ANTANANARIVO: 2007 ANNUAL CRIME EVALUATION

UNCLAS ANTANANARIVO 000001 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR DS/IP/AF - PAUL MARGULIES DEPT FOR DS/DSS/ITA - DANNY ROTHSTEIN DEPT FOR AF/E E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ASEC KCRM MA SUBJECT: ANTANANARIVO: 2007 ANNUAL CRIME EVALUATION QUESTIONNAIRE (ACEQ) REF: 00 STATE 50692 ¶1. CRIME MOBILITY: ¶B. Criminal elements generally concentrate their activities in high crime areas, but sometimes enter nearby neighborhoods, including those of Mission housing. Comment: Criminal elements in the capital usually focus on densely populated areas and commercial zones. However, criminal elements sometimes branch into the neighborhood where Mission residences are located or wealthy neighborhoods. ¶2. CRIME AMBIENCE: ¶B. Mission neighborhoods are surrounded by low crime buffer zones, which are perceived as safe during the day but are unsafe at night because of street crime. Comment: While the Mission neighborhood does not have a buffer zone per se, generally the area is safe to walk around during the day and night. However, the perception by criminal elements is that foreigners have money; therefore crimes are committed in the neighborhood and surrounding area day and night. RSO does not advise walking at night outside of the Mission housing area alone. RSO has no specific information and has not seen any trends indicating that Embassy personnel or AMCITS are being targeted. By and large, most crime is directed towards Malagasy Nationals and other foreign tourists. ¶3. AGGRESSIVENESS OF CRIMINALS: ¶C. Criminal perpetrators usually commit street crimes and burglaries, and are not deterred by risk of confrontation with occupants during burglaries. Comment: Traditionally, Malagasy are passive people. However, the Mission has been receiving weekly reports of increased criminal activity within the Malagasy community and Expats who are native to Madagascar by armed criminal elements around the city of Antananarivo. Criminal gangs exist and are comprised of former felons, ex-military and police from the former regimes. Often the criminals know the occupants of the residence or have intelligence indicating an increased amount of assets being held in the residence and have no problem confronting the occupants of the residence by force. ¶4. ARMING OF CRIMINALS: ¶B. Criminal perpetrators usually are armed with knives/lethal cutting weapons. Comment: Most criminals in Madagascar carry some sort of weapon when committing an offense. This can be partly attributed to the fact that most Malagasy men carry knives or other edged weapons for self-defense and/or for work due to the country's subsistence standard of living and heavy dependence on farming for employment. Criminal elements have armed themselves with pistols and AK-47s. These weapons are believed to be from stocks issued to former police and military members of the former GOM regime. The Mission has received confirmed reports of attempted weapon thefts at military and police weapon depots by corrupt security force elements. The inventory and access control of weapon stocks controlled by the GOM are suspect at best. Finally, there have been several arrests of individuals making home made handguns. ¶5. AGGREGATION OF CRIMINALS: ¶C. Criminal perpetrators usually operate in groups of two to four individuals (or larger) and occasionally can be confrontational and violent. Comment: The Mission receives weekly police reports of home invasion robberies in which two to four armed individuals enter a residence by force. Criminal elements are aware of the fact that police response times to emergency calls for assistance are very lengthy due to limited police resources. Frequently, police are unable to respond to emergency calls at all due to a lack of police vehicles or lack of gasoline for their police vehicles. ¶6. DETERRENCE/RESPONSE OF POLICE: ¶D. Local police or neighborhood associations are totally ineffective in deterring or disrupting burglaries and other crimes in Mission neighborhoods, and seldom are able to apprehend or arrest suspects after the fact. Comment: The Mission neighborhood depends on the Local Guard Force Mobile Patrol to provide a quick reaction force to respond to an emergency call from a Mission residence. Response time for the Mission's Mobile Patrol is under five minutes and normally within two minutes on a distress call to the Mission neighborhood. The police are unable to respond to alarm calls or emergency calls within a reasonable time. The police are able to respond to an incident within 15 to 45 minutes or longer due to a number of factors. When emergency telephone calls are initiated by residents in the city, frequently the police telephones will go unanswered or the caller will receive a busy tone. Secondly, if an emergency call is answered, the police will usually have to meet a resident of the household at a recognizable landmark in the neighborhood to help guide the responding police unit to the residence requesting assistance which increases the response time to an emergency call. The police do not have a computerized 911 emergency call system which can locate the residence of an emergency call. A third issue hampering police response is the credibility of the caller requesting services. The police must judge the credibility of the caller in order to determine if potential criminal elements are trying to send the police units off in the opposite direction before a criminal raid on a residence begins. Normally, a district police office will have only one or two police cars available and functioning for any type of intervention operation. The final issue crippling response time within the city of Antananarivo is the city traffic jams. During peak rush hour, an extra 30 minutes or more can be added to the normal response time for police to arrive at the scene of an incident. Often the police depend on Mission transportation to a particular crime event or conducting an investigation. The police have a mediocre record for apprehending suspects after a criminal act has been committed. Additionally, the police have severe resource constraints. The police are chronically short of police vehicles, gasoline, radio communications, and rely on an inventory of outdated weaponry to deal with law and order. The Mission's 24/7 Local Guard Force program, combined with the Mobile Patrol, are our best deterrent against violent and invasive crime in our housing area. ¶7. TRAINING/PROFESSIONALISM OF POLICE: ¶D. Police are mediocre in professionalism and training; they are somewhat apathetic toward Post residential security requirements, including response to alarms and investigation of incidents in the Mission neighborhoods; they have definite resource/manpower limitations that inhibit their deterrence or response effectiveness. Comment: There are two national police forces in Madagascar. The National Police has criminal jurisdiction for all cities in Madagascar, and has the responsibility to protect Mission residential areas from criminal activity. The Gendarmerie has the responsibility for the countryside of Madagascar. There is a degree of rivalry between the two; the Gendarmerie is considered to be more professional and responsive than the National Police, having assisted the Mission in the past with regard to criminal incidents against Peace Corps Volunteers. Police/Gendarmerie lack professional training in many areas of policing. However, since joining the International Law Enforcement Academy (Gaborone, Botswana) the level of expertise and professionalism is improving. Finally, the country's police force lack resources that would enable them to conduct their duties and be more responsive to the needs of the people (vehicles, communication systems, continuous training, and personal equipment). MARQUARDT