CARIBBEAN ROUND-UP
The Jamaica Observer Rickey Singh Saturday, June 07, 2003
Most wanted among three killed by Guyana police
GEORGETOWN, Guyana -- Three more armed men, among them a prison escapee on the police 'most wanted' list, have been killed in Guyana in a shoot-out with cops in a house in Georgetown.
Police identified the three as Shawn Browne, who was wanted for murder and armed robberies; Dillon George, Browne's brother-in-law; and Wendell Robin, also known as Tony Singh.
Two cops and a 19 year-old girl were also injured during the shoot-out, as reported by the police, and a woman and two teenaged girls are being questioned by the Criminal Investigation Department.
The Thursday night shooting followed the killings of eight men 36 hours earlier in the Buxton-Friendship area on the East Coast in a joint anti-crime police/army operation.
Just two days earlier, a United States District Court judge had issued an arrest warrant for Browne in connection with the kidnapping in April of US embassy official Stephen Lesniak, who was released unharmed following a controversial private ransom payment.
The police confirmed that they have located two more bodies in Buxton after the early morning shoot-out.
Manning warns of illegal guns from Venezuela
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad -- Prime Minister Patrick Manning has expressed deep concern over the increasing number of illegal guns in Trinidad and Tobago which, he said, are coming from Venezuela.
Manning said that the illegal guns were appearing in the country following unsuccessful attempts to overthrow the government of President Hugo Chavez when a lot of weapons found their way onto the streets in that neighbouring state.
Drug lords operating out of Colombia, he said, with business connections in Venezuela and the drug trafficking trade in Trinidad and Tobago, were among those involved in the movement of illegal arms and ammunition.
The prime minister was commenting on Wednesday night's drive-by shooting death of a woman in the Movie Town compound at Invaders Bay in an ambush that left two others wounded, including a member of the controversial Jamaat-al-Muslimeen.
Police identified the dead woman as Julian Bowen, 31, a mother of two. Those wounded and in hospital are her common-law husband, Addell Ghani, known as Clive Louis, and former Muslimeen disciple, Salim Rasheed, 32, known as "Small Slim", who was expelled from the Jamaat just three weeks ago.
Rasheed was shot at two weeks ago following his expulsion from the Jamaat, whose leader, Yasin Abu Bakr, has denied any involvement of his organisation in Wednesday night's shooting.
Rasheed, who received multiple gunshot wounds, was yesterday in critical condition in hospital under police guard.
The trio had just taken their exit from the Movie Town building and were seated on a nearby bench when a heavily-tinted white B14 Sentra car pulled alongside them and one of the occupants emerged, dressed in Muslim garb, and opened fire at close range.
Educating Haitians on CCJ
PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti -- The Caribbean Community Secretariat, in co-operation with the Organisation of American States has completed the initial phase of an educational programme for Haitians on the proposed Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) which is scheduled to become operational during the final quarter of this year.
The recently completed two-day programme for Haiti, which was aimed primarily at the judiciary, is to be extended to expose other segments of the Haitian society on the functioning and powers of the CCJ.
It is part of a region-wide educational thrust by the Caribbean Community Secretariat and constituted the first round for Haitian judges.
Involved in the educational exercise was a seven-member team of legal specialists, consultants and community officials dealing with the Caribbean Single Market and Economy and media communication.
The team collaborated with officials of the OAS, Haiti's Ministry of Justice, Supreme Court judges and magistrates and the Haitian Bar Association.