Over Nine Hundred illegal Weapons Destroyed
As of Wednesday, January twenty-fourth, over nine hundred illicit weapons in police custody will have been destroyed by new machinery acquired by the Belize Police Department. The Government of Belize, in partnership with CARICOM IMPACS, and Mines Advisory Group, has launched a program that seeks to rid the streets of dangerous machinery and properly dispose of them so that they may not re-enter the market. Today a ceremony was held for the launch of this program where we saw the new machinery in effect. News Five’s, Britney Gordon reports.
Britney Gordon, Reporting
Every year, thousands of dangerous machinery are distributed throughout Belize’s illegal weaponry market and although only a portion of those weapons find their way into law enforcement custody, the Belize Police Department endeavors to ensure that these confiscated weapons do not find their way back onto the streets of Belize.
Kareem Musa
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
“Today is the culmination of a very strategic partnership that we entered into since last February, along with CARICOM IMPACS, MAG Mines Advisory Group, and of course, with funding from the British High Commission. It’s a very important exercise, not only in terms of assisting personnel in all Security forces, including the customs department in terms of the storage of firearms, the safety procedures, but also, as you saw today, the destruction of some nine hundred twenty-three very deadly weapons that we certainly would not want to get out into the hands of the wrong people. And so this is an extremely important exercise. And again, as a result of this great partnership that we have with these agencies. There are thousands that enter our country illegally, whether it is through our ports, whether it’s through our very porous and illegal border crossings, it’s very easy to come across the border. Most of the times the origin is the United States and they make their way down through Mexico, through Guatemala, and like I said, across or illegal crossings into the country. And so there are thousands and each year hundreds of them are recovered off the streets by our police department. And so it’s a constant action that needs to be taken with respect to illicit firearms.”
The department acquired two new saws, a generator and an acetylene tank through CARICOM IMPACS and the Mines Advisory Group, that work in tandem to reduce the spread of dangerous machinery and heighten security across the Caribbean.
Callixtus Joseph
Callixtus Joseph, Assistant Director, Policy Strategy, innovation, CARICOM IMPACS
“This program is not only done in Belize, but this program is done in many other countries in the Caribbean. So part of this program is not only about destroying weapons. Firstly, we do an assessment in the country and we want the program to be what the country needs. So after we do that assessment in the country, we provide training which is critically important, we also assist the country in terms of building their storage for weapons also. So in terms of where weapons are stored, we ensure that those places are secure for weapons, right level of accountability, right level of protocol there also. So it’s not that. The aim of that program is to ensure that Belize on its own can do for itself. So we want to build capacity in Belize that they do not have to invite any agency again to support them. That you’d have the capacity here to do this for your own. So also, the equipment will be donated to the government of Belize.”
Nikita Mohammed
Nikita Mohammed, Regional Program Manger, MAG
“We’re working with these different groups to have them destroyed and the reason for that is we’re trying to avoid these weapons being diverted or moved from secure state stores towards criminal networks, towards gangs. So in other words, we’re contributing towards reducing armed violence by ensuring that these weapons that are no longer serviceable, that are obsolete, are destroyed.”
Britney Gordon
“What exactly is MAG’s role in this endeavor?”
Nikita Mohammed
“So MAG is providing technical guidance to these different state agencies. We are providing the actual training to this, to the different state agencies on how to securely store and manage their physical stockpiles of weapons and ammunition. We are providing the materials. With the support from the UK government, we were able to procure the materials, the chop saws that you saw on those tables, the generator, everything, so that we could effectively destroy the weapons. We’re also working with these different state agencies to physically upgrade some of their facilities, including by providing gun cabinets, to more safely secure their weapons.”
The project was funded by The British High Commission which paid for the equipment, as well as the training of twenty-three Belizean officers in the operation of the machinery and proper disposal methods. Britney Gordon for News Five.
