Communities under siege

IT DIDN’T take Folade Mutota and other founding members of the Women’s Institute for Alternative Development (WINAD) long to detect the disturbing trend. Shortly after the group was established in 1999, volunteers went into working-class communities to lay the groundwork for an Inter-generational Women’s Leadership Programme and other initiatives. It was during that time, Mutota recalled, that they noted the emergence of the gun as the weapon of choice for criminal activity. “We came upon this very disturbing trend — the prevalence of gun violence — and undertook to alert the population,” she said.

So began WINAD’s extensive and ground-breaking work on small arms control. Since 2001, the group has been analysing the increasing gun violence in Trinidad and Tobago and its threat to “the personal sense of security and order in the society.” Their research revealed that guns were increasingly being used to commit murders, robberies and assaults, accounting for most of the 80,180 serious crimes recorded in this country between 1999 and 2003. WINAD states in its NGO report: “The illegal use of guns and drugs is wreaking havoc in some communities, leaving residents virtual prisoners in their own homes. Throughout the region, the reality is the same. Communities are under siege.” The group’s research extended throughout the Caribbean, but the main focus was on TT, Jamaica and Haiti, where the problem of gun-related violence is most severe.

In November 2003, some of the group’s findings were presented at a Laventille Women’s Forum, hosted in collaboration with the East Port-of-Spain Council of Com-munity Organisations, Success Laventille Networking Committee, Desperadoes Steel Orchestra and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO). According to Mutota, the session zeroed in on the gender dimensions of the problem of small arms and women were encouraged to seek ways in which they could act individually and collectively to end gun violence. Often overlooked, Mutota explained, is the fact that women suffer direct and indirect abuse as a result of gun violence.

They face physical violence, their movements are severely curtailed and controlled and they suffer immense psychological trauma due to “unexpected but constant gunshots that can be heard day or night.” Women living in communities ravaged by gun violence and gangster activity also live in a state of fear of the potential loss of a son, partner, brother or husband. “There is also the additional financial burden associated with the loss of a principal income earner and also the need to divert funds... to legal or burial fees.” Economic, psychological and social factors identified as contributors to the problem included discrimination in employment and the stigma attached to living in working-class communities like Laventille and lack of employment opportunities. This led many men to look to trafficking in drugs and guns as a way of earning quick cash, WINAD reported.

“Because of the high crime rate and stigmatisation, business people are wary of venturing into Laventille to invest and provide employment,” Mutota said. She added, however, that the problem of gun violence and the proliferation of small arms is a national problem and is not limited to Laventille and the other communities of East Port-of-Spain. According to WINAD’s research, there is a network in operation involving Laventille gangs and those from other areas in which information is traded about how, when and where to get guns.

As part of its campaign against gun violence, WINAD staged a very successful “No Guns for Christmas” campaign last December. The group is currently working with other NGOs around the world to get support in the Organisation of American States (OAS) for an Arms Trade Treaty, a worldwide initiative aimed at cracking down on the illegal weapons trade. Locally, WINAD plans to work closely with regional corporations to stage “community conversations” on gun violence and in the first week of July, which has been designated Week of Anti-Small Arms, the group will release the findings of its latest study on the subject.