BDF troops await green light for Haiti peacekeeping mission

The security forces remain on standby as Barbados awaits formal approval from Haiti’s newly installed transitional council before joining a multinational peacekeeping mission to the strife-torn country.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kerrie Symmonds said on Friday that the Barbadian contingent must hold off until an official request is received. “No formal request has as yet been received from the new administration. As indicated previously, we cannot do anything until requested,” Symmonds told Barbados TODAY.

“Barbados has expressed its intention to participate under the umbrella of the CARICOM sub-regional security system, once approval is given for that service to be deployed. That continues to be our intention. However, the Regional Security System (RSS) is intended, if it is mobilised, to form part of the wider multinational security force, if and when that larger multinational force is eventually deployed.”

Last month, he had said a security contingent was prepared to collaborate in restoring law and order in Haiti, where gangs have taken control amid the absence of a functioning government.

Haiti recently ushered in a new political chapter with the establishment of a transitional council tasked with appointing a prime minister and preparing for eventual presidential elections, in hopes of quelling the spiralling gang violence that has claimed thousands of lives.

But, earlier this month, days after the announcement of a new prime minister, gangs launched fresh attacks, laying siege to several neighbourhoods in the capital, burning homes and exchanging gunfire with police for hours in one of the biggest assaults since the new premier’s appointment.

In a related development, Kenyan President William Ruto, whose country will lead the United Nations-backed multinational peacekeeping force of which Barbados is a part, has pledged the deployment of 1 000 police officers to aid the effort. He is currently on a three-day state visit to the United States, which began on Thursday.

In Haiti, the country’s main airport reopened this week, nearly three months after gang violence forced its closure.

Symmonds had also said that Kenya had indicated an intention, following the surge in gang violence at the end of February and the more recent resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, to await the installation of a new authority in Haiti before making any final decisions on deployment.

The transitional presidential council comprises seven voting members and two non-voting observer members from civil society and the interfaith community. The council’s task will be to urgently select and appoint a prime minister and then work with that prime minister to appoint a new council of ministers.

“Thereafter,” Symmonds added, “the transitional council will also have to oversee the establishment of a national security council, and make arrangements for the peaceful transfer of governmental authority via free and fair elections.”

It is expected that the naming of the new interim prime minister and a cabinet, together with a national security council, will provide the necessary legal authority to guide and anchor any cooperative efforts that will be made in conjunction with a multinational security force.

(emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)