PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) - About 200 hundred people attended an anti-crime rally in Trinidad's capital yesterday, with speakers urging the government to reduce unemployment to slow a sharp rise in homicides.
Some blamed government employment programmes for contributing to the violence, saying gangs fight over who will control the jobs. The programmes provide temporary jobs to the unemployed in poor neighbourhoods.Police did not know how many killings were linked to the programs, but acknowledge some are related. The government has attempted to better control how paychecks are handed out for the programmes as a way of reducing corruption. The unemployment rate is more than 10 per cent.
The number of homicides in Trinidad has climbed from 93 in 1999 to a record 229 last year. There have been at least 156 since January, police said. Police say many of the killings are related to drugs or gang warfare.
There has also been a rise in ransom kidnappings, with fewer than 10 in 2001, compared to 29 in 2002 and a record 51 last year. There have been 15 this year.
Yesterday's rally was the latest in a series of anti-crime protests organised by Harry Harnarine, president of the Hindu Credit Union.
He has recently sought support in traditionally black neighbourhoods even though politics in the two-island Caribbean nation is largely split along racial lines. The 1.3 million population is roughly split in half between those of African and East Indian descent.
Some critics say Harnarine is seeking to establish his own political party, though he denies it.
