Caricom IMPACS trying to end diversion of firearms

This is according to presenters at yesterday’s opening of a twoday sub-regional consultative meeting of senior law enforcement officials from CARICOM countries at Caricom’s Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) head office in Port-of-Spain. The meeting is sponsored by IMPACS and United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR).

In opening remarks, IMPACS Officer-in-Charge, Tonya Ayow, said the rise of gun-related crimes and its negative impacts on victims and their families, and the longer-term social and economic implications, trouble every law abiding citizen.

When weapon seizures are featured in the media, she said, “one has to wonder how military grade weaponry has ended up in the hands of common criminals as well as large criminal syndicates, and not in the hands of trained law enforcement officials to protect the citizenry.” Noting new and merging threats due to illegal trafficking of psycho-tropic substances, human trafficking, the emergence of foreign terrorist fighters in the region, money laundering, other financial crimes and the effects of climate change, Ayow said each will benefit from the diversion of arms if the issue was not addressed and proper measures put in place.

IMPACS Regional Crime and Security Strategy Coordinator, Callixtus Joseph said the problem of the use of the gun in TT was a critical issue as seven out of every ten persons were murdered by a gun. The last murder count for the year, he noted, was now over 330.

Noting that gun violence was the biggest problem in the region in terms of crime and security, Joseph said, tackling the issue of diversion of arms was at the top of most governments priority, particularly in TT and Jamaica.

In the coming months, he said, IMPACS will facilitate a firearms assistance programme to member states that would include ballistic training for improved detection of gun crimes, and training of national points of contact to build capacity of law enforcement agencies in the region to curb gun violence.

In his remarks project manager, UNIDIR, Himayu Shiotani said that in the hemisphere, Central and Latin America have the highest levels of homicides in the world due to the use of guns. “The firearms are in the regions and they are moving around,” he said.