British Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Jeremy Browne, says imposing the death penalty will not deter people from engaging in criminal activity. "Most extreme punishments don't act as a deterrent to people who don't expect to either be caught or prosecuted for the crimes they perpetrated," Browne added. He spoke during a joint news conference with Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Surujrattan Rambachan at his office at the Waterfront Complex, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.
Browne, who is on a three-nation Caribbean tour, is expected to leave for Jamaica today. "From my observation, what will do most to reduce the violent crime in Trinidad and Tobago is further improvements to policing procedures and further improvements to the efficiency of the legal and court proceedings," Browne added. He said while each independent nation was free to determine its position on the matter, the British Government "will like countries to move to the total abolition of the death penalty (because) we feel that is the right way to go."
He suggested "other measures," which might appear less insularly attractive, were measures that would in the long-term have greater benefits and be more effective." T&T Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar told Parliament one week ago the Government was moving to amend the Constitution to allow for the resumption of hangings in T&T. Meanwhile, Browne said more should be done to resolve and prevent similar violent attacks on foreigners like what happened to British nationals, Peter and his wife Murium Green, in Tobago in August 2009.
He said he hoped lessons could be learnt from the incident. Browne, who is the Member of Parliament for the area in which they live, said there was room for improvements in the way the matter was handled by the authorities in T&T. The British MP said the Greens would never fully recover from the injuries in the cutlass attack, which were "truly horrific." Browne said the incident highlighted the need for security arrangements in T&T to be implemented for nationals and tourists alike.
He said the British Government was supportive of the T&T Government in initiatives being implemented in that regard. "It is in Trinidad and Tobago's interest to send a signal to people in Britain and around the world that all the measures are being taken to reduce crimes of that type," Brown said. He said T&T must also ensure if any such attacks happened again it would do all it could to ensure the required assistance was given to the victim. Rambachan said the meeting was successful as they discussed matters of mutual interest to the two nations.