On June 12, a training exercise called 'BelSing' began in the Baldy Beacon Area of the Mountain Pine Ridge. 61 officers of the Singaporean Police Force are receiving training in field firing various weapons. It's the first for many of them and Alfonso Noble went to the far flung range to find out what it's like.
Alfonso Noble Reporting, Email - [alfnoble@yahoo.com]
A contingent of 61Gurkhas from the Singaporean Police Force are in the Baldy Beacon Area conducting field firing training. Today the men, most of them for the first time, were firing live rounds.
Capt. Ricardo Leal - Liaison Officer, Bel-Sing
"They came here to get a feel of the weapons that we use and as well to maintain a high level of training that they are actually used to. One of the things is that they try to maintain high competency, maximum training value, team spirit, and at the same time being able to work together as a team. They are actually using M-16 rifles, the general purpose machine guns, and the squad automatic weapons. They have little or no knowledge of these weapons so by firing the weapons, they get a feel of how they actually go about using these weapons and at the same time knowing the ranges and what all are the characteristics of the weapon."
Supt. Ross Foreman, Singaporean Police
"We came to Belize with its superb training areas to make use of the field firing facilities that they have here. So we've come essentially to do some field firing. They wouldn't get this experience in Singapore because the field firing areas are limited. But coming here we've got field firing arcs that are tremendously wide. We can fire and maneuver in a way that we could never do in Singapore so this is a tremendous opportunity for them to get training."
Capt. Ricardo Leal,
"These guys do dry training first. When they have built up a confidence, then they go into the live firing phase. Presently they are doing the live firing phase of the training."
And for the men this is the most exciting part of the training because it is the time when the skills they have been working on for the past 3 weeks are being put to the test in a very dangerous situation. And these law enforcers are glad for the experience.
Krishna Bahadur Ale, Trainee
"This is a great opportunity to come out for here for free firing as
we don't have such surroundings in Singapore. So this is my first experience to play on the ground with live rounds so it's really great. It's really great to see the ground that we have. It's really somewhat like a paradise for training session because we don't got this kind of terrain in Singapore."
Dupendra Gurung, Trainee
"I just had this great experience for me to be here in Belize for the training and I'm so excited for the live firing. I just finished my live firing and its an experience that I can tell my men how the firing is."
And while they get to take home an experience that is unlike any other available to them, Belize also stands to benefit from the exercise.
Capt. Ricardo Leal,
"Beside having them train here, it gives us a good relationship between two countries: Singapore and Belize."
The training will run up until 12th of July.
