2-day Caricom crime symposium opens on Monday

THE two-day Caricom special symposium to address crime as a public health issue, opens on Monday at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain from 9 am.

The Prime Minister, who holds responsibility for national security in Caricom's quasi-cabinet, will deliver the feature address at the opening of the symposium and chair its proceedings.

Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis is also scheduled to address the symposium tomorrow.

At a news conference last July at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann's, the Prime Minister first suggested that a public health approach be taken in addressing crime.

Dr Rowley made the comment against the background of serious crimes taking place in TT at that time.

"It is the Government's intention to declare violent crime as a public health issue because violence across the society is now the norm. From domestic violence, violence in schools, violence of persons against persons, armed responses for everything and, of course, the gains to be had by criminal conduct where lives are lost and property being destroyed and stolen and so on. It is a whole plethora of violent, unacceptable conduct."

Last week, Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Dr Amery Browne recalled that Caricom leaders decided to hold the symposium when they met at their 44th regular meeting of Caricom heads of government in the Bahamas in February.

In a WhatsApp statement on Saturday, Browne said, "The symposium is not an end in itself, but rather an important step toward evidence-based strategies and interventions that involve the widest range of stakeholders in our societies.

Recalling that the symposium was Rowley's vision, Browne added, "Our region's leaders have recognised that we are all in this together."

Browne was particularly encouraged by the strong participation at the level of heads of government, ministers, commissioners of police, leaders of regional and international organisations, members of the diplomatic and honorary consular corps at the symposium.

He was also pleased to see the keen interest shown by health stakeholders, academics, social scientists, the media and the public in the symposium.

Commenting about the symposium during a free legal clinc in Oropouche East constituency on Sunday, UNC MP Dr Roodal Moonilal said he was considering attending the symposium tomorrow.

He could not confirm whether other opposition parliamentarians would attend the event or if the UNC had taken a position about the symposium.

But Moonilal said, "I personally am not very optimistic (about the symposium)."

He recalled a similar Caricom event on agriculture which was hosted in TT last year.

Moonilal claimed to have seen a document which suggested that Government has not met commitments it made with respect to that event.

"If it's the same show tomorrow, same type of event tomorrow, then it does not give us any optimism."

The symposium comes after a bloody Easter weekend which saw murders and home invasions taking place.

Among those were the murders of two men on the Churchill Roosevelt Highway near Trincity, the murder of a Chinese businessman in San Juan and home invasions in Debe and Aranjuez.

Mere hours before the symposium, members of rival gangs fired shot and threw bottles at each other at a nightclub in Ariapita Avenue which saw dozens of people scattering in different directions.