First of all I should like to extend a warm welcome
to those of you who are visiting and to express the
hope that, despite the importance of the matters to
be addressed over the next two days, there will be
time for some extra curricular activity.
Madam Chairman, I am taking a personal interest in
the deliberations of this Meeting and, in fact, will
remain for the discussion, at least on those matters
which are directly related to Cricket World Cup 2007
and its legacy as it relates to regional security.
I have chosen to do this for two main reasons.
Firstly, the opportunity to be fully briefed on
what, in my view, has been one of the major
successes of the Tournament, namely the Security
Strategy for CWC 2007 which has seen an
unprecedented level of co-operation among security
personnel.
This was facilitated by a similar level of regional
co-operation at all decision making levels of the
Community.
Secondly, as lead Head of Government with
responsibility for regional Crime and Security
issues, I wish to address the important legacy which
the CWC security arrangements have left for the
Region, particularly in the context of the rights
and obligations associated with the coming into
effect of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy.
As I have said on a previous occasion, we must
continue to be mindful of the fact that the
mechanisms upon which legitimate liberalization are
based also have the potential to facilitate illegal
activity. Attention to both must, therefore, be in
parallel if we are not to allow our legitimate
aspirations to be systematically undermined.
The feasibility of permanence in respect of the
security arrangements for CWC 2007, whether in their
original or amended form, is an important matter and
must be determined as a matter of urgency if we are
not to expose ourselves further to the threats that
they have uncovered by seeming to revert wholesale
to the status quo ante.
However, a third reason for my personal interest is
that this phase of the process of raising the
profile of security issues in CARICOM took a quantum
leap in this very room. It is perhaps fitting that
the review and proposals for the way forward should
be undertaken in the context of a “return to base”,
so to speak.
For the benefit of those who were not here at the
start, just over two years ago, at my request, the
Secretary General of CARICOM convened a Special
Meeting of Ministers responsible for National
Security and Law Enforcement. There was as yet no
Council. However, the primary purpose of that
Meeting was to achieve agreement on a mechanism
designed to give higher priority to security issues
affecting the Community.
On that occasion, I had expressed the view that a
forum such as this could only serve to improve the
efficiency of decision-making in the area of Crime
and Security in CARICOM, and to give co-ordinated
direction to the implementation process.
I also re-iterated my proposal for the
institutionalization of a forum of Ministers with
responsibility for National Security, and expressed
the view that that Meeting could serve as a worthy
pilot.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the rest is history. That
Meeting agreed, along with several other key
recommendations of the Regional Task force on Crime
and Security, to commend the proposed Management
Framework for Crime and Security to the Conference
of Heads of Government.
The Conference accepted the recommendations at its
Twenty-Sixth Meeting in July 2005, thereby
establishing, inter alia, this Council.
One of the matters requiring the immediate attention
of the new Security Management Framework was Cricket
World Cup (CWC) 2007 which was taking place against
the backdrop of serious global security issues not
foreseen when we won the bid to stage the
Tournament. Many of the participating countries were
either targets of activities not yet experienced in
our Region, or producers of the perpetrators of such
activity.
However, while it was recognized that CWC 2007
required that an efficient security co-ordinating
mechanism be in place, at the time of the decision
no one could have anticipated the degree to which
the new mechanism would be tested in the context of
the hosting of this Tournament.
The expectations of CWC 2007 Inc, and the
commitments made by Host Countries in their Host
Venue Agreements, soon revealed that the serious and
wide ranging national and regional security issues
surrounding CWC 2007 had not been given the required
attention - because of a serious gap in
communication between CWC 2007 Inc and the Local
Organising Committees on the one hand, and the
Ministers responsible for National Security and Law
Enforcement on the other.
Central to the issue was the fact that in the eyes
of the organizers the “West Indies” was a single
host. The reality of nine different, independently
sovereign Host Venue States and the expected
seamless movement of Teams Officials, Media,
Sponsors and Fans between venues was our problem to
solve. The security issues we faced in such a
scenario were potentially very serious.
The main elements of the regional security
arrangements for CWC 2007 are by now well known.
However, they bear restating, if only to place my
comments in context. The Conference of Heads of
Government agreed to:
- the establishment of a Single Domestic Space,
comprising the nine Host Venue Countries and
Dominica for the period February 1-May 15, 2007;
- the introduction of a Common CARICOM Visa
applicable to citizens of an agreed list of Third
Countries seeking entry into the Single Domestic
Space;
- the introduction of Advance Passenger and Cargo
Information Systems;
- the operationalisation of a CARICOM Intelligence
Sharing Network(CISNET) to be strengthened by a
Regional Intelligence Fusion Centre staffed by
specially selected and trained regional intelligence
officers together with counterparts from countries
participating in the Tournament and others who have
an interest in the security of the Region;
- the execution of a Regional Security Plan for CWC
2007 prepared by the CARICOM Operational Planning
and Co-ordinating Staff which would see the
deployment of regional and international military
and law enforcement personnel throughout the Region,
as necessary, in support of law enforcement at the
national level;
- the establishment of an International Support
Advisory Group. Implementation of these decisions
required an extremely high degree of co-operation
and ongoing consultation at every level of the
Community. At its Third Meeting, this Council had
agreed to the establishment of a Bureau which would
carry forward the work of the Council between
Sessions. The Bureau comprises the relevant
Ministers from Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and
Tobago.
In view of the time constraints in relation to the
hosting of CWC 2007, and the need for continued
consultation at very short notice, the Bureau met on
ten occasions and reported to the Conference through
the Lead Head of Government for Crime and Security.
The Bureau of the Conference of Heads of Government
also met on two occasions - one in emergency session
- in order to expedite decision making in this
respect. The Conference of Heads of Government, at
its Eighteenth Inter-Sessional Meeting in February
2007 approved, inter alia, the establishment of an
Operational Bureau Team to oversee the
implementation of security arrangements in the final
lead up to the Tournament.
This Team met fortnightly on four occasions,
including the week-end of the Tournament Final.
Mr Chairman, a necessary characteristic of the
planning process has been flexibility, for example,
the willingness on the part of all concerned to
respond to the needs which emerged during the course
of the process. It also became clear at an early
stage that for a fully integrated security plan
disaster preparedness and later public health issues
had to be incorporated.
Officials at all levels in these areas responded
willingly, and their areas of responsibility were
seamlessly and effectively integrated into the
overall plan.
The three security incidents which marred the
Tournament in the early days – the tear gas incident
at the Hilton Trinidad; the crash of a light
airplane near a warm up venue and the death of Bob
Woolmer - while not the direct responsibility of the
regional security planners, did evoke a response
from the CARICOM Operational Planning and
Co-ordinating Staff which provided a measure of
support in respect of security at hotels and
practice venues. There were no further incidents of
this nature. Needless to say, the implementation of
the security arrangements required a number of
administrative, technical and legislative
initiatives. These included deployment of personnel,
training information technology issues, and the
establishment of the necessary legislative
framework.
All of these were achieved to a degree which allowed
for the satisfactory implementation of the decisions
of the Conference of Heads of Government. We shall
hear more about this in the Report to come.
However, it is worthy of note that many of the
legislative measures will apply beyond CWC 2007.
Among them are instruments which will provide for
• the Advance Passenger and Cargo Information
Systems;
• the Sharing of Intelligence among Member States;
• the establishment of the Implementation Agency for
Crime and Security;
• mutual assistance among Member States in the event
of a national security crisis and the mobilization
and deployment of security personnel as necessary;
• the conditions under which such personnel may be
deployed.
Other measures such as the Single Domestic Space and
the CARICOM Common Visa Regime were sunset in
nature. The extent to which they may have value for
the future will be a matter for deliberation by this
forum.
At the beginning of the exercise we all recognized
that the success of our efforts would be measured by
the degree of silence insofar as the safe and secure
staging of the Tournament was concerned. No disaster
– no news. It is difficult to measure success
quantitatively by what has not taken place. However,
what the mechanisms that we put in place have
revealed and this, too, will be elaborated in the
Report, is the extent to which the Region would have
been and will be vulnerable to both internal and
external threats without these systems, even if in
modified form in some cases.
We were able to trace the movements through the
Region of persons known to be involved in illegal
activity; to prevent the use of the Region for human
trafficking purposes and to prevent entry into the
Region of undesirable persons some of whom were in
possession of lost or stolen passports.
We were also able to pre-empt attempts at cyber
crime.
Furthermore, in the process of implementation we
were able to deepen considerably our relations with
international partners such as Canada, France, the
United Kingdom and the United States and to forge an
unprecedented partnership at the operational level
with INTERPOL.
I should like here to publicly express my own
personal appreciation for such co-operation.
Mr. Chairman, not to be taken for granted in any way
is the tremendous effort, over and above the normal
call of duty, of regional officials who worked
tirelessly round the clock to ensure the success of
this venture – and they continue to do so, for the
work is not yet over.
However, I am sure that they will agree with me when
I say that the achievements of the Region in the
area of security, in what can only be described as
record time, were due to the leadership provided by
the Chair of the Ad Hoc Sub-Committee established
specifically to address security issues surrounding
the hosting of CWC 2007, and to the almost
continuous work of the Bureau of Ministers of
National Security and Law Enforcement which met an
unprecedented number of times to ensure that our
objectives were met.
I turn now to the future. The future security of the
Region falls squarely in the hands of this forum. I
therefore urge this Council to keep the momentum
going.
Cricket World Cup must not be regarded as an event
that has come and gone in terms of the security of
the Region. Rather, it should be regarded only as
the catalyst that drove us into taking the urgent
action which in fact has long been necessary for the
continued survival of our Region.
The Conference of Heads of Government has now agreed
to recognize Security as the Fourth Pillar of the
Community. It is therefore incumbent on the new
Framework for the management of security issues
within the Community, under the leadership of this
Council, to build on the platform provided and to
work assiduously to build confidence in the Regional
Security Sector.
I wish to remind this Council, that while elements
of the Regional Security Strategy determined by the
Task Force on Crime and Security became subsumed in
security preparations for Cricket World Cup 2007, we
must not forget the other priorities identified by
the Task Force as part of that Strategy.
In addition to Border Security and Information and
Intelligence Sharing these include Maritime
Co-operation and Human Resource Development as major
areas of focus.
These and other issues will be discussed during the
course of this Meeting.
Madam Chairman, Members of the Council of Ministers
responsible for National Security and Law
Enforcement, the next phase of your work is about to
begin.
It is no less important or urgent than the work
undertaken over the better part of the last two
years.
Let it not be said that a high level of
implementation is only possible within a time frame
that is outside of our control. Let us agree that
the target is the sustainable security of our Region
and that the timeframe is now.
You have my best wishes for a fruitful Meeting.
I thank you.
Printer Friendly
