By Liz Rahaman
Heads of the Caribbean Community on Thursday entered into a four-prong US$13 million comprehensive regional security plan, to beef up of the Regional Security System for the World Cup Cricket 2007.
Caribbean heads signed several agreements including, the Security Assistance Treaty for Cooperation among CARICOM member states and the Regional Security System; a Memorandum of Understanding, for the sharing of intelligence among member states; and an Inter-Governmental Agreement, to establish an implementation of an agency for crime and security.
A Memorandum of Intent between CARICOM and the U.S. Government is to be sign next week in Trinidad.
The memorandum would allow access to an advance passenger information system to monitor travel within the region.
Barbados Deputy Prime Minister, Mia Mottely, explained that under the Security Assistant Treaty, a Regional Operations Law Enforcement Operations Team comprised of 400 police and military officers would be established.
“We would be dividing the region into appropriate sectors to allow for our coverage of the world cup,” Mottely said. “We would have a Regional Operations Centre in Barbados, with a northern one in Antigua, a southern one to be stationed in Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica would supply the command for that Regional Operations Law Enforcement Team.”
This team would also cover non-cric keting territories.
“As you would appreciate many of these systems would work so long as we have things like the Advance Passenger Information System, so long as we have the cooperation between the law enforcement entities,” Mottely said.
In this context, she disclosed that a Common Intelligence Sharing Network (CISNET), would also be established.
“Traditionally, our sharing of intelligence has been extra regional, but there has been no appropriate mechanism for us to facilitate that kind and of sharing of intelligence among CARICOM countries.”
A Regional Intelligence Fusion Centre would also be established where intelligence would be gathered, analyzed and passed to the various operatives. The Centre would be based in Trinidad and Tobago, Mottely said.
The establishment of the Centre wa s one of the recommendations that came out of a high-level security meeting in Barbados last week, which saw the participation of Intelligence Operatives from the Caribbean, Middle East, Pakistan, Australia, India, South Africa, United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.
“Because of the fact that many of the countries coming to the games themselves are either on the verge of conflict or in the midst of conflict, we have to be cognisant that while there may be no political issues within CARICOM… we may well become a backdrop for incidents and therefore our planning must take that into account,” Mottely said.
Jamaica’s Minister of National Security, Peter Phillips, said he is certain that at the end of the world tournament, the Caribbean region would have a more secured environment.
“What we hope for and which still needs to be decided, is that the Caribbean people, in addi tion to the greater level of security, would have greater freedom of movement after the end of the tournament,” Phillips said. “And if it works, as we know it will, all the Governments would be persuaded that this is the next critical step in facilitating the free movement of people, which is critical to the Single Market and Economy.”
