By Floyd French
Observer Reporter
(St. Kitts) – Officers of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force, along with police officers from other East Caribbean police forces, graduated from an anti-terrorism course this week.
The course, “Police Manager’s Role in Combating Terrorism,” was organised by the US State Department under its Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program. A short ceremony to hand out certificates was held on Friday Feb. 8 at the Marriott Hotel.
According to Eric J. Freeman, Assistant Regional Security Office, US Embassy, Bridgetown, Barbados, “The Diplomatic Security Services Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program is a US Congressionally-funded training course. Since its inception in 1983, the programme has trained and assisted over 50,000 security and law enforcement officials from 121 countries.” The officers are now alumni of that programme.
Six countries and a total of 19 participants took part in the training course. St. Kitts-Nevis had nine participants, Barbados had four, both Antigua and Barbuda and Grenada each had two and St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines had one each.
The 10-day training course delved into topics such as terrorist financing, terrorist behaviour, joint task force operations, performance management and human rights. Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Hon. Dennis Merchant, urged the participants to use the knowledge they had acquired throughout the duration of the course. “Educate those around you in your departments, share the information, use it, perform as a team to ensure the information and intelligence you would have gathered makes some sense,” Mr. Merchant said..
In her keynote address, US Ambassador Mary Ourisman reiterated the US commitment to the region, not only in counter-terrorism, but also in other areas of development. She said that the US has invested US$8 million in security and protection in the last three years but more than US$100 million in total assistance to the region in the same period. “America has been there for the nations of the Caribbean when and where it matters,” said Ambassador Ourisman.
Ambassador Ourisman handed out certificates to the officers including nine members of the Royal St. Kitts-Nevis Police Force: Mr. Trevor Mills, Mr. Stephen Hector, Mr. Zenhastel Hector, Mr. Keathlie Bradshaw, Mr. Ruphus Webbe, Mr. James Sutton, Mr. Calvin Amory, Mr. Stanley Ottley and Mr. Lexington Bedford.
