National Security Commanders Come Out in Support of the I.C.J.
John Borland
The three arms of the Ministry of National Security have taken a collective position as it relates to the International Court of Justice. Appearing in uniforms this morning on Open Your Eyes, were Deputy Commissioner of Police Chester Williams, Rear Admiral John Borland of the Belize Coastguard and Brigadier General Steven Ortega from the Belize Defence Force along with C.E.O. Felix Enriquez. It was an extraordinary appearance on a historic matter facing Belizeans in the months ahead. We have mostly heard politicians take an official public stance, but this morning, the officers on the front line were asked if they were simply towing the line. They explained how and why they had reached the decision to say ‘YES’ to the I.C.J.
Rear Admiral John Borland, Commander, Belize Coast Guard
“We support the ministries position and then it now becomes our responsibility to make sure that the forces under our command and leadership are as educated and informed as we are. At the end of the day it is an individual responsibility to vote yes or no. But it is tantamount that we take every opportunity to inform them the best we can to educate them that they understand what we are getting into. What the ice is about and what the implications of a yes or no vote are.”
Felix Enriquez
Felix Enriquez, C.E.O., Ministry of National
“It was incumbent on us to put together a group and study the I.C.J. in particular and the role that we would have to play in whatever outcome of our vote and beyond that whatever decision comes out of the I.C.J. So we put together a group of our top staff officers and the minister ordered them to do three things the first one was to decide on the ministry’s decisions – what that should be and why. Secondly to educate our own people and thirdly to see what would be the effects will be on what preparations we have to make in terms of informing our strategic objectives. After all that our position is that we should say yes to the I.C.J. We came to the decision after time and again the medication have taken place and what we know about the I.C.J. and how it operates there really is no other choice some people might say we could just leave it as it is and keep on going this way, as much as that is a choice it is really a weak one. It’s not a responsible one for us at this point given all it has taken to get us to this point. If we continue the way we are going to will just never end. We don’t know that we will get this chance again with the support that we have internationally that the O.A.S. will be in the form that it is right now. We don’t know that the reaction from the other side will remain the same and out process led us to process what those scenarios will be. Given what would be a worse scenario what would be an ideal scenario and in any case all those scenario leads to an action from us and so we definitely had to do this.”
