BROADCAST TO THE NATION
BY MINISTER OF NATIONAL SECURITY,
DR. THE HON. PETER PHILLIPS.
My fellow Jamaicans, good evening ....
I speak to you with a sense of grave concern and deep distress over the
situation of crime and violence in our country. I speak as Minister of National
Security, as a parent and as a Jamaican appalled, and angry at the senseless
and barbaric spate of killings taking place in the land.
The past year was bloody
and the New Year has been greeted with wanton savagery by criminals who respect
no one . The lives of innocent children and women are no longer sacred and
even priests and religious leaders are now targets of violence and extortion.
This violence has not only led to an unacceptable loss of human life, and
devastation of families, but it has also had severe effect on our economy
and the international reputation of our country.
If allowed to continue, the very survival of the State will be brought into
question. Therefore, it cannot and it will not be allowed to continue.
Since assuming this portfolio, I have spent considerable time meeting with
various interest groups and stakeholders, and getting detailed briefings from
the Security Forces in order to assess the situation and to get an analysis
of causes and solutions.
There is a tendency in Jamaica to under-estimate the nature and the extent
of the challenges that face us. Accordingly, I would like to spend some time
this evening, sharing with you the nature of the threat; our basic strategic
approach, and the immediate priorities.
During the stewardship of my predecessor, many important gains were made in
modernizing the Security Forces through the provision of better equipment,
more professional training and advances in the legislative framework. Many
important strides were also made in areas such as reforming the courts system,
and legal aid.
SITUATION ANALYSIS
The fact is, however, that crime is unacceptably high. Jamaica's homicide
rate, at 44 per 100,000 in 2001 is among the highest in the world and of the
more than 1000 people killed in 2001, 69% died by the gun.
The state itself is being seriously challenged. In too many communities, a
parallel system of enforcement has developed. Law enforcement agencies are
being rendered powerless in these communities, where the only thing that counts
is brute force.
We cannot go on like this. Now is the time for all of us to take a stand against
the intolerable levels of crime which threaten to set back all the gains of
national development.
CAUSES
Our present condition has developed over many decades. In trying to identify
the causes, many will point, correctly, to the ugly scars of political tribalism
and violence and to the rise of rampant materialism, and its consequent deterioration
of traditional values and attitudes.
While there is some truth in this, current analysis, based on the available
intelligence, is that the trade in illegal drugs provides the tap root of
crime and violence in Jamaica today. It has become the principal factor underpinning
the organized criminal networks which are at the heart of the problem.
Available intelligence suggests that anywhere up to 100 tonnes of cocaine,
is transshipped through Jamaica each year.
Moreover, there is some evidence that the international drug cartels have
begun to establish command and control centres here, as pressure builds on
them elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere.
It is this illegal trade in narcotics and the tremendous resources which it
generates, which provides the demand for the illegal high-powered weaponry,
to protect the drugs while in storage or in transit through Jamaica.
The channels used to bring in the drugs, whether through the ports or on the
go-fast boats, moving between Central and South America and Jamaica, are also
used to bring in the firearms. The massive monetary resources of the trade
are used to corrupt critical organizations throughout the Public and Private
Sectors. These resources are also used to sustain the organized criminal gangs
who protect the trade and battle for turf. And the gangs themselves, once
formed, venture into other criminal activities such as extortion, car-jackings,
organised robberies and murder.
The drug trade is sustained by violent enforcement, swift and cold-blooded.
Those who break its rules are brutally and viciously punished to set an example
to others, and we are seeing it here every day.
Among the more serious effects of the drug trade is that it fosters a culture
of disorder and violence. There is an increasing tendency to bypass reason,
logic and humanity for sheer brute force. Nowadays even simple disputes tend
to be resolved by violence.
Indeed, more than one-third of all murders involve persons living within the
same household.
Obviously, any strategy to correct the current crime wave will have to reverse
this culture of violence.
APPROACH
In broad terms, our strategy and objectives are simple.
* We will attack the root problem of the illegal drug trade and the illegal
importation of guns and ammunition, and the gangs which it spawns,
* secondly, we will recover the guns that are already in criminal hands,
* and thirdly, establish the basis for harmonious community relations rooted
in trust between the people and an efficient and competent Security Force.
This will not be easy. The struggle will not be won overnight or in the immediate
future, but it will be won, and it must be won, because the consequences of
failure are too catastrophic to contemplate.
To win this battle, there has to be a new partnership between citizens and
the Police Force, a partnership which recognizes the need to modernize the
Security Forces and to enhance respect for human rights. This partnership
must also recognize that the vast majority of the members of the Security
Forces are good, decent, hardworking men and women even as we systematically
isolate and weed out the bad elements.
STRATEGIC DIRECTION
In defining the way forward we have developed a range of initiatives, not
a quick fix, but which together will represent a comprehensive assault on
crime.
The strategies incorporate the main thrust of recommendations of the National
Committee on Crime and Violence, established in August of last year.
Other areas of the Committee's report that have not been addressed in this
programme of action will need to be refined when the Prime Minister and the
Leader of the Opposition meet to discuss the report.
1. Border Control
* Our first priority is to tighten control over Jamaica's borders, in order
to plug the holes through which the drugs, guns and ammunition flow.
* To this end, legislation is being developed to enforce greater control over
access to air and seaports and to set more stringent standards for our port
operators.
* Much greater use will have to be made of modern equipment at our ports.
A team left the island on Monday to review available x-ray technologies, for
we intend to electronically and physically inspect all cargo coming through
our air and seaports. Steps have already been taken to secure closed surveillance
equipment for this purpose.
* In order to enhance our in-shore and off-shore patrol and interdiction capability,
the Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard will shortly receive three new high-speed
marine patrol vessels and efforts are underway to identify other craft as
well as to secure appropriate vessels for the Marine Police.
* In addition, negotiations are underway to secure coastal surveillance, radar
equipment to facilitate interdiction efforts by the Combined Security Forces
and their foreign partners.
* Immediately, we will be strengthening the Immigration Department, supplying
new data processing and information technologies to apprehend foreign criminal
elements who seek use Jamaica to carry out their criminal activity..
2. Drug Traffickers Scan
With foreign assistance, we are acquiring IONSCAN equipment and associated
technical support to detect and apprehend drug traffickers moving in and out
of the country.
3. Money Laundering
* The attack on the illegal drug trade will involve as well an assault on
the financial proceeds of the trade, hitting it in the pocket where it matters
most. To this end, the Money Laundering Act will be amended and strengthened
to plug existing loopholes and among other things, broaden the mandatory requirement
for reporting suspicious money transactions.
* Moreover, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, we are currently
strengthening our capabilities through the Financial Crimes Unit to build
on our available intelligence and to disrupt money-laundering activities and
prosecute the wrongdoers
4. Intelligence
* All our measures against guns and drugs will require better, more modern
and technologically sophisticated intelligence techniques. Indeed, our recent
efforts in this area have already begun to bear fruit with the substantial
finds of guns, ammunition and drugs up to today. I have already sought and
will secure overseas assistance in undertaking a review of our intelligence
infrastructures. In pursuit of this, amont other things, I will be undertaking
a series of visits beginning next week to the U.S. to be followed by the U.K.
and Canada. In this regard also, it is urgent that we debate and pass the
Intercept Legislation that is currently before Parliament.
* The Finger Print Act is also to be amended to enable police to take fingerprints
and photographs upon arrest for crimes involving firearms and drugs.
5. Manpower
* In the short-term, any effort to bring in the guns and create a more peaceful
atmosphere in the communities will require more security personnel. Currently,
between the Jamaica Defence Force, Jamaica Constabulary Force and Island Special
Constabulary Force, there are approximately 3,000 vacancies. I have given
instructions that a major recruitment effort must be mounted immediately to
fill these vacancies and to provide training.
Protocol with Security Industry
* In the meantime, in order to employ more resources to a national peace keeping
effort, on my instruction, the Jamaica Constabulary Force has negotiated a
Protocol of Collaboration with the Jamaica Society of Industrial Security
which will be signed by the end of this month and will involve collaboration
in respect of information sharing and technical expertise with selected Private
Security enterprises.
6. Re-Organisation of JCF
* We are currently undertaking a major modernization effort within the Police
Force to strengthen its administrative capability and to establish a community
policing framework as the basis of all its operations. In this effort, we
are receiving significant assistance from the British Government's Department
for International Development.
* As part of the exercise, the JCF will, this April, take over direct management
control of its budget and two civilians will be appointed to the force at
the level of Deputy Commissioner. They will have responsibility for finance
and human resources respectively. A new management information system and
additional technology will support the re-organisation exercise.
7. Crime Fighting
* While this re-organisation will take time, there is a need for immediate
response to the urban terrorism which we seeing
* It is unacceptable to have maurading groups of highly armed men terrorising
communities unchallenged by the Security Forces. Accordingly, I have instructed
the Commissioner of Police and the Chief of Staff to immediately develop fighting
response capabilities to rapidly confront the terrorist challenge, wherever
it occurs in Jamaica. This will involve joint operations by military and police
personnel. The Security Chiefs have already begun to review their land, air
and sea tactics. Also in this regard, I have requested international assistance
and advisors from friendly countries with experience in fighting urban terrorism.
This response capability will be in addition to the crime fighting functions
of the Crime Management Unit.
* In the meantime, the police and military will maintain an increased presence
on the street and in our communities with more patrols, spot checks, road-blocks,
curfews and cordons. They intend to make it uncomfortable, indeed impossible,
for gunmen to freely roam our streets.
* In order to strengthen the response capabilities of the Security Forces,
a number of armoured vehicles and other crime fighting equipment will arrive
in the island this month to assist the Security Forces in the battle to take
back our communities from the criminals and terrorists.
* As part of the strategy to curb extreme acts of terrorism of the nature
that occurred at Park Lane, 100 Lane off Red Hills Road and Mountain View
Avenue, work is now proceeding on new Anti-terrorism Legislation. Since September
11, a number of countries have either strengthened or introduced such legislation.
Jamaica will draw on their experience.
*We are on record as supporting the execution of the law where the death penalty
is concerned. We will continue our effort in this regard, cognizant of the
fact that the Privy Council remains our final court of appeal.
8. Firearm Penalties
* Legislation is also being prepared to provide for stiffer penalties for
firearm offences including life imprisonment for the importation and distribution
of illegal firearms.
* In addition, a new incentive scheme is being established to provide substantial
financial rewards for information leading to the recovery of hand guns and
high powered rifles. As part of the scheme, an amount of $100,000 will be
offered for information leading to a conviction for a firearm murder.
9. Public Order
* It is clear that we have allowed too many of our public spaces and public
events to be overtaken by disorder and indiscipline. The centre of too many
towns have become the focus of anti-social behaviour which provide a cover
for more serious crimes such as extortion and robbery.
* Accordingly, we are moving systematically to restore order.
* The police will be embarking on a programme to ensure observance of the
provisions of the Road Traffic Act across the country. Taxis and other public
transport operators will be obliged to obey the rules of the Act. The intention
is not so much to punish but to reform behaviour.
* In this exercise, we will be introducing electronic monitoring devices in
crucial public spaces to assist the general surveillance capability of the
Force over these public spaces.
10. Peace Management
It is clear that an important part of any effort to contain the levels of
violence will have to involve not only regular policing activity but must
also involve a broad based societal effort to reverse the pervasive culture
of violence which has developed in our country.
Accordingly, we have launched a Peace Management Initiative involving the
political parties, the church, civic organizations, musicians, the University
of the West Indies and non-government agencies.
Its purpose is to coordinate mediation activities and community action to
avert violence and conflict in violence prone communities.
Bishop Herro Blair of the Faith Deliverance Centre has kindly agreed to coordinate
this initiative.
11. Police Public Complaints
In any attempt to reverse the culture of violence, it must be recognized that
there is concern and even mistrust in some sections of the society for the
Security Forces.
Much of this centers on accusations of excesses by the Security Forces and
the manner in which public complaints are dealt with in relation to police
shootings.
Accordingly, we will be strengthening the role of the Police Public Complaints
Authority (PPCA) so that it can directly and independently investigate complaints
against the Security Forces.
The Legislative Amendment providing for this, will among other things, include
the PPCA being given its own investigative staff.
12. Well-being of Security Forces
The physical conditions under which the Security Forces have to operate, including
equipment and the conditions of a number of police stations and army barracks,
are also to be addressed and dealt with on a priority basis. High on the list
will be the Mobile Reserve at Harmon Barracks, where two 2-storey residences
are to be built beginning this month. Others will include the Falmouth, Highgate
and Port Maria Stations.
NATIONAL EFFORT
There is no doubt that we are at a crossroads, in respect of violent crime.
To overcome this present challenge will require a united national effort on
the part of all well thinking Jamaicans, irrespective of their social status
or political affiliation.
There are some fundamental principles which must guide the entire nation in
this debate.
The first, is that no one; Security Forces, politicians, high profile citizens
or community don; is above the law. There must be one law with equal enforcement
for all Jamaicans.
In particular, no one should believe they will be protected because they belong
to or purport to belong to any political party, including my own.
If you break the law for whatever reason, you must face the full consequences.
Also, I want to make it clear that there will be no area of this country where
the Security Forces will not be able to carry out their lawful duties. We
are going to police every square inch of the country and our territorial waters
without fear or favour.
The fact is that, it is the poor who suffer most from the disorder. They cannot
afford gated communities or elaborate security systems.
It is poor people who are most vulnerable and often driven from their homes
in fear and terror. They need our protection.
As a Government, we understand the need for jobs and opportunities in our
inner-city areas; that is why we have and will continue to invest heavily
in several social investment programmes.
Let us, however, separate the criminals from the poor. Poverty cannot justify
barbaric criminality.
I call on the women of this country; the mothers, girlfriends, sisters, grandmothers;
stand up for what is right. Do not shield your men when they are involved
in the shedding of the blood of others.
Together all decent Jamaicans must fight street by street, lane by lane, community
by community until we have reversed the tide of lawlessness and created once
again an environment of peace and justice across every inch of Jamaica.
All of us as Jamaicans, are affected; Downtown, Uptown, PNP, JLP or no P at
all, we are all in some way victims of the criminal wave that is affecting
our country. Rather than being divisive, this must be a time for national
resolve to isolate the minority of criminals who seek to retard our progress.
CONCLUSION
Fellow Jamaicans, there is no magic wand which can change our present situation
overnight or in the next few months.
This effort is going to take sustained commitment of our national will and
our energy and our resources if we are to reverse the tide of lawlessness
which threatens to turn back our nation's development.
We do not want our children to grow up without a moral compass or sense of
right and wrong, or a belief that it is normal for people to invade communities
and kill people or for gunmen and criminals to believe they have equal legitimacy
with the Security Forces.
The task ahead is not an easy one. But I am unwavering in my confidence in
the capacities of the Jamaican people. In unity and determination we shall
reclaim our country.
Good evening and may God bless Jamaica.