(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Caribbean countries hosting Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007 will get assistance from from a number of Third States in the security arena. To date, South Africa has informed that seventy security experts will be made available to the Caribbean to further strengthen security for CWC 2007.
The South African security officials will be incorporated into the armed forces in the Region, and to this extent, amendments to some existing legislation will have to be introduced in some parliaments.
Barbados’ Attorney General, Mr. Dale Marshall, made this announcement on 1 February following a tour of the Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados to observe operations at the facility on the day that the Single Domestic Space started.
The Attorney-General pointed out that those pieces of legislation for the deployment of non-national security personnel would be “sunset in nature”, meaning that they would cease to exist on the completion of the tournament.
“Certainly we are happy to have the expert assistance of very well trained officers coming from abroad in areas of counter-terrorism activities. We want to have them available to us, but I want to assure you and the public that this is not in any way a long-term measure. The legislative arrangements would be sunset, and so after Cricket World Cup they would fall away from the statute books,” the Barbados Attorney-General explained as he addressed media officials at the conclusion of the tour of the airport.
He said that the Region had already begun to reap dividends from the regional approach to law enforcement.
“The intelligence arrangements headed by Commander of Regional Forces, Colonel Antony Anderson, have already been paying off for the Region. Our intelligence networks have led to us being able to take pre-emptive action where there would have been very serious threats to the safety of Caribbean people. That has given us the encouragement that we needed to be sure that the Region was on the right track,” said Mr. Marshall.
He further disclosed that the Region has approximately 400 trained military and police personnel which constituted a roving team across the Region to be deployed for CWC 2007
According to Mr. Marshall, these 400 trained police and military personnel will be moving from game to game to ensure that there are no breaches of security, and added that they will be pressed into action as required. “I think it is fair to say that we have put a lot of effort in place regionally to ensure that the Caribbean will be as safe as is humanly possible. Already the police forces in the Region are feeling the legacy benefit of the heightened and beefed-up security arrangements.
“We in Barbados have made a significant investment in equipment and training,” Mr. Marshall said.
Meanwhile, Colonel Anderson pointed out that the 400-member team was the contribution from Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States to provide a security support mechanism.
He said that in every host country the authorities would have the necessary manpower at their fingertips to ensure the public’s safety.
“So this is really an indication of how, on the security side, the Region has come together to ensure that the security available to commissioners of police is at the correct level,” said Colonel Anderson.
He argued that what was critical to the maintenance of law and order during the games was the total involvement of everyone in the Single Domestic Space
“People out there see things, hear things and know things long before the authorities are aware of them. It is the collection of all of that information that can be refined into intelligence that will later drive operations to secure the space,” Colonel Anderson added.
He maintained that as a Regional effort, the joint exercise had been quite rewarding.
“The legacy benefits of the security programme are that now people are speaking in a way that they did not before, and are liaising in a way that they did not before. Those benefits certainly cannot be undone after the cricket tournament and will continue beyond.” he added.
Details on the CARICOM Special Visa and the Single Domestic Space are available at www.caricomvisa.com or www.caricomimpacs.org
