UN Security Council Approves Belize Haiti Mission; FM Speaks on Concerns

The UN Security Council has approved the Belize Haiti Mission. The situation on the island is volatile and Kenya is taking the lead on intervention.  The Belize Defence Force, according to Foreign Minister Eamon Courtenay, is willing to provide up to fifty soldiers to be part of the mission, but there must be some conditions met to ensure the safety of the team when in Haiti.  And so, the Minister of National Defence & Border Security is in the process of preparing the final list of the requirements that must be satisfied for Belize to deploy; among those are that the Belizean government is not to incur any costs – operational and otherwise. A decision will be made by cabinet next week.  Foreign Minister Courtenay explains the concerns.

Eamon Courtenay

Eamon Courtenay, Minister of Foreign Affairs

“Belize, like a number of other CARICOM countries – Jamaica, the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda – have agreed to be a part of the force, in principle. The first requirement was this authorization by the United Nations Security Council; that is now in place. The second is to understand the command structure that is going to be led by Kenya. The Government of Belize with the advice of the Belize Defense Force and the Ministry of National Defense and Border Security would have to be satisfied that the command structure in place is satisfactory to then. Thirdly, all the logistics, costs and expenses related to Belize’s presence, would have to be borne by some country or some organization; we will not be incurring any costs. Speaking to the B.D.F., they say that they could deploy up to fifty and that is what we have signalled – up to fifty people – if the circumstances are fine. Just to be clear, this is going to be considered by cabinet and the appropriate authorities for final determination. In fact, I had a discussion this morning with one foreign government that is asking us what is Belize’s list of requirements that are necessary to go in, what are the costs, etc. So I spoke with Minister Marin and that is being prepared. We had a preliminary list for discussion purposes; we are now preparing our final list. So when Kenya is ready, we will have to be satisfied that the circumstances, arrangements in place, the cost defrayment is in place before Belize finally takes a decision to move forward. But we will discuss this in detail in cabinet next week.”

Duane Moody

“Is there a projection of how long the mission will be?”

Eamon Courtenay

“That’s a very important point. Well there are two important points. The first is how long will they be there. One of the issues that has to be discussed is what is the exit strategy. And we need to be satisfied that the exit strategy is clear and that Belize would exit when that point is reached or before, if we determine that it is time for Belize forces to come out. The second point is that insofar as Belize is concerned, there has got to be a movement on the democratic side. The current Government of Haiti under Prime Minister Henry is not legitimate; they were not elected. There have been no elections; in fact, he was appointed by President Moise in circumstances that are not very clear and questionable. But they are the defacto government and they are the only ones who we have to deal with. So we need to have movement on the democratic side so that we move towards elections. The final point that I will make on Haiti is this, because I know that this is a matter of concern to Belizeans. The Government of Kenya sent in an assessment team and they are about to send in another team and they came away from that assessment with a very important conclusion. That is they had intended to put up what we call a static force; that is to simply defend certain strategic assets. They have come out and said listen that’s not going to work; you have to deal with the gangs. I think, well our recommendation to cabinet is that Belize will not be involved in that part. We will be there to defend let’s say for example a gas depot or to defend the parliament or any particular asset in a defensive posture, but not going out looking for gangs to engage them. So we are waiting for final advice and recommendations from the security forces, the national security directorate, the Belize Defense Force, Coast Guard, etc to see what is the final configuration for Belize and we have to be satisfied that all externalities are in place so that there is no cost to Belize and the loss of life and injury is absolutely minimized.”