Jamaicans leave Thursday September 12 for Haiti Stabilisation Mission

Deandrea Hamilton

Editor

Jamaica, September 12, 2024 – In defence of Jamaica and in defence of the region Jamaica has begun to honour its commitment to add officers to the stabilization force already on the ground in Haiti. On Tuesday September 10, Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica announced that his country would begin deployment of personnel into embattled Haiti, as early as this week Thursday.

Jamaica will initially assign twenty-four officers from the Jamaica Defence Force and the Jamaica Constabulary Force, a move, Holness, who is also the minister of defence has characterized as vital to interrupting the gang-fuelled crime and violence infecting and plaguing the region.

“Here in Jamaica we see the growing entrenchment of gangs who organize the production of armed violence with a view to economic gain spreading terror in communities and weakening the state’s guarantee to citizens’ security.  We see this as an evolving existential threat to law and order and the proper functioning of institutions of the states.  Not only in Jamaica, but in several states – it is a regional problem,” said Holness in a post-cabinet press conference.

Twenty of the officers will come from the JDF, four from the JCF explained the prime minister.

“As Minister of Defence, today we announce that Jamaica will begin its participation in the multi-national security support mission with the deployment of 24 personnel to Haiti to provide command, planning and logistics support.”

Jamaica is the first CARICOM country to begin fulfillment of its pledge, though with a markedly smaller contingent.  Jamaica had originally announced sending 200 officers into Haiti. When quizzed by media about the size discrepancy, the prime minister explained this deployment was only a first step.

“None of the country’s that have made commitments have deployed all at once, it is impractical, not possible.  Preparations have to be made in the host country. Once those preparations are made and the possibility of scaling up happens, then we will – on our side – fulfill all of our commitments.  This is a start of what we intend to do,” shared Prime Minister Holness.

It was Antonette Wemyss-Gorman, Chief of Defence, Vice Admiral  of the Jamaica Defence Force who talked about preparation, date of deployment and leadership on the ground for the Jamaican personnel.

“We have been preparing for this deployment for over a year, once we got the indication that Jamaica was prepared to participate.  We have done our due diligence; we’re at the stage now that we can deploy the persons that we have committed to the command element of the MSS as the mission rolls out,” she said.

Thursday September 12, 2024 is when the two dozen individuals will leave for Haiti, which struggling through a multi-pronged humanitarian crisis.

The Jamaican contingent will take on key roles in the headquarters of the operation to ensure their expertise is a factor in management of the mission to bring stability to Haiti and will serve under the command of local Col. Kevron Henry, the designated deputy commander of the overall mission, advised CDS Wemyss-Gorman.

“Jamaica has close fraternal ties to the people of Haiti and we stand in solidarity with them.  Jamaica also has a national security interest in the situation in Haiti, one of our closes neighbours.  It is in our interest to support a long lasting resolution to the problems in Haiti,” said Andrew Holness, who pointed out, “Haiti is the example of what could happen if States and Governments do not take the problem seriously and put in place the measures and resources necessary to bring the problem under control.”