CALLS ON US TO DO MORE IN WAR AGAINST DRUGS

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning yesterday called on the US government
to step up to the plate and do more to arrest drug transshipment
through the Caribbean region.

Manning had the ears of US Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Roy
Austin, who was one of the many guests at the launching of BG
Trinidad and Tobago Luncheon series at the Hilton Trinidad.

"Initially, the US was concerned about drugs, but of course that has
inevitably since 9/11 given way to terrorism, preoccupied now... is
terrorist activity around the world and how it affects US interests-
we find that concern about drugs has gone to the back burner,"
Manning said.

"The drug cartels in South America are no less active today than they
were two or three or five years ago.

"We are seeing a heightened use of Caribbean countries as
transshipment centres, as drugs move from producing countries of the
south, to the consuming countries of the north, Canada, US and
Western Europe and that not all the drugs which come into your
country leave-the service is paid for in drugs."

Manning said that the guns which accompany the drugs to ensure the
"security of the shipment" stay in the region with debilitating effects.

"We have said to the US authorities-we are prepared to do our part in
patrolling the Eastern Caribbean. The Eastern Caribbean is too vulnerable.

"We are prepared to do our part-we've set up a radar system in
Trinidad and we have taken steps to acquire assets to give us an
interdiction capability. But already the conversation among the drug
dealers is that Trinidad and Tobago is getting too hot so they have
to move elsewhere-where else they're going to move, they're moving
to the north.

"And therefore they're likely to end up in countries that do not have
the capacity to deal with them, as we may have in Trinidad and
Tobago-limited though that capacity is, as that which exists in the
US."

Manning stressed that unless some special initiative is put in place
at this time, Caribbean countries run the risk of falling victims to
drug dealers.

"Trinidad and Tobago has offered to patrol the Eastern Caribbean-we
will acquire the assets to do that but we cannot afford to finance
it.

"The security we'll be providing will not be for us alone, or
Caribbean countries -it is as much the security of the US... the
offer remains on the table," he said.