(The following is an edited version of a speech to be delivered by security minister, Peter Phillips at the annual Wilton Park Conference in London)
- Jamaica sits in the middle of the narcotics trafficking in the region, almost like a bridge linking the major cocaine suppliers in South America to the major narcotics consumer markets in North America and Western Europe.

Peter Phillips

One measure of the extent of the problem we face is that some 100-120 metric tonnes of cocaine are transshipped through Jamaica annually, that is, 20 per cent of US demand and 10 percent of the Columbian trade.

This international trade in illicit drugs constitute the tap root of violent crime in Jamaica. Within our country, narcotics trafficking has spawned a criminal elite that is fighting to control a budget the same size as that presented in Parliament by our minister of finance, but without any of the obligations for debt, employment and services, which is placed on the elected government. Theirs is for the most part capital, which they are free to spend in entrenching themselves and their way of life.

Proceeds from narcotics trafficking are used, in part, to finance trafficking in illegal arms, much of which enter the country through the miles and miles of coastline that we simply do not have enough resources to fully police and protect. As a result, sophisticated arsenals end up in the hands of competing criminal gangs, and, in turn, the proliferation of guns fuels the murder rate.

I had occasion to report to our Parliament earlier this year that this criminal elite is bent on challenging the state, and establishing their own zones of control, competing with, and sometimes eclipsing the elected representatives of the people in securing loyalty of members of some urban communities.

The problem is compounded by massive criminal deportations from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. During the last decade, a total of 23,703 persons have been deported to Jamaica.

The majority of these persons (16, 833) were in relation to a criminal offence, with drug-related offences representing the highest category. In addition to the obvious law enforcement challenges, we believe these individuals may help to facilitate the illegal drug trade through the establishment of transnational criminal networks. So, in essence deportations facilitate and worsen the problems linked to the trade in drugs and guns.

The implications for national security arising from this combination of factors are obvious. Proceeds from these types of illegal activities are used to finance corruption, intimidation and violence in the Caribbean, thus undermining law and order and threaten the very essence of democratic governance.

National and Regional Response

Jamaican police officers on an operation in Kingston

Of course, we are responding to the challenges and we intend to dismantle the gangs and reverse the threats posed by organised crime and drug trafficking. Let me outline some of the measures we have been taking in Jamaica as well as in some areas of regional cooperation.

Programme of modernising the infrastructure of law enforcement and improving our policing capability. We are improving our intelligence gathering capabilities and we are applying new technologies to crime fighting.

We are transforming the Jamaica Constabulary Force into an organisation that is highly professional, technically competent and trusted by the citizens of Jamaica. And as part of accountability and confidence-building we have initiated steps to strengthen civilian oversight of the Constabulary.

Confronting the "big fish" of organised crime through a systematic programme specifically designed to:
. Disrupt drug trafficking by interdicting the flow of drugs through our ports;

. Arrest, convict and shut down the big dealers whether they are actually moving cocaine or laundering the money from the trade;

. Shutting down the major criminal gangs involved in drugs and extortion at the community level.

Within the society, there are increasing signs of a greater understanding that the ultimate solution to the problem of crime and violence is not only in more effective policing. It is also related to economic and social conditions and a range of cultural practices.
And so we are beginning to address some of the deeper social and cultural issues that tend to make violent crime an alternative for some marginalised urban youth.

We are doing this through programmes of social intervention to offer alternatives and opportunity to young men and women and we are making a longer-term investment in education and training. One such programme is the recently launched Community Security Initiative with $200 million which we will use to jump start the re-building of social capital in some urban neighbourhoods that have been most seriously affected by organised criminal violence.

All of these responses make it clear that we are under no illusions that this is principally our struggle and we have to commit as much resources as we can to its successful resolution. But we also know that its ultimate solution requires regional and international cooperation given the trans-national nature of the drug trade and trafficking in guns.

Within our region, CARICOM governments understand that a significant reduction in the drug trade requires both regional and global cooperation. We know that when part of the region makes a dent in the trade, the traffickers don't just go out of business; they seek another target.

We also know that with the impending launch of the CSME we will have to allow for a much freer movement of people, capital and goods without jeopardising our security or surrendering our borders to criminal networks.

In recognition of our peculiar vulnerability to international crime networks, CARICOM Heads of Government established a Regional Task Force on Crime and Security back in 2001.

The Task Force has come up with a number of excellent recommendations and we are working on implementing the most critical ones such as:
. Strengthening border control measures.
. Strengthening measures to gather and share intelligence
. Operationalising a Rapid Response Mechanism

As Chairman of CARICOM Committee on Resource Mobilization for Crime and Security, I have had the privilege of working closely with colleagues from the region to plan and implement security co-operation programmes. At our meeting in Trinidad and Tobago in May we reviewed the CARICOM/ United Kingdom Security Cooperation Plan, under which UK security authorities and ourselves will cooperate on agreed priority items.

These include:
. Training for security and law enforcement officials;
. The establishment of a Regional Information and Intelligence Sharing Network;
. Maritime Cooperation and;
. Border Security.

Border security is an on-going concern to all Caribbean governments as we do not have the resources to effectively police patrol the vast sea lanes that facilitate the flow of guns and drugs.

As we prepare to host the 2007 Cricket World Cup border security takes on a new urgency as we are concerned that the event may be attractive to terrorists who may see the far-flung islands as fertile ground for launching new terrorist assaults, perhaps to settle old scores that are, indeed far from our shores.

Indeed we discussed this issue at our most recent meeting in Jamaica on 9-10 June 2005 where the FBI announced that they would co-operate. We are also getting co-operation from British security agencies which, I am sure, will want every opportunity for dress rehearsals in preparation of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Through our own work in the region and the co-operation with international partners like the ones I mentioned we will do everything that is possible, from both a human and technical point of view, to ensure the security of visitors and residents alike so that we can deliver the most exciting Cricket World Cup ever. And, who knows maybe the West Indies cricket team may even surprise us and return to the glorious winning ways of the 70s and 80s.

Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: These and other initiatives show that we are making progress in critical areas of regional security co-operation, including the strengthening of mechanisms for the sharing of information and intelligence among Member States.

However, I must frankly state that we are particularly challenged to establish a region-wide Mutual Assistance Agreement which would provide the framework for mutual assistance in an agreed range of circumstances and in particular assistance from one country to another in emergency national security situations. This is one area where extra-regional assistance could prove crucial.

Global Response

Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: International organised crime and the international trafficking in narcotics and arms, take a heavy socioeconomic toll on small developing countries.

High levels of violent crime increase the cost of doing business by adding layers of security expenses. Simultaneously, new investments are discouraged. These economic consequences, in turn, produce their own social costs because the failure to grow the economy as fast as we would like, impacts on job creation as well as government's capacity to invest in social intervention programmes.

Hence, it is critical that we address the problems rooted in drug trafficking not only as a security issue but as part of a wider process of promoting democratic values and ensuring political and social stability which are all essential ingredients of the sustainable prosperity that we have been discussing at this conference.

We have strengthened our programmes of cooperation with our international partners. This includes bi-lateral accords, such as the Cooperation in Suppressing Illicit Maritime Drug Trafficking, or the so-called Shiprider Agreement, through which our external partners in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada cooperate to stem the flow of drugs through the region.

But a great deal more needs to be done. Given the clear lack of human, legal, material and economic resources that we are able to dedicate to enhancing security in the Caribbean the big question at issue is whether the region's fate will be one of even greater and more costly vulnerability or whether we can find more effective collective responses.

For sometime now, CARICOM member states have been urgently pressing -particularly since the OAS General Assembly in Barbados in 2002 - for a comprehensive approach and a rethinking of security which moves from traditional threat prevention to adopting a multi-dimensional approach to security.

Such a multi-dimensional approach must focus on the range of political, economic, social, health, and environmental factors that affect the security and well-being of our small, island nations. For such an approach to be embraced and implemented, new thinking and new actions are required at various levels. Let me mention just a few:

. All of us, especially security planners have to think about regional security in ways that differ substantially from the thought processes of the Cold War era.

. Strategies to interdict the flow of drugs from south to north must be supported by greater efforts to restrict the flow of guns in the reverse direction. Much more direct assistance is needed in this area.

. We in the Caribbean and our partners in North America and Europe have to collaborate more to formalise mutually acceptable procedures for dealing with criminal deportations so that they do not worsen our security problems.

. Multilateral lending agencies have to take new approaches to the funding of security equipment, policies and strategies. In addition to the traditional technical assistance programmes, we strongly believe that these agencies should also support the construction and maintenance of modern security infrastructure such as buildings, security equipment and technologies.

We understand that the reluctance to lend funds to equip security forces may have had a well-founded fear that such funds could be used to aid repression.

Now, it seems clear that inadequate funds to enable states to respond appropriately to the threats of organised criminal networks could end up hurting the very democratic ideals that inspired the original thinking. Surely, we can develop safeguards against abuse.

In preparation for the UN Summit I mentioned earlier, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) did a survey of the progress of regional member states towards the 2015 Millennium Development Goals to halve extreme poverty over the period. The survey found that there has been "slight progress" in improving primary education and reducing hunger.

As a whole, the region was less successful in eradicating extreme poverty, making primary education universal, and stopping environmental decline. In Jamaica, our performance shows we are on track to meeting targets like universal primary education and reducing extreme poverty but results have not been as good with respect to reducing infant mortality and narrowing the gender gap.

Reach the targets would be a positive achievement not to be scoffed at. But the truth is that the building of security and prosperity requires more than meeting minimal development goals.

As the ECLAC report noted, this would require sustained economic growth at much higher rates for the region than we have seen over the past five years. And it should also mean the kind of growth that would begin to gradually reverse the inequity in income distribution.
We are on the road to modernising the infrastructure of law enforcement in Jamaica and reforming the police and security forces.

We have established regional mechanisms to share information, intelligence and policy co-ordination within the wider Caribbean region. There is much more to be done, especially towards the establishment of a mechanism for mutual security assistance.

But there is a lot more we can and must do. Some of these efforts will require multi-lateral and international co-operation of the type I outlined here today. It is important that we get the co-operation because a safe and resilient security environment is absolutely critical to sustainable economic development and prosperity for the people of our Caribbean region.

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