At the end of the 48th Caricom Summit in Barbados, T&T Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, who has carried the portfolio of crime and security in the regional integration movement for a number of years, informed that regional Heads had agreed to label gun crimes as an act of terror and would now work on legislation to make this a reality.
Belize’s former attorney general Godfrey Smith has been given the responsibility to review legislation and to come up with legislative proposals for the Heads to discuss, and this is in relation to having certain criminal actions defined as being of a terrorist nature and so legislated against.
First of all, however, there has to be a deep study of what is to be referred to as “terrorism” and legislated against in Caricom countries. For example, does widespread criminality by Caribbean people presenting itself in the region, and influenced by international criminal groupings, amount to terrorist activities?
While the United Nations as an institution has not officially and or clinically defined terrorism in the modern period, the UN Security Council has put out a few guidelines about what can be considered terrorist actions. The use and threats of violence to intimidate populations and governments, to cause death, serious injury and the taking of hostages and other such actions intended to compel governments and international organisations to take certain actions, or indeed not to act, are those which are considered terrorist activities.
That such action is being contemplated by the Heads is a statement of failure to counter the criminality which is inundating the shores of Caricom island states and those on the Mainland South America.
In its original identification, terrorism came into being as far back as during the 18th century French Revolution, when the state inflicted wholescale violence against individuals and groups. The term was subsequently turned on its head to mean violence perpetrated by groups against the State.
In the present, “terrorists” are identified as individuals or groups who seek to overthrow governments, assassinate individuals they perceive to have used various forms of violence and continue to do so against them to control them, their resources and their countries. Such groups often refer to themselves as “freedom fighters.”
It’s critical, therefore, that Caricom governments clearly define what is meant by terrorism, who can be classified as terrorists and the penalties which will then be considered to be understandable and legitimate to be imposed on those found guilty of carrying out “terrorist” activities.
It cannot be that out of a sense of impotence against crime, which has become inculcated within societies of the Caribbean, and the inability of individual governments and the combination of Caribbean territories to deal with this issue, that anti-terrorist legislation is passed with severe penalties against those who are convicted under terrorist legislation.
Can the criminality, which is widespread in the Caribbean today, be the same or of a similar nature to the terrorism that is being carried out by groups against other states? These attacks target groups of citizens, state officials and other persons representative of governments in specially planned and carried out killings, sometimes via mass bombings.
Do the criminals currently operating within Caricom reach the level of the terrorist activities identified by the UN Security Council? This must be definitively answered before going ahead with the intended legislation.
