One of the planned responses to the wave of crime in the interior mining regions is the speeding up of approvals for gun licences. This was stated during an emergency meeting convened on Wednesday by stakeholders with the police to discuss the murders of two miners and armed attacks on others.

As we have argued before, the ready acquisition of weapons by citizens - miners in this instance - will not defeat our security problem or enhance our peace of mind. There will be cases where miners will be able to confront their attackers with their guns or potential attackers would be dissuaded because they are aware that certain miners have guns. There is, however, likely to be more cases where miners with guns will nevertheless be targeted, will not be able to use the weapons in their defence, the weapons would be stolen or lost or, worse, used in the heat of the moment.

The authorities have been forced to make the licences concession to the miners as there was no immediate short-term alternative to the banditry in the interior. Just as it had no cohesive strategy to address the crime that swamped the capital city and its environs following February 23, 2002, the government has no real plan to rein in the mining subset of the crime problem. There was ample opportunity to begin crafting a comprehensive response as there had been sporadic bursts of violent crime in the mining interior but the government neglected to act on these signs.

It and its police force are now in familiar reactive mode and scrambling to placate the jittery miners. Perhaps the opportunity will be taken now to fashion a more far-sighted security plan for the mining interior.

Guns aside, the mining areas will always attract criminals because of the prospect of ready cash, gold and diamonds. Some of the crimes are likely being committed by transients or wanted criminals who are on the run from Georgetown while others are inside jobs perpetrated by those who hang around the mining camps or are employed there.

The response to the crime upsurge has to be multi-dimensional and sustained. First, there is clearly a need for more police outposts in the affected areas and always larger numbers of policemen and women. Moreover, they would need the resources to do the job: suitable weaponry, communications equipment and more importantly adequate transportation to cover ground quickly in the sprawling interior. On occasion, the response from Georgetown and Linden has been swift but oftentimes it takes days before there can be an effective response from police districts far outside the mining regions.

And the police shouldn’t only be placed in the mining regions as showpieces to be corrupted. They have to do real work, gather intelligence, question loiterers and suspicious persons and make their presence professionally felt so that criminals looking for an opportunity will think twice.

Second, the miners themselves have to play a greater role in safeguarding their own interests and some have already been sworn in as rural constables and others have been clamouring for similar status. They mustn’t however become trigger-happy gunslingers. That will just make matters worse. What they need is to network with each other on suspicious developments, convene security meetings in their areas and to carefully screen those persons that they hire.

Third, as miners have argued, the `kayamoos’ or tent shops that have sprouted in the mining areas have to be tightly controlled. The shops are an important link in the mining supply chain but could easily be transformed into dens where criminals seek cover and use as staging areas for attacks. Each of these shops should be licensed and their owners required to meet certain conditions to operate. Those that do not comply should be shut down.

Fourth, an important step in exercising full authority over the mining area is to ensure that foreign illegals are identified and repatriated to their respective countries as they could be easily recruited for nefarious deeds. Since it announced its registration drive for foreigners in the interior, it is unclear whether the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission has taken any steps against non-registered persons who have been found in the interior.

Fifth, and importantly, the government has to make a greater effort to intercept cross-border shipments and movement of small arms. The enormous amounts of illegal weapons that have been unearthed over the last few years could be coming from a variety of sources but the conventional wisdom is that a lot has come from across the Corentyne River and from Brazil through Lethem. No plan against crime will be successful - certainly not for long - if it doesn’t make a significant impact on the flow of illegal weaponry into the country and there is no evidence that the government is moving to boost border controls. If less guns flowed over the borders and fewer fell into the hands of criminals the type of fear that has gripped the interior would not have arisen. Neither would the police have had to hastily acquiesce to speeding up the approval of applications for gun licences.