UNITED NATIONS – Dominica’s President Nicholas J. Liverpool told the United Nations General Assembly yesterday that the increase in illicit small and light weapons in the Caribbean was linked to the illegal drugs trade.
Liverpool said that the trade threatened the peace and security of the region, and urged larger countries to help combat the problem.
“The continued demand in the North for drugs produced in the South, and the growth of the related trade in small arms and light weapons, have placed us in the crossfire of these illicit activities,” Liverpool told the high-level debate of the General Assembly.
He said many affluent states only responded to the problem when they were directly affected, and had failed to understand that smaller nations lacked the capacity to deal with the threat.
“It appears to us that the larger nations of the world only take decisive steps to cope with this situation when it has become untenable for themselves. (CMC)