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09/29/2005:

"Trinidad appeals to Met and FBI over crime wave"

Scotland Yard and the FBI have been asked to help stem a surge in violent crime in Trinidad and Tobago.

Patrick Manning, the Caribbean nation's prime minister and finance minister, announced that he had asked for assistance from overseas while delivering his annual budget presentation yesterday.

He said he had asked the Metropolitan police to supply equipment and expertise to a special police unit in Trinidad, the largest of the 23 islands that make up Trinidad and Tobago.

The prime minister has been under intense pressure to tackle the rising crime level. There have been 275 murders so far this year and police say that this is more than the number of murders in the whole of 2004.
Last week, import-export businessman Dr Eddie Koury, a nephew of a government minister, was abducted and beheaded by a criminal gang.

Mr Manning said the task of coping with the crime wave - including an upsurge in murders and kidnappings - was compounded by criminal deportees sent home from the UK, US and Canada.

"These add significantly to the challenge of law enforcement by bringing to our country the sophistication and expertise of the most advanced criminal networks," Reuters reported Mr Manning as saying.

He said the illegal drugs trade had created an international "criminal elite".

Mr Manning told BBC News that money from drug trafficking was being used to buy weapons and ammunition that were then being used by feuding gangs, pushing up the murder rate in the country, which has a population of 1.3 million.

Yesterday the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association (TTMA), which represents some 400 businesses, took out adverts in newspapers accusing Mr Manning of failing to tackle crime.

"Regardless of colour, creed, race or economic standing, we all live in constant fear of being robbed, kidnapped or killed. We no longer have a peaceful way of life," the TTMA said.

A poll this week in the Trinidad and Tobago Express following the killing of Dr Koury depicted a population living in fear.

In his speech yesterday, Mr Manning said "high-level meetings" had taken place between authorities in the UK and US. The FBI had been asked to help reorganise the country's police force, he said.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan police said: "We are happy to help in whatever way we can. It is normal for officers from overseas to visit us and for our officers to visit various countries."

Trinidad and Tobago is the most southern island in the Caribbean and lies just of the coast of Venezuela. It obtained its independence from the British empire in 1962 and became a republic in 1976.
guardian.co.uk