US can do more for Ja - Wright

Pat Roxborough, Staff Reporter

WESTERN BUREAU:

LACY WRIGHT, a former United States Charge d'Affaires yesterday said his Government could do more to help Jamaica fight crime if the ruling administration articulated its needs more forcefully.

"The ball is in Jamaica's court," Mr. Wright told participants in the forum on crime, investment and tourism, convened by the Rotary Club of Montego Bay East.

"I don't think the U.S. is doing all it can, but if the U.S. is to do more, it needs constant prodding by the country concerned, in this case the Jamaican Government. Jamaica must prod, direct and focus this assistance if international cooperation is to achieve maximum results."

The two-day forum, which started on Friday at the Wyndham Rose Hall Hotel, was an attempt by the Rotary Club to bring the police and various sections of the citizenry together to hammer out an approach to the crime wave.

Mr. Wright, whose address looked at the role of arms-producing nations in the war against crime, said that it was unrealistic for Caribbean Governments to expect his Government to amend its gun manufacturing policies as a part of the solution.

"The constituency for widespread ownership of firearms is so strong in the U.S. that it would be unrealistic to put any hope in domestic changes that would have a positive effect in the Caribbean," he said.

Pointing to other solutions, Mr. Wright suggested that a short-term study be done to determine how illegal guns were entering the island.

"A number of guns in small quantities come in by sea in fishing boats and sailboats. Some come through customs, hidden in legitimate shipments. A good understanding of these patterns is essential if resources are to be used to maximum effect," he said.

Additionally, Mr. Wright said, the island needed to immediately improve its real-time intelligence, beef up technology at the Customs Department and find a way of validating the honesty of its customs officers.

"Efforts to control gun smuggling cannot exist in a vacuum. They must be part of a whole strategy that includes community policing, the strengthening of civil society...measures to curb official corruption, for example, will have a hard time succeeding if corruption is tolerated by the rest of the society," he said.

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