U.S. donates new trucks to B.D.F.
This morning the Belize Defence Force officially accepted five new Mitsubishi pickups, courtesy of the United States Government. As we found out at the handing-over ceremony this morning, the gifts are part of the U.S. Government’s Global Peace-keeping Initiative and will form a part of the B.D.F.’s Light Engineering Company.
Leonard Hill, Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy
“The peace-keeping initiative dates back a couple of years to 2005 and there was a realisation, not only in the United States but as well, in other countries as well that there was a real gap in the skills available and just the numbers of peace-keeping troops. When you look around at the places in the world where there are peace-keeping operations it was becoming more and more difficult to fill al lot of those operations so that was the genesis of the initiative. We looked around a lot of different countries all over the world to see who would like to participate. Belize was interested in participating.”
Col. Dario Tapia, Commander, B.D.F.
“The Light Engineer Company will now be able to mobilise countrywide to do any projects, constructing a building, repairing building, doing plumbing, electrical, etcetera. That is light engineering. It is separate from heavy engineering which you talk about heavy plant equipment, bulldozer, grader, etcetera. We only have that light capability and that is what it’s about.”
Carlos Perdomo, Minister of National Security
“During times when there are no threats of disaster, they are also very equipped to keep their bases refurbished, maintained and to help the communities. As you heard me say today, I want them to come up with some plans where every now and then we could do community projects in the communities where the B.D.F. serve and also to maybe assist elements of poverty or home painting or home reconstruction.”
Marion Ali
“Humanitarian work.”
Carlos Perdomo
“Humanitarian work, exactly, not only for the peace-keeping but also for Belize.”
Leonard Hill
“There’ll be more equipment coming. We’ll also be working on creating a training area where the engineers can learn their skills and practice their skills and educational materials for their training. There’s quite a bit still to come. We’ve already provided a lot to get this unit up and running but there’s still quite a bit to come.”
The Mitsubishi Fuso trucks are worth over four hundred thousand Belize dollars. The Light Engineering Company of the B.D.F. is slated to become fully-operational by mid-June.
