Honourable Ministers
Other Distinguished Delegates
Members of the Media
First of all I should like to extend a warm welcome to those of you who are visiting and to express the hope that, despite the importance of the matters to be addressed over the next two days, there will be time for some extra curricular activity.
Madam Chairman, I am taking a personal interest in the deliberations of this Meeting and, in fact, will remain for the discussion, at least on those matters which are directly related to Cricket World Cup 2007 and its legacy as it relates to regional security.
I have chosen to do this for two main reasons. Firstly, the opportunity to be fully briefed on what, in my view, has been one of the major successes of the Tournament, namely the Security Strategy for CWC 2007 which has seen an unprecedented level of co-operation among security personnel.
This was facilitated by a similar level of regional co-operation at all decision making levels of the Community.
Secondly, as lead Head of Government with responsibility for regional Crime and Security issues, I wish to address the important legacy which the CWC security arrangements have left for the Region, particularly in the context of the rights and obligations associated with the coming into effect of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy.
As I have said on a previous occasion, we must continue to be mindful of the fact that the mechanisms upon which legitimate liberalization are based also have the potential to facilitate illegal activity. Attention to both must, therefore, be in parallel if we are not to allow our legitimate aspirations to be systematically undermined.
The feasibility of permanence in respect of the security arrangements for CWC 2007, whether in their original or amended form, is an important matter and must be determined as a matter of urgency if we are not to expose ourselves further to the threats that they have uncovered by seeming to revert wholesale to the status quo ante.
However, a third reason for my personal interest is that this phase of the process of raising the profile of security issues in CARICOM took a quantum leap in this very room. It is perhaps fitting that the review and proposals for the way forward should be undertaken in the context of a “return to base”, so to speak.
For the benefit of those who were not here at the start, just over two years ago, at my request, the Secretary General of CARICOM convened a Special Meeting of Ministers responsible for National Security and Law Enforcement. There was as yet no Council. However, the primary purpose of that Meeting was to achieve agreement on a mechanism designed to give higher priority to security issues affecting the Community.
On that occasion, I had expressed the view that a forum such as this could only serve to improve the efficiency of decision-making in the area of Crime and Security in CARICOM, and to give co-ordinated direction to the implementation process.
I also re-iterated my proposal for the institutionalization of a forum of Ministers with responsibility for National Security, and expressed the view that that Meeting could serve as a worthy pilot.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the rest is history. That Meeting agreed, along with several other key recommendations of the Regional Task force on Crime and Security, to commend the proposed Management Framework for Crime and Security to the Conference of Heads of Government.
The Conference accepted the recommendations at its Twenty-Sixth Meeting in July 2005, thereby establishing, inter alia, this Council.
One of the matters requiring the immediate attention of the new Security Management Framework was Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007 which was taking place against the backdrop of serious global security issues not foreseen when we won the bid to stage the Tournament. Many of the participating countries were either targets of activities not yet experienced in our Region, or producers of the perpetrators of such activity.
However, while it was recognized that CWC 2007 required that an efficient security co-ordinating mechanism be in place, at the time of the decision no one could have anticipated the degree to which the new mechanism would be tested in the context of the hosting of this Tournament.
The expectations of CWC 2007 Inc, and the commitments made by Host Countries in their Host Venue Agreements, soon revealed that the serious and wide ranging national and regional security issues surrounding CWC 2007 had not been given the required attention – because of a serious gap in communication between CWC 2007 Inc and the Local Organising Committees on the one hand, and the Ministers responsible for National Security and Law Enforcement on the other.
Central to the issue was the fact that in the eyes of the organizers the “West Indies” was a single host. The reality of nine different, independently sovereign Host Venue States and the expected seamless movement of Teams Officials, Media, Sponsors and Fans between venues was our problem to solve. The security issues we faced in such a scenario were potentially very serious.
The main elements of the regional security arrangements for CWC 2007 are by now well known. However, they bear restating, if only to place my comments in context. The Conference of Heads of Government agreed to:
- the establishment of a Single Domestic Space, comprising the nine Host Venue Countries and Dominica for the period February 1-May 15, 2007;
- the introduction of a Common CARICOM Visa applicable to citizens of an agreed list of Third Countries seeking entry into the Single Domestic Space;
- the introduction of Advance Passenger and Cargo Information Systems;
- the operationalisation of a CARICOM Intelligence Sharing Network(CISNET) to be strengthened by a Regional Intelligence Fusion Centre staffed by specially selected and trained regional intelligence officers together with counterparts from countries participating in the Tournament and others who have an interest in the security of the Region;
- the execution of a Regional Security Plan for CWC 2007 prepared by the CARICOM Operational Planning and Co-ordinating Staff which would see the deployment of regional and international military and law enforcement personnel throughout the Region, as necessary, in support of law enforcement at the national level;
- the establishment of an International Support Advisory Group. Implementation of these decisions required an extremely high degree of co-operation and ongoing consultation at every level of the Community. At its Third Meeting, this Council had agreed to the establishment of a Bureau which would carry forward the work of the Council between Sessions. The Bureau comprises the relevant Ministers from Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
In view of the time constraints in relation to the hosting of CWC 2007, and the need for continued consultation at very short notice, the Bureau met on ten occasions and reported to the Conference through the Lead Head of Government for Crime and Security.
The Bureau of the Conference of Heads of Government also met on two occasions – one in emergency session – in order to expedite decision making in this respect. The Conference of Heads of Government, at its Eighteenth Inter-Sessional Meeting in February 2007 approved, inter alia, the establishment of an Operational Bureau Team to oversee the implementation of security arrangements in the final lead up to the Tournament.
This Team met fortnightly on four occasions, including the week-end of the Tournament Final.
Mr Chairman, a necessary characteristic of the planning process has been flexibility, for example, the willingness on the part of all concerned to respond to the needs which emerged during the course of the process. It also became clear at an early stage that for a fully integrated security plan disaster preparedness and later public health issues had to be incorporated.
Officials at all levels in these areas responded willingly, and their areas of responsibility were seamlessly and effectively integrated into the overall plan.
The three security incidents which marred the Tournament in the early days – the tear gas incident at the Hilton Trinidad; the crash of a light airplane near a warm up venue and the death of Bob Woolmer – while not the direct responsibility of the regional security planners, did evoke a response from the CARICOM Operational Planning and Co-ordinating Staff which provided a measure of support in respect of security at hotels and practice venues. There were no further incidents of this nature. Needless to say, the implementation of the security arrangements required a number of administrative, technical and legislative initiatives. These included deployment of personnel, training information technology issues, and the establishment of the necessary legislative framework.
All of these were achieved to a degree which allowed for the satisfactory implementation of the decisions of the Conference of Heads of Government. We shall hear more about this in the Report to come.
However, it is worthy of note that many of the legislative measures will apply beyond CWC 2007. Among them are instruments which will provide for
• the Advance Passenger and Cargo Information Systems;
• the Sharing of Intelligence among Member States;
• the establishment of the Implementation Agency for Crime and Security;
• mutual assistance among Member States in the event of a national security crisis and the mobilization and deployment of security personnel as necessary;
• the conditions under which such personnel may be deployed.
Other measures such as the Single Domestic Space and the CARICOM Common Visa Regime were sunset in nature. The extent to which they may have value for the future will be a matter for deliberation by this forum.
At the beginning of the exercise we all recognized that the success of our efforts would be measured by the degree of silence insofar as the safe and secure staging of the Tournament was concerned. No disaster – no news. It is difficult to measure success quantitatively by what has not taken place. However, what the mechanisms that we put in place have revealed and this, too, will be elaborated in the Report, is the extent to which the Region would have been and will be vulnerable to both internal and external threats without these systems, even if in modified form in some cases.
We were able to trace the movements through the Region of persons known to be involved in illegal activity; to prevent the use of the Region for human trafficking purposes and to prevent entry into the Region of undesirable persons some of whom were in possession of lost or stolen passports.
We were also able to pre-empt attempts at cyber crime.
Furthermore, in the process of implementation we were able to deepen considerably our relations with international partners such as Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the United States and to forge an unprecedented partnership at the operational level with INTERPOL.
I should like here to publicly express my own personal appreciation for such co-operation.
Mr. Chairman, not to be taken for granted in any way is the tremendous effort, over and above the normal call of duty, of regional officials who worked tirelessly round the clock to ensure the success of this venture – and they continue to do so, for the work is not yet over.
However, I am sure that they will agree with me when I say that the achievements of the Region in the area of security, in what can only be described as record time, were due to the leadership provided by the Chair of the Ad Hoc Sub-Committee established specifically to address security issues surrounding the hosting of CWC 2007, and to the almost continuous work of the Bureau of Ministers of National Security and Law Enforcement which met an unprecedented number of times to ensure that our objectives were met.
I turn now to the future. The future security of the Region falls squarely in the hands of this forum. I therefore urge this Council to keep the momentum going.
Cricket World Cup must not be regarded as an event that has come and gone in terms of the security of the Region. Rather, it should be regarded only as the catalyst that drove us into taking the urgent action which in fact has long been necessary for the continued survival of our Region.
The Conference of Heads of Government has now agreed to recognize Security as the Fourth Pillar of the Community. It is therefore incumbent on the new Framework for the management of security issues within the Community, under the leadership of this Council, to build on the platform provided and to work assiduously to build confidence in the Regional Security Sector.
I wish to remind this Council, that while elements of the Regional Security Strategy determined by the Task Force on Crime and Security became subsumed in security preparations for Cricket World Cup 2007, we must not forget the other priorities identified by the Task Force as part of that Strategy.
In addition to Border Security and Information and Intelligence Sharing these include Maritime Co-operation and Human Resource Development as major areas of focus.
These and other issues will be discussed during the course of this Meeting.
Madam Chairman, Members of the Council of Ministers responsible for National Security and Law Enforcement, the next phase of your work is about to begin.
It is no less important or urgent than the work undertaken over the better part of the last two years.
Let it not be said that a high level of implementation is only possible within a time frame that is outside of our control. Let us agree that the target is the sustainable security of our Region and that the timeframe is now.
You have my best wishes for a fruitful Meeting.
I thank you.
