The government has reversed its decision to send troops to Haiti, citing escalating dangers and insufficient strategic planning at the global level, Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister Kerrie Symmonds announced.
Barbados will now only offer technical assistance, marking a significant shift in its approach to the crisis in a fellow CARICOM member state.
Expressing concerns that the environment in Haiti has become more dangerous, Symmonds indicated that Barbados does not want to take any chances at this time.
“We are mindful of this [increasing danger], and you don’t want to send people in harm’s way, likely or unnecessarily; and the truth is that, it has to be a properly strategically planned activity. And we cannot safely say right now, that there has been the level of strategic planning at the global level that we would have wanted,” the foreign minister told Barbados TODAY.
“Even though we talked about it, and we began to execute it, then, the American election has transformed all of that, and we are just marking time. But what bothers me most, is that while we are marking time on this matter, the situation in Haiti seems not to have settled down, and in some cases, it clearly has gotten worse.”
Symmonds was adamant that only technical assistance will be rendered by Barbados for now.
He said: “Our troops aren’t going anywhere at this point. We have indicated to everybody that Barbados would want to lend technical assistance wherever possible; and we are not at this point thinking in terms of any boots on the ground in Haiti. When I say technical assistance, there may be people with specialist skills whether medical, training, whatever.
“Right now, the Kenyans had been the lead in terms of placing policemen in Haiti, and we had expected confidently that the Biden White House would continue to be supportive. The election intervened, and America has pretty much stalled; and with that, the rest of the world has gone on pause.”
But Symmonds pointed out that the Haiti situation cannot be put on pause and has again to be brought to the forefront: “And if it is that we have to wait until January 20 when a new administration is in place in the United States, so be it.”
“It paused at elections, nothing happened in the United States elections . . . absolutely nothing. They even didn’t want to talk about it. Now that the Democrats have lost, they have now gone silent and there has been no forward movement, and we have to see what happens to the [Donald] Trump administration,” he said.
“And again,” the minister added, “our foreign policy will be the same. We are going to reach out to them, and we are going to ask them to understand that Haiti cannot continue in the way it is going. And that the commitments which the United States had given before should stand, because we are talking about human beings and the welfare of human beings in the Caribbean.”
Symmonds argued that the engagement must therefore continue with the US.
Bridgetown had originally committed to sending a contingent of Barbados Defence Force (BDF) troops to Haiti as part of a United Nations-backed multinational peacekeeping force under a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) umbrella.
Barbados was one of five countries to have formally pledged troops to the force, Benin being the largest contributor with 1 500 personnel, along with Chad and Bangladesh. The Bahamas had previously said it would send 150 personnel.
Last week, Central America joined the fighting contingents of soldiers and military policemen. Some 83 security personnel, including an advance team of eight soldiers from El Salvador and the first 75 of 150 military police officers from Guatemala arrived in Haiti on Friday.
The Salvadorans will be providing casualty and medical evacuations in support of the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission, while the Guatemalans will be joining the armed security mission in the fight against terrorising gangs.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
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