Dottin to head security for UN meeting

Former Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin and one other former senior government official will have lead responsibility for organizing security and other arrangements for the high-level United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) events planned for Bridgetown in October next year.

The 15th UNCTAD quadrennial meeting is expected to attract more than 2,500 officials from the 188 UNCTAD member states, most of them at the ministerial level.

Security levels are expected to be high for the events, which will take place over several days.

In making the announcement, Attorney General Dale Marshall also provided more details on Government’s decision to re-engage the top cop who was sent on administrative leave during the previous Democratic Labour Party (DLP) administration’s tenure amid allegations of illegal wiretapping being carried out by the Royal Barbados Police Force.

Marshall previously defended Government’s decision to engage Dottin, saying he would be providing some advice and offering “his skills” to RBPF’s crime-fighting efforts.

Addressing the annual general meeting of the Barbados Association of Journalists and Media Workers on Sunday, Marshall said beside providing advice on a variety of matters, “I can say that we have now pressed him into service in relation to the spearheading of security arrangements for UNCTAD. He is also beginning work on human trafficking.

“Let’s be frank, Barbados does not have a surplus of resources. Plain and simply . . . I can see no reason why we should not look at individuals who have transitioned out of the system for whatever reason, to bring them back in to help us,” said Marshall.

“Former Commissioner Dottin was in charge of the Royal Barbados Police Force at the time of the Cricket World Cup and he had to do what he was doing then. But at that time we did not have over 30 shootings by mid-year, and we do now,” said Marshall.

“It would be illogical of me to feel that I should ask the Commissioner of Police to, in addition to trying to grapple with the very sensitive security arrangements that we have to deal with in terms of firearms and so on, ask him to move away from those and spread his attention now to something like UNCTAD. That is silly,” he insisted.

Marshall said before hiring Dottin, the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) administration also reached out to former commissioner [Grantley] Watson and former Commissioner [Orville] Durrant and neither of them was in a “position, physically, to help with the efforts”.

Opting not to give details, Marshall said the services of a former permanent secretary would also be engaged for the upcoming UNCTAD meetings.

“We are in discussions. It hasn’t been settled yet with another former permanent secretary to help to lead UNCTAD, to help with those arrangements,” said Marshall.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb