The Editor, Sir:

Prime Minister Bruce Golding has hinted that he will be going to Haiti to have discussions at the diplomatic level, re the guns-for-drugs trade. How will this visit to Haiti stop the trade? Our Government and security forces continue to feed us the same lame excuse of their inability to patrol/monitor our vast and porous coastline.

To date, all the police and the Government can tell us is that the trade exists and where, but not what, has been done to curtail same - except that we have an exchange of a few police officers from Haiti and Jamaica.

Suggestions

I have some suggestions, starting with local citizens monitoring traffic in and out of our waters. We should have trained paid and volunteer game/fish wardens with the authority and the powers to arrest on the spot, anyone - including police and politicians - for breaches of the fisheries game and coastal laws.

Each fishing port should have a post monitored and patrolled by wardens, using small patrol boats and jet skis. The wardens' range of jurisdiction should be a limit of four miles offshore. (Same distance off the Pedro Banks). It should be the law that anyone leaving the shore should report to the warden station on departure, stating their intended destination - if another port; or where they are going to fish, if for pleasure sailing or the type of fishing, whether pot, net or line, and their expected date and time of return. They should include who is the captain, the names of the boat and also the people.

This information should be logged in the warden's station diary (to ensure proper record keeping). If they are going to the Pedro Banks they must report to the warden station on arriving on the banks and such a communication relay to the mainland station of departure. This information, if needed, could facilitate in pinpointing areas for search in the event sea rescue is needed.

Punishable offence

It should be an offence, punishable with stiff fine and/or imprisonment, for any person who refuses to have his catch inspected; refusing to show fishing licence upon demand of a warden; assaulting or using abusive language to a warden. Breaches under the fishing law should also attract stiff imprisonment and/or fines.

Should a boat fail to return on the expected date but return at a later date and time, the warden and the police must interrogate the captain and crew as to their whereabouts. Refusing to cooperate with or lying to the warden should be an offence. The penalty on the boat captain should be more severe. The same should hold true for wardens who violate breaches of the law or become corrupt.

In short order, if the laws are vigorously enforced and stiff penalty imposed we will have no more guns-for-drugs trade.

I am, etc.,

AUTHNEL REID

authnelreid@optonline.net

Middlesex, New Jersey