Manning hosts crime summit in April

Trinidad and Tobago will host a special CARICOM summit on crime and security next month at which leaders will try to deal with the problem. Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who made the announcement at a CARICOM meeting in Nassau, said the Port of Spain talks would aim to take the war on crime to "a new level."

Manning told reporters at a news conference in the Bahamian capital that the two-day Inter-Sessional Meeting on crime and security included "a threat assessment" for the region.

He gave the assurance that the region "is not losing the war on crime", adding that it is not in the region's interest to lose the fight.

He said he invited the regional leaders to regroup in Port of Spain next month to take a second look at what is happening and what governments are doing to defeat crime.

"What we are doing is pausing and taking a second look at it to see perhaps where there might have initiatives to be taken that we didn't take or other ideas we may now have as we seek to take the war on crime to a new level," he said.

Regional police commissioners will meet ahead of the summit to prepare a brief for the leaders on what additional tools they require.

Commenting on the Nassau meeting, Manning said he is confident that "all leaders were sensitized to the seriousness of the threat and that is really what we were about."

Manning has maintained that the illegal drug trade was at the heart of the escalation in crime in Trinidad and Tobago within the last seven years. Crime has become a major challenge for CARICOM member states, especially Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago (392 homicides in 2007) and Jamaica.

The escalating crime has led to calls for outside assistance. But the new Barbadian Prime Minister David Thompson said that's not the way to go.

He told reporters in Nassau Friday CARICOM does not need "any foreign law enforcement agencies to completely take over the job."

He dismissed critics who say leaders are failing to find solutions to the regional crime problem on their own.

"I don't think we need to call on other people to solve our problems," Thompson said.