Opposition Leader Denzil Douglas calls for National Forum on Crime; July said to be bloodiest July in nation’s history

July 28, 2016 in National

denzil-1denzilBASSETERRE, ST. KITTS – Leader of the Opposition in St. Kitts and Nevis, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas on Wednesday called on the Federation’s Prime Minister, Dr. The Hon. Timothy Harris to recognize that the “country is in crisis because of the unprecedented criminal activity.”

“Crime is a national issue, a societal issue which we contended many years ago. It will take all of us to fix it, and no blaming of any one entity or group or Party will make us safer as a people and nation,” Dr. Douglas said during the radio programme “Issues” on Freedom FM. Dr. Douglas called for a National Forum or Consultation in the wake of two double murders which take the count for the year to 21.

On 21st July 2016, St. Kitts and Nevis recorded its 18th and 19th murders when two young men of McKnight were gunned down. On Monday 25th July there was another killing in Trafalgar Village in Basseterre, St Kitts and one on Jessups Beach in Nevis, all committed by gun violence.

Emphasising that the authorities are clueless in dealing with this unprecedented crime situation, Dr. Douglas said that “July is recorded as the bloodiest July in the history of our country as recalled by our citizens, matching the month of January 2016 only, when St Kitts and Nevis recorded 6 murders.”

“It’s very clear that the promise of Dr Harris and his coalition government to fix the crime problem, when they took office in February 2015 after blaming the Labour Administration for crime, has not been delivered. It is clear that the deception has failed and so I ask our people, “Are we safer now today 27th July 2016 than we were 18 months ago?” asked Dr. Douglas, the former Prime Minister.

He said that the government has a responsibility to lead the people and nation and into finding the solutions to the unprecedented crime wave in the country. “Our youths are bleeding and dying.

Our country, gripped in a Crime Crisis is being ridiculed, and our tourism economy is hurting, not only with the negative press from the unfortunate utterances like ‘St Kitts and Nevis is the Murder Capital of the World’ attributed to international artiste Fifty Cents in a US Talk Show, but also from the media coverage that these double murders and continuous gun violence are attracting on the internet through the World Wide Web,” said Dr. Douglas, who noted that recently, the Harris coalition government in crisis, went into a Cabinet Retreat on the weekend to quell the disquiet and rebellion among the PAM Ministers who are demanding that Dr Harris commits to the February 2015 Agreement made among them to transfer the Prime Ministership after two years, the deadline which is fast approaching.

The Government he pointed out, brought in four Consultants/Facilitators from overseas, including a sitting Prime Minister and a former Prime Minister of the Eastern Caribbean, to mediate among them to save a dysfunctional government from collapsing.

“Today, I call on Dr Harris to recognize that this country is in crisis because of the unprecedented criminal activity. And just as he organized a Cabinet Retreat to fix the Crisis in Cabinet, so too he should organize a National Crime Forum/National Crime Summit with all Stakeholders of our beautiful country, inclusive of the Government, Opposition, Youth Organisations, Students Representatives of the CFBC and our High Schools, the Church, the NGOs, that is the Chamber of Industry & Commerce, the Bar Association, Civil Society generally, and Security Forces, to find solutions to this crime problem that is stalking our land, destroying our Youths and the very soul of our country,” said Dr. Douglas.

He reiterated that if the Government is serious, and if “we are to take the Honourable Mark Brantley seriously, when he spoke to the nation last Friday, in declaring finally that crime is a societal problem that needs all of our efforts, we call on Dr. Harris to follow Mark Brantley and come to this realisation as well, and truly start, in our nation, “Conversations on Crime Toward Action”.

“I convey condolences to the families of the five persons murdered in Bloody July: Samantha Peninston of Old Road, St Kitts; Cleon Gilbert & Kyle Allen of Thibou Ave, Basseterre., St Kitts; Clevaughn Berkley of Trafalgar Village, Basseterre, St Kitts and Gary Claxton/Tyson of Jessups or Stony Grove, Nevis,” Dr. Douglas said.

“Our country is in crisis. We need to fix it. Let us together work towards fixing it, with the Harris coalition government providing the leadership in finding and implementing the solutions,” Dr Douglas concluded.