Barbados PM no-nonsense warning to local gunmen.

BARBADOS, Bridgetown: 30 Jan,2019.

Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, has warned that her country  will not be held hostage to a few criminal elements involved in a turf war.   Mrs Mottley shot off the terse warning as she revealed that just under 100 soldiers are joining their police counterparts in a major initiative which requires “all hands on deck”.

Mottley says that Police and additional vehicles offered by the Barbados Defence Force have been placed at the immediate disposal of all law and order forces .

She stated that it was all in an effort to address the crime situation in Barbados which was “nowhere as bad” as in other countries of the region.

“We are not prepared under any circumstances to admit that it is business as usual when eight people can lose their lives in this country in the month of January. We are not prepared under any circumstances for people to believe that they can use or walk around with guns as if they are toys, as if they are badges of honour”.

She noted that the crime situation was endemic to the region and not a peculiar problem to Barbados.

Mottley acknowledged that since taking office last May, her efforts have primarily been focused on the repair of the Barbados economy.

However, she assured Barbadians following a meeting of the Regional Security System (RSS) that later transitioned to a National Security Council meeting on Barbados, that the scourge of gun violence has now got her full attention and vowed that no effort would be spared to stamp it out, it was reported.

“If people are so consumed and so much in love with guns, then they should ask me to ask the Minister of Foreign Affairs to find a war some part of the world that we can allow them to go and be part of. But they must not begin to believe that they can walk about Barbados with guns and walk about shooting people any part of this country.”

“Not bout here,” the Prime Minister told journalists.

Caribbean360/Caribbean Focus.