23576: (Chamberlain) Jamaica-Haiti Arms Trade (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   KINGSTON, Oct 22 (AP) -- A booming illegal gun trade in Haiti has
increased the number of high-powered weapons on Jamaica's streets,
contributing to the island's spiraling homicide rate, the national security
minister said.
   Haiti's ongoing political instability has given rise to a major
smuggling ring of cheaply acquired high-powered weapons in the impoverished
country, National Security Minister Peter Phillips said in a televised
address Thursday night.
   "Some of these deadly weapons are now in the hands of the criminal
underworld in Jamaica," Phillips said, without giving details.
   Haiti, which lies about 100 miles east of Jamaica, has been beset by
instability since a three-week revolt helped oust President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide in February.
   Many police officers loyal to Aristide fled their posts fearing
retribution after the rebellion, leaving the country ill-equipped to
counter illegal drug and gun trafficking, U.S. officials say.
   Phillips said the weapons are smuggled into the Caribbean from Central
America and are a "major factor" in the upsurge of gun slayings in Jamaica.
   Much of the violence here is blamed on gangs vying for control of
illegal drug-trafficking and extortion rings.
   The government this week named a new task force, dubbed "Operation
Kingfish" and trained in part by U.S. and British law enforcers, to break
up some 85 criminal gangs operating throughout Jamaica.
   A similar plan launched in late 2002 failed to significantly reduce
Jamaica's homicide rate, among the highest in the Western Hemisphere.
   Authorities are also seeking to recruit more police officers to bolster
Jamaica's beleaguered security forces, including some from overseas,
Phillips said.
   Jamaica, a former British colony, has about 8,000 full-time police
officers for a population of 2.6 million, considerably fewer per capita
than several of its Caribbean neighbors.
   Some 1,165 homicides have been reported on the island so far in 2004,
the largest number ever in a single year, according to the Jamaica Gleaner
newspaper. Police couldn't immediately confirm the figure.
   The previous record was 1,139 killings in 2001, according to police
statistics.