By Phyllis Thomas, News Editor 
THE BIGGEST challenge to the Government at this time, even more so than the sagging economy, is trying to contain murders in the country, which have so far gone unabated and which are no longer confined to a few inner-city communities in the Corporate Area of Kingston and St. Andrew.
The criminals are migrating all over the country with murders in tow. A situation that will continue until the guns are taken from these criminals and we are able to deconstruct the gun culture which seemed to have blanketed a wide cross-section of the country.
Minister of National Security, Dr. Peter Phillips, admitted last week that the previously announced three per cent decrease in murders has been erased by a string of murders which have put current murder rate in line with that of 2002.
And the Peace Management Initiative (PMI) was busy last week, arranging meetings with warring factions identified in some communities, to get a ceasefire and peace.
BAND-AID APPROACH
It is all well and good for the PMI to arrange meetings with the communities and even admirable that the group could get the warring factions to attend these meetings and start the process of dialogue. Also admirable are various other interventions like the recent march for peace in Kingston.
Regrettably, though, activities like those, by themselves, are a temporary band-aid approach which do not even cover the putrid wound. Not that I am advocating abandonment because dialogue must be part of the multi-pronged approach to restoring order to the country.
But, in the past, when we have had talks in many communities, there is a lull in crime, we become complacent, prematurely patting ourselves on the back until we are hit full in the face with another wave of murders.
By now we can all recite, verbatim, the various recommendations that have been tabled about how to put a lid on crime and murders in this country. I am not going there.
The answer to achieving sustained order in the country along with those recommendations has to be getting the guns, plugging the holes through which they find their way into the country and getting those that are already here.
IMPORTED GUNS
The police have been claiming success in taking in more than 400 guns a year over the last five or so years. In fact, over the last five years they have seized 2,498 guns 1998, 474; 1999, 511; 2000, 486; 2001, 546 and 2002, 481. So far this year, they have taken 408 guns from criminals.
That is good work by the police and although they say they cannot release information on the types of guns featured mostly in the murders that information being classified I can state with some degree of accuracy that there was no proliferation of the home-made shotguns/handguns involved.
I make this claim on the basis of the types of guns being seized by the police, which were revealed in news stories carried in The Gleaner. They include the 9-mm Sturm pistol, Desert Eagle .44 semi-automatic pistol, Berita 9-mm pistol, Tek-9 sub-machine gun, Smith and Wesson 9-mm pistol, the Israeli-made Helwan pistol, Taurus 9-mm, 9-mm Heckle and Koch, .45 9-mm pistol, .38 Smith and Wesson revolver.
The argument here is that the majority of guns used in the murders were imported into the island.
Earlier this year, the police seized a shipment of guns on the wharves, concealed in an air compressor. But Commissioner of Police Francis Forbes had said that not all the guns were coming through the ports, suggesting that the drug trade also opened the gate for a plethora of guns coming in. And Dr. Phillips has been quoted as trumpeting the success of initiatives to stem the drug trade.
If the Government has in fact had any success in limiting the drug trade, it stands to reason that it would also have been successful in reducing the guns coming in via that route. But the guns are out there in frightening numbers as the recent murders indicate, taking us right back to the ports.
We have seen the ingenious ways of concealing the weapons coming in meanwhile those plans to install x-ray machines to detect contraband are still outstanding.
Last December the Cabinet approved a contract for a sophisticated security system at Jamaica's two main seaports as part of efforts to tighten
surveillance.
Hawkeye Electronic Security Ltd. was awarded the contract valued at just over US$684,000 ($34.2 million) to supply and install a video surveillance system at the Kingston Transshipment Port and the port of Montego Bay. What has become of that?
SUGGESTIONS
Below are my suggestions for restoring order to Jamaica which essentially is a bring-in-the-guns drive, involving entertainers and the media in a joint effort:
Entertainers the DJs in particular wield a great deal of influence in this country. Their medium, the music, is powerful. A challenge to the DJs is to use this medium to discourage the use of guns and rather, encourage those with guns to bring them in.
I am thinking of people like the Sean Paul, Elephant Man, Bounty Killa, Beenie Man of dance hall to come together as a group in this effort. Think of the international good it would do to your image. Most importantly, think of the good it will do to your country and fellow Jamaicans.
COMMUNITY JOURNALISM
We in the media can be and should be involved. There is an aspect of journalism known as community journalism where the media launch campaigns in communities, aimed at getting results and attitudinal change.
In this case, instead of reporting that this one was murdered, that one was murdered, or that the murder rate is running away, we can take another approach.
Apply this concept of Community Journalism. All media houses, for example, should be heavily involved in the Police Courtesy Week programme designed to rebuild and strengthen police/citizen relations, so vital in the fight against crime and violence.
The media should also be involved in every campaign to get the guns off the streets.
The cynics will probably argue that if you take their guns you take their livelihood. Or, if you take their guns you take their means of security. I do not subscribe to any of those views.
There are hundreds of very poor people in this country who know what it is to go to bed hungry but they do not take up guns. As for the other argument, it's time we leave security to the security forces. As simple as that.
But we must also be able to offer sustainable alternatives to people in these communities. The spin-off, I am sure, will be positive. For all concerned.
Comments? e-mail me at:
phyllis.thomas@gleanerjm.com
