Rowley: Nation traumatised by murders

He is appealing to those persons to reflect on alternatives which could provide more acceptable outcomes to their valuable lives.

The Prime Minister’s appeal came in a statement on recent violent crimes and as the murder toll for the year reached 50 on the week-end.

“While crime has been, for some time, one of the most, if not the most critical issues facing Trinidad and Tobago,” Dr Rowley’s statement said, “The particularly heinous murders over the recent weeks have been nothing short of traumatising for the entire nation.
The loss of life through violent and unlawful means is wholly unacceptable.”

Rowley observed that in recent weeks we have seen teenaged school girls being abducted and their young lives brutally snuffed out. Women continue to die through violent means, he added, pointing out also that we are witnessing scenes where bodies are being dismembered and humiliated for display. “Every murder is considered objectionable by the government, the Prime Minister said, “But the especially abhorrent types of murders occurring in recent weeks have brought an acute sense of terror and trauma to citizens.”

He said, “It is the unwavering commitment of Government to provide national law enforcement with what is required to do all that is humanly possible, under the ambit of the law, to find the perpetrators and swiftly bring them to justice.”

The Prime Minister said, “Government sincerely sympathises with all who have lost loved ones to murder and while we share the pain inflicted on the national community by those who engage in violent conduct we continue in our sustained efforts to bring the perpetrators justice.”

Rowley concluded, “I want to appeal to all those young persons who might be influenced by or attracted to violent criminal activity to consider the frequency with which such activities end in grief not only for their families but for the wider national community, to reflect on alternatives which would provide more acceptable outcomes to their valuable lives.”