Tomorrow we'll have a little more of our conversation with Borland as we ask him about succession in that senior post - and also about what he has observed over the years in the changing character of soldiers.
But, first we asked him to look back to that day in July of 2001, when he was Captain John Borland, BDF soldier at the frontline of a tense standoff with bus rioters at the Tower Hill Bridge in Orange Walk. Police had lost control of the situation and were being pelted with stones by an advancing mob. Borland took to the rail of the bridge, and took out his M-16. We asked him about what happened next:
Jules Vasquez
"2002. I remember I commented on it at the time. That was the first time in my mind that a member of the Belizean armed forces had raised a weapon and pulled the trigger. On Belizean civilians it was a very heated situation, a very volatile moment."
"Have you ever reflected on that? Have you ever second guessed yourself?"
John Borland, Rear Admiral - Chief of Defence Staff
"I've reflected that many, many times, but I'm not in the business of second guessing my decisions. I pulled a weapon and I fired. I did not fire on the civilians. We went to the Supreme Court to justify that and they justified that those shots were indeed warning shots, fired in the direction, but fired in a safe direction."
Jules Vasquez
"If you had to do it again, you would?"
John Borland, Rear Admiral - Chief of Defence Staff
"I would do anything in self-defense or in defense of this country, but I'm also very aware that my job is to defend those who can't defend themselves. I'm not in the business of harming innocent people or hurting those who can't defend themselves."
"And so that was a different time, a different context. I'm an older man now, much older, and I believe I would do things differently now."
Again, more of our conversation with Rear Admiral Borland tomorrow.
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