Former Bahamian Prime Minister Wants Parliamentary Debate on Military Intervention Haiti

NASSAU, Bahamas – Former Bahamian prime minister, Dr Hubert Minnis is calling for a parliamentary debate ahead of The Bahamas sending said military personnel to Haiti as part of a multi-national force to bring peace and stability to the island.

Last weekend, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping welcomed the announcement by The Bahamas and Jamaica that they are willing to join Kenya in sending a multi-national force to deal with the security situation in Haiti.

The Bahamas and Jamaica said they are willing to send up to 350 personnel to he French-speaking CARICOM nation after Kenya’s Foreign Minister, Alfred Mutua,  said last weekend that his country’s commitment is to deploy a contingent of 1,000 police officers to help train and assist Haitian police restore normalcy in the country and protect strategic installations.

But Minnis wants the issue debated in Parliament , adding also that if the United Nations is putting forth a resolution to discuss and make a determination as to individuals being deployed to Haiti, then Prime Minister Phillip Davis is showing total disrespect to the Bahamian Parliament and the Bahamian people.

“If the UN requires a resolution, then The Bahamas should insist that a resolution is brought to Parliament so it’s debated and discussed in Parliament with the involvement and input of the Bahamian people,” Minnis said.

But National Security Minister Wayne Munroe has brushed aside the call by Minnis, recalling that Nassau had sent 141 members of the Bahamas Defence Force (BDF) to Haiti in 1994 as part of a UN peacekeeping mission.

“He (Minnis) would do well to speak to HAI (Hubert Alexander Ingraham) about how it happens,” Munroe said, adding “he seems to be clueless about how deployments work”.

According to the Defence Act, an order from the Governor-General is the only requirement needed to deploy BDF personnel outside The Bahamas.

Minnis, a former prime minister, said although officers may engage in just technical assistance in Haiti, the volatile situation there should warrant local parliamentary debate before troops are committed to the cause.

“We don’t know what would be the extent of their involvement, and this is something totally different altogether,” he said,  as reporters reminded him about the 1994deployment of BDF officer in Haiti.

“You talking about gang warfare. There are possibilities that we can lose individuals, whether they are in IT, whatever they’re doing there. Gang warfare, you don’t know who the gangs are, so we are sending individuals who can be exposed. It’s only fair that a resolution should be debated so that Bahamian people would know exactly whether their sons and daughters are going and what kind of danger they will be exposed to.”

“The government should bring forth a resolution so that it could be debated so that the Bahamian people could know for certain this will have no impact on our crime, no impact on migration, no impact on monitoring our waters with respect to fishing, poaching, etc. That has to be debated to ensure we ourselves are not compromised.”

Last Friday, the United States said it expects several countries within the Eastern Caribbean to send translators to Haiti as part of a Kenya-led United Nations-backed multinational force.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Caribbean Affairs and Haiti, Barbara A. Feinstein, told a news conference that “there has been mentioned, for example, that in the Eastern Caribbean, there are certain countries that have the same or a very similar Creole to Haitian Creole, to the extent that they might be able to provide translators or interpreters is something that could also be of use”.

St. Lucia and Dominica are two countries within the 15-member CARICOM grouping, capable of communicating in the French creole or patois language widely spoken in Haiti.

Feinstein said that the deployment of a multinational force to Haiti, with material support from the US as well as other countries, depended on an assessment that would be conducted by Kenya in another few weeks.

Last year, Haiti’s Prime Minister Dr. Ariel Henry, sent an urgent appeal to the UN asking for “the immediate deployment of a specialized armed force, in sufficient quantity” to stop gang warfare.

Last month, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the UN Security Council and major potential contribution countries to act fast to create the conditions for the deployment of multinational force to Haiti.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Monday said persistent violence in Haiti remains a significant concern for the safety and welfare of its most vulnerable citizens, especially women and children, citing reports of an “alarming spike” in kidnapping and other crimes.

According to UNICEF, nearly 300 confirmed cases were reported in the first six months of 2023, almost matching the total number documented over 2022 and close to three times the number in 2021.

“The stories we are hearing from UNICEF staff and partners on the ground are shocking and unacceptable,” said Gary Conille, UNICEF Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.