Talk is cheap

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56525526

Talk is cheap
Stabroek News, Editorial.
Friday, July 27th 2007

When Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon announced
in the year 2005 that Guyana would welcome the establishment of the
United States Justice Department's Drugs Enforcement Administra-tion
(DEA) office in Guyana, he did admit that "certain details" would have
to be discussed before that became a reality. But now it seems that the
devil was in the details.

Dr Luncheon did acknowledge that Guyana, like other developing
countries in the region, was not fully equipped to counter
international narco-trafficking and the raft of criminal activities
associated with it. He conceded that the United States' role, as what
he called "hemispheric policeman," was crucial to Guyana's efforts.

The DEA has already assisted local law enforcement officers with
training, equipment and occasional investigations into
narco-trafficking. The establishment of a local DEA office, therefore,
was expected to provide officials with the additional expertise,
resources and support which were essential to waging the war on
narco-trafficking. Discussions started and the administration was asked
to provide an appropriate building, but why has the project stalled?

Even in March last year, then Minister of Home Affairs Ms Gail Teixeira
indicated that "talks are ongoing" with USA officials for the
establishment of the DEA office. Unbelievably, the Guyana Government
has been unable to find a suitable site for the DEA office, all
suggested sites having been rejected by the USA side which demanded
better security for its officials. Up to last month, the present
Minister of Home Affairs Mr Clement Rohee confessed that he "could not
pronounce definitively" on the matter. Is the Guyana Government trying
hard enough?

While Guyana's ministers talk, ministers of other countries have been
pressing ahead with their war on narco-trafficking with help from the
DEA. Only a year ago, Suriname's Justice Minister Chandrikapersad
Santokhi and US Ambassador Marsha Barnes signed an agreement to provide
for the permanent establishment of a DEA office and to intensify
collaboration between Suriname and the USA on drug enforcement. At
present, DEA field offices are functioning in Bridgetown, Paramaribo
and Port of Spain but not in Georgetown. Has the administration
deliberately stonewalled DEA efforts to set up an office in Georgetown?

The USA seems to be unfazed by Guyana's lack of enthusiasm. Even
without the administration's cooperation, but with a little help from
friendly governments of Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, the DEA was
able to arrest wanted Guyanese men Shaheed 'Roger' Khan and Peter
Morgan. Given the local law enforcement agencies' legendary lack of
luck in these matters, the DEA's off-shore exploits might be the only
licit means to remove major narco-traffickers from this jurisdiction.

But the talk continues. Responding to questions about the
non-implementation of the National Drug Strategy Master Plan which was
promulgated over two years ago, Mr Rohee baldly told the National
Assembly that the administration was "aggressively working" to ensure
that several aspects of the plan were implemented. He cited the
establishment of the toothless Inter-Agency Task Force on Narcotics and
Illicit Weapons but did not explain why the key components which were
specifically prescribed in the plan were still not in place and how,
after 40 per cent of its lifespan had elapsed, the plan could still be
expected to achieve its objectives by 2009.

While the minister dithers on the full implementation of the drug
strategy master plan and the establishment of a DEA office in
Georgetown, narco-trafficking flourishes. Nowhere is the failure of the
administration's drug strategy so evident as in its ambivalent approach
to the allegations surrounding the implication of a senior police
officer in a new narcotics scandal.

Admitting that the transcript of a telephone conversation between a
senior police officer and a narco-trafficker made "interesting
reading," the Minister of Home Affairs declared that there were only
"anecdotal pieces of information on this issue and there is no concrete
evidence and it is only circumstantial stuff because, in some cases,
some say what they think and what they hear."

With off-the-cuff verdicts like this, is it any wonder that the
National Drug Strategy Master Plan is gathering dust and that the
United States Drug Enforcement Administration is no closer to
establishing a field office in Georgetown?