VZCZCXRO6834
PP RUEHGR
DE RUEHKG #0538/01 1631658
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 111658Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY KINGSTON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6455
INFO RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0477
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA 2301
RUEHON/AMCONSUL TORONTO 0048
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0133
RUMIAAA/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KINGSTON 000538 
 
SIPDIS, SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CAR - JOE TILGHMAN 
INL/LP - NATALIA BOZZOLO 
TREASURY FOR ERIN NEPHEW 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: SNARPGOVPRELPHUMSOCIASECKCRMUNDPJMXL
SUBJECT: JAMAICA: HEADS OF KEY DONOR COUNTRY MISSIONS DISCUSS 
DETERIORATING CRIME AND VIOLENCE SITUATION 
 
REF: (A) KINGSTON 513 (061451Z JUN 08)(NOTAL) 
 
(B) KINGSTON 421 (131527Z MAY 08)(NOTAL) 
(C) KINGSTON 228 (141150Z MAR 08)(NOTAL 
(D) KINGSTON 457 (212044Z MAY 08)(NOTAL) 
(E) KINGSTON 417 (NOTAL) 
 
¶1. (SBU):  Summary:  At a June 10 breakfast hosted by UNDP 
representative Minh Pham to discuss the deteriorating crime and 
violence situation in Jamaica, heads of key donor country missions 
and UN agencies agreed that the international community in Jamaica 
should support Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) Commissioner Lewin, 
the Police Strategic Review (PSR), and a bipartisan approach to 
fighting crime.   As a next step, the key partners intend jointly to 
approach new cabinet secretary Douglas Saunders in the near future 
to discuss how the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) might better plan and 
coordinate its efforts in the areas of crime and justice.   The UK 
High Commissioner said Jamaica is at a "tipping point," where the 
window of opportunity for meaningful reforms created when the new 
government was elected last year may begin to close if progress is 
not forthcoming soon on key crime and justice matters.  The Canadian 
High Commissioner cited GOJ capacity deficiencies, and joined the 
UNICEF Representative in expressing alarm that participation by 
under-aged youth in criminal gangs in Jamaica's "garrison" 
communities amounts to virtual "child soldiery."  UNICEF urged more 
attention to keeping guns out of the hands of children.  The 
European Commission acting representative noted that the GoJ will 
likely allocate most of the 33 million Euro package of budget 
support for crime and justice to crime fighting, because justice 
reform efforts are lagging under the new government.  The Canadian 
development cooperation counselor complained that the GOJ lacked "a 
vision for justice reform."   The UNDP representative said 
Commissioner Lewin's recent decision to resign (subsequently 
withdrawn) arose because of lack of support from a significant 
faction within the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).  The U.S. 
offered to host an informal coordination meeting for countries and 
organizations providing crime and justice assistance to Jamaica on 
June 25.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Alarmed at the spiraling rates of murder and violence in 
Jamaica (Ref A), and the political crisis occasioned by the recent 
tendering and withdrawal of JCF Commissioner Hardley Lewin, United 
Nations Development Program (UNDP) Representative Minh Pham 
organized an informal breakfast June 10 for key heads of Mission and 
delegation in Kingston to assess the situation and possible joint 
steps.   Attending the breakfast were UK High Commissioner Jeremy 
Cresswell, U.S. CDA James Heg, Canadian High Commissioner Denis 
Kingsley, UNICEF Representative Bertrand Bainvel, European 
Commission acting Representative Helen Jenkinson, and Canadian 
Development Cooperation Counselor Lorraine Blisle.   Pham began 
with reference to the high murder rate in Jamaica, currently running 
at about 7 victims per day, or about 1400 per year.  He called the 
situation "conflict without war" and said the rate of fatality on a 
per capita basis exceeds that in some international conflict 
countries that receive much greater attention from the international 
community.  Pham referred to the recent crisis over the police 
commissioner's resignation, and expressed concern that the newly 
released report on the Police Strategic Review (PSR) would be 
"politicized." He then requested brief presentations by the 
attendees. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Creswell (UK) said Jamaica was at a crucial juncture now, a 
"tipping point."  The JLP assumption of power last September after 
18 years of increasingly "tired" rule by the People's National Party 
(PNP) was seen as a big opportunity to turn things around in 
Jamaica.  Now the question was "whether the window of opportunity is 
closing."  Lewin's withdrawal of his resignation was met with 
relief.  The PSR represented a "real opportunity for change," and 
was not just another bureaucratic study.  Cresswell said the private 
sector will have to play a key role in overcoming Jamaica's current 
crisis and in reforming the police force.  CDA Heg (U.S.) echoed 
Cresswell's overall assessment.  He cited the JLP's difficulty in 
managing a GOJ bureaucracy shaped by 18 years of PNP rule, and the 
pervasiveness of corruption, as well as some unfortunate personnel 
choices, particularly the initial JLP selection for Minister of 
National Security (Ref B).  The CDA also called for support for 
Lewin and the PSR, and offered to have the U.S. Embassy host a June 
25 meeting to coordinate and share information about assistance 
programs in crime and security, similar to our February meeting of 
the Counter-terrorism Working Group (CWIG) (Ref C). 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Kingsley (Canada) supported the points made by the U.S. 
 
KINGSTON 00000538  002 OF 003 
 
 
and UK.  He underlined that Jamaica lacked the resources and 
capacity to come to grips with the many challenges it faced in crime 
and justice.  Kingsley noted that 60 percent of the crime in Toronto 
can be traced to ethnic Jamaicans, only 5 percent of the city's 
population, and for that reason Canada's police were very interested 
in Jamaica.  Canadian assistance rules made it difficult to provide 
direct aid to policing, but assistance was possible if there were a 
clear governance angle.  Kingsley opined that Jamaica's "garrison 
situation was a war and children were being used as soldiers." 
Bainvel (UNICEF) continued that Jamaica's situation was "the most 
critical of the past five years" due not only to soaring crime but 
also rapid price increases and the real possibility of another 
general election.  He called the situation of children subject to 
violence "critical" and called for action to pass legislation to 
restrict access to weapons by children.  "Social interventions" were 
needed to accompany measures to strengthen the police. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Jenkinson (EC) described how her organization intended to 
provide 33 million euros in budget support to the GOJ to be used in 
the areas of security and justice.  In practice, this would mostly 
go to security because, while there was a plan on paper (the PSR) to 
reform the police, the JLP government had done little on justice 
reform since taking office last year.  The pace of EC disbursements 
would depend first on the GOJ's stated priorities (due to be 
produced by the end of this month) and on actual achievements. 
Jenkinson noted continued problems in sorting out the role of the 
Ministry of National Security (MNS), and the continued presence of 
obstructionist holdover bureaucrats such as Ann-Marie Barnes in that 
organization.  She added that little could be accomplished on 
security in Jamaica without programs to generate more employment on 
the island.  Blisle (Canada) said her government would examine the 
PSR report and "perhaps could find creative ways" to support it. 
Canada's main goal remained to support justice reform.  In that 
regard, she noted that Justice Minister Lightbourne "was still not 
getting along" with her Permanent Secretary.  Overall, the GOJ 
"lacks a vision" for justice reform, according to Blisle. 
Nevertheless, Canada had begun implementing some aspects of the 
program, notably a review of the role of the Director of Public 
Prosecutions (DPP).  She called for closer cooperation between MNS 
and Justice within the GOJ. 
 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Pham expressed agreement with what everyone had said.  He 
gave his own understanding of why Lewin had threatened to resign.  A 
"certain group" within the JLP saw the apolitical Lewin as "not 
good" for "the type of gloves-off campaign" the JLP would have to 
run if another general election became necessary.   Prominent 
hotelier Butch Stewart, a key member of this group, reportedly 
overruled the editorial board of his Observer newspaper in running 
the June 1 editorial calling for Lewin to be replaced.  Overall, 
Lewin sensed a lack of political support for his efforts at the JCF. 
 According to Pham, who recently dined with the Prime Minister, 
Golding himself was displeased with Lewin's initial performance, due 
to the lack of results in Lewin's fight against high level police 
corruption, and his failure to produce a budget or set of resource 
requirements for JCF reform.   In the end, Lewin was "saved by 
support from the public and from NGOs."  Pham said the PSR report 
contained a "well costed out" technical assistance component of U.S. 
$ 8 million over three years.  The major donors needed to 
"demonstrate our joint support" for the PSR action plan, and to 
ensure that it was on the agenda for the upcoming Vale Royal talks 
between the JLP and the PNP.  Pham worried that a new general 
election would lead directly to a "greatly deteriorated" security 
situation in Jamaica. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Cresswell added his support to the importance of reforming 
Jamaica's justice system along with the police.  Lewin alone could 
not carry the PSR forward.  The private sector and the media and the 
Prime Minister would have to get on board as well.  Cresswell mused 
that another problem for donors was whether to follow a broad or a 
narrow approach in rendering assistance to Jamaica.  He worried 
that, in the past, assistance had been spread too thin across too 
many areas.  CDA Heg noted in this regard that Jamaica's recent 
reengagement with the multilateral development banks (Ref C) was a 
positive development.  Now, bilateral donors need not try to do 
everything here, and might concentrate more on areas such as 
security where they had a comparative advantage.  Kingsley urged 
joint action "to help the government focus on a larger strategy." 
Cresswell said the June 24-25 scheduled meeting of the members of 
the PSR's panel of experts to discuss the status of implementation 
of the PSR's recommendations might provide the opportunity for 
 
KINGSTON 00000538  003 OF 003 
 
 
"positive developments." 
 
¶8. (SBU) Pham concluded the breakfast with a read-out of his recent 
dinner discussion with Prime Minister Golding.  He said the PM was 
concerned about four areas:  (1) On security and justice, the need 
for institutional support and funding.  In this regard, Pham said 
Golding attached importance to an assessment of the various 
community projects.  How do we tease out the lessons on what works? 
(2) On debt management, the PM wanted different treatment from the 
international financial institutions for middle income high-debt 
countries like Jamaica.  (3) On food security, Golding planned to 
bring together his different ministries to jointly tackle this 
challenge.  (4) On disaster preparedness, Golding was concerned 
about a lack of rapid response capacity in Jamaica, "very low" 
stocks of relief supplies, and lack of capacity to perform damage 
assessments. 
 
HEG