrorist and paramilitary groups are in possession of sniper rifles among other lethal weaponry, according to a Government document read out in the Senate Tuesday evening.

Speaking on the Firearms (Amendment) Bill 2003, Opposition Senator Jennifer Jones-Kernahan read the Ministry of National Security’s “Firearm Policy 2003: Firearms Act Chapter 16:01.” The Report blamed the demand for firearms on five factors, including both paramilitaries/terrorists and organised crime. Under the heading of “Paramilitary and Terrorist Activity”, Jones-Kernahan read aloud: “Armed groups in society favour the illegal possession of assault rifles, sniper rifles and weapons of war, but these weapons are not easily concealed and are therefore normally procured when required for immediate use.”

Under the heading of “Organised Crime” she read: “There is concern about the link between terrorism, organised crime and the drug trade on the one hand, and the demand, supply and legal and illegal use and uncontrollable spread of firearms on the other... The use of firearms to support organised crime is normally manifested by what is referred to as drive-by shootings, street battles and in some cases execution-style killings. There is no doubt that over the past five years drug-dealers’ turf wars have been responsible for a very high percentage of the use of fully-automatic weapons”. A Summation of the Report, not read out by Jones-Kernahan, also stated: “No doubt that appetite opened by the demand for firearms is being fed by a streaming supply which has established itself into a lucrative business of illegal manufacturing and trafficking of firearms and other forms of weaponry within Trinidad and Tobago.”

The Report recommended that to monitor and suppress the transfer and manufacture of illicit firearms, the Police must be provided with methodology, equipment and training, accompanying any amending of firearms legislation. Jones-Kernahan said that such a report should have prompted Minister of National Security Martin Joseph to comprehensively outline his approach to crime, but that the provisions of the Firearms (Amendment) Bill were just a drop in the ocean compared to the situation facing the country. She asked what legislative and social measures were to be taken to deal with the paramilitary groups in our society. Saying that illicit drugs and guns go together, she asked:  “What measures are taken to combat organised crime in the country? What are you doing to combat the drug trade?”

Hitting the Government, she charged: “You are not dealing with the root problem, you are tinkering with the last link in the chain. All the major problems causing crime in our society, you haven’t said a word about”. She said people were sceptical about the Government’s relationship with drug lords and purveyors of arms and ammunition. She recalled personal anecdotes about the abundance of illicit guns in Trinidad. An Electricity Commission worker, she recalled, had related to her how he had gone to a village to work when someone had casually offered to sell him a gun. The “vendor,” she said had thrown open a sack containing a variety of guns and said “take your pick.” In another case she recalled asking an armed youth why he did not just put down his weapon. She said he had replied: “As soon as I put down my gun there’s someone waiting to kill me.”

In the face of such realities, she said, the Government needed to do more than the Firearms (Amendment) Bill to stem the tide of illegal guns. She said: “They find themselves in a situation they are unable to get out of. These people need help... Our young people are committing genocide. We have young people who feel they have no hope of a future and see only darkness. “They don’t care about their life or anybody else’s. Young people are unemployed and have no family life, but will take a gun and commit a crime...They want respect, to be considered to be somebody,” she added.