Jamaica's National Security Minister Dr Peter Phillips (right) and Britain's Foreign Office parliamentary under-secretary Bill Rammel, in discussion following a press conference yesterday at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston. (Photo: Michael Gordon)

BRITAIN and Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries yesterday signed a security cooperation agreement which they expect to bring greater coordination to their efforts to combat crime on either side of the Atlantic, particularly in the areas of drug trafficking and money laundering.

The pact was initialed in Kingston by the Britain's Foreign Office parliamentary under-secretary Bill Rammell and Jamaica's National Security Minister Dr Peter Phillips, who chairs Caricom's committee on crime prevention and security.

The agreement was also signed by Phillips' counterpart in Trinidad and Tobago, Martin Joseph, Caricom's co-ordinator for drugs and crime control, Colonel Fairbairn Liverpool and the head of counter narcotics in the British Foreign office, Giles Dickson.

Under the arrangement - the outgrowth of talks in London 10 months ago between Jamaica's prime minister, P J Patterson, and his UK counterpart, Tony Blair - not only will both sides share intelligence, but the British will train Caribbean law enforcement officials.

The specific agreement covers co-operation in the training of security and law enforcement officials within the Caribbean," Phillips told reporters. "And it does not include only police but a wide range of security institutions including Customs and immigration officials and others."

Jamaica has, over the past two years, developed a series of bilateral security arrangements with Britain, but Rammel described this multilateral agreement as "a major step forward" for two areas that share a common problem.

"You are on the front of the trafficking of cocaine out of Latin
America," he said at the signing ceremony at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston. "We end up with a lot of that cocaine in our streets in Britain. The drug trade blights your societies. It blights ours. It undermines your economies. It undermine ours."

Already, as part of the agreement, the UK has sent an expert to Trinidad and Tobago to help establish a Caribbean Co-ordinating Information Management Authority (CIMA), a clearing house for security information between Caricom states.

The British will also help the Caribbean to establish systems to enhance maritime cooperation and to strengthen border control.

Rammel said it was important that the plan be expanded to include issues such as legislation covering money laundering, the proceeds of crime and wire-tapping laws as well as the need for transparency and accountability within law enforcement agencies.

But he conceded that such a broadening would not necessarily be politically easy, but an "essential building block for effective security" in the Caribbean.

While the initiative is primarily between Britain and CARICOM, both Trammel and Phillips expected that it will provide a framework for cooperation with other international players such as the United States and international financial institutions.

Rammel said the UK would also attempt to mobilise wider European Union support for the plan.

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