Thanks for the update, Katie!

Here is a series of 3 news casts -- the first one from American press.

************************************************

Telecom Strike Cuts Off Fixed, Cell Service In Belize

BELIZE CITY, Belize (AP)--Telephone, fax and Internet services were down
throughout Belize on Monday after more than 500 employees of Belize
Telecommunications Ltd. continued to strike for the fourth day.

The strike is designed to return the company, currently foreign-owned, to
Belizean hands. BTL employees and union representatives want Belize's
government to sell or grant them a 37.5% stake in BTL that would give them
majority control.

BLT is currently caught up in a foreign tug-of-war between Carlisle Group,
headquartered in Hertfordshire, England, and Innovative Communication
Corporation, of Christiansted on the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin
Islands.

Telephone landlines were restored in Belize City on Monday, but
communication between districts and international calls were still
unavailable.

Internet cafes with direct satellite hookups provided the only Internet
connections. Most home and business Internet connections are through BTL,
which has a virtual monopoly on telecommunications under the Belize
Telecommunications Act.

Although severely inconvenienced by the loss of services, much of the
Belizean public offered support for BTL workers.

On Sunday night rocks and bottles were thrown outside the BTL compound, and
a spokesman for the Government Press Office, Vaughn Gill, was beaten by an
angry mob. It is not certain who instigated the violence.

Rocks were also thrown at Prime Minister Said Musa's house, located down
the street from BTL. He and his family were evacuated to the Princess Hotel.


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

************************************

After three days without telephone, email, and internet services, a limited
number of land lines were restored over the course of today by Belize
Telecommunications Limited. Those repairs, presumably made by management
personnel, came in the wake of what is widely believed to be sabotage by
members of the Belize Communication Worker's Union. That labour unrest
continued today as the B.C.W.U. agitated for employee ownership of the
company, while the National Trade Union Congress finally put in writing
what it had been thinking for a long time: that it's time for Said Musa to
resign. News 5's Patrick Jones brings us up to date.

Patrick Jones, Reporting
When they showed up for work this morning, hundreds of employees of Belize
Telecommunications Limited were kept away from their work stations by armed
police officers standing guard at the gates.

Gilbert Canton, Chair, Public Utilities Commission
"It's a quid pro quo, you get the system up, police goes."

For hours the B.T.L. workers stood outside the gate on Princess Margaret
Drive while P.U.C. chairman Gilbert Canton and C.E.O. Gaspar Aguilar tried
unsuccessfully to reason with them to try and restore the phone system.
President of the Communication Workers Union, Paul Perriott, says employees
were ready to return to work, but not under duress.

Paul Perriott, President, B.C.W.U.
"Since this morning we had an agreement with the Prime Minister that we
would not be going into the yard until the security forces backed down.
Because they are asking that we assist them in finding whatever problem the
system is encountering. So basically that was what we asked them, to have
the police stand down and then we would again go in. the staff feel
uncomfortable with that. We had planed that we would have had a key crew;
go in there to see what is happening in the building before we actually get
the staff in. We already got that crew inside and now we are calling the
staff to go into work, but they have to investigate what is happening
inside of the building, basically find out maybe if the police put any bugs
or anything like that in place. I believe strongly that is how this
government is operating so far. They are trying to find key people to
pinpoint whatever and things like that. So what we are trying to do is
getting all the staff go into their work place, find out if there is
anything inside, any bugs or anything like that before."

The situation deteriorated over the weekend when B.T.L.'s Human Resources
Manager Dale Trujeque was arrested and spent Friday night in the police
lockup. He was formally arraigned in Magistrate's Court this morning, on a
charge of taking part in an unauthorized strike. Defence attorney Dean
Barrow says that charge has no merit.

Dean Barrow, Leader of Opposition
"We had been part of a session that was trying to work out the problems. I
had left, they came for me because government procured an injunction and
the police were telling the B.T.L. officials on the basis of this
injunction we can arrest you. I came and I explained that that's
ridiculous. You would have to prove that the B.T.L. people have violated
the injunction. You would have to go back to court to ask for an order of
committal. And it was during the course of that sort of discussion that ACP
Canton said well if I can't arrest him for the injunction, I will arrest
him in any case. And I said for what? For taking part in an illegal strike.
I said but this is ten o'clock at night. We are here in the middle of a
discussion, the C.E.O., other officials, if you are going to arrest him,
how come you won't, he said, no, no I will arrest him."

"He of course comes to the Magistrate's Court his morning to be arraigned,
as soon as the court book arrives, the charge will be read to him, he will
plead not guilty, the magistrate will offer him bail and he will be free to
go until the trial date."

That trial date has been set for the ninth of June, and in the meantime
Trujeque is out on bail of four hundred dollars plus a surety of the same
amount. Back in uniform this morning, Trujeque told News Five that he is
undeterred by the arrest.

Dale Trujeque, Human Resource Manager, B.T.L.
"I feel good honestly I feel we've reached a point where we as the workers
who are the only people who I think can genuinely...the country of Belize
and the Belizean people can genuinely believe will take care of the shares
on behalf of the Belizean people. This is the point where we are at. Let
them come forward, give it to us, hand it to us, let us find an arrangement
where we can get the shares. We are the best people and I believe the
people of Belize would entrust us and would agree, would have the
confidence that B.T.L. workers can manage control of those shares for them."

Barrow says that in meetings with the Prime Minister over the weekend, he
registered, as Leader of the Opposition his opinion that the P.M. needs to
find a solution to the problem once and for all.

Dean Barrow
"I was acting in a dual capacity as I said, as a representative of the
employees and in that capacity, determined to put their brief forward. In
my capacity as leader of the opposition, I said to the Prime Minister that
in my view all this is not going to be solved, all this is not going to go
away. Basically, it appears to me that we have reached a stage where things
are becoming ungovernable and the only way out as far as I can see is for
the Prime Minister to set a date for new elections. I told him that, that I
believe sincerely that he needs to seek a fresh mandate. At the conclusion
of the formal meeting with the B.T.L. people in the evening, a letter was
hand delivered to him by the B.T.L. workers union president Paul Perriott.
That letter of course is a letter from the National Trade Union Congress
saying to him exactly what I had said to him in the morning."

The N.T.U.C.B. letter opened by saying that the congress, representing some
fifteen thousand workers has lost confidence in Said Musa's leadership as
Prime Minister and called for his resignation, as well as the resignation
of the entire Cabinet. Perriott says while the unions have hinted it in the
past, it is time to spell it out for the Prime Minister.

Paul Perriott
"We've been asking for that for a while. We started the first movement, we
did not express it in that term, but we were in agreement that he needs to
step down. We have asked for quite a few changes to be made with regards to
how they run the country and they have not agreed to any. We signed a ten
point agreement, they are pushing us around, we cannot get an agreement on
any of the ten points so far that we have asked for. So unanimously as I
said when we started this movement within B.T.L., we took it to the trade
union council and told them that look, this is not about B.T.L. anymore,
our employees are looking at this as farther than BTL. We need to look at
the whole national picture now and get the public involved in this, get all
the unions again involved."

George Frazer, General Secretary, N.T.U.C.B.
"It's a terrible tragedy for Belize what is happening where we are right
now and the bottom line is that it's the people who are paying the price.
And so we have sent a letter to the Prime Minister, as you all heard he is
asking for a meeting. And we have to consult on this and decide whether we
will meet or where we go from there. Because this matter really is not
helping us. The image of Belize is to its lowest ebb out there and even
more than that, the disquiet among the employees, among Belizeans as a
whole, the disruption, the cause of all kinds of underhand deals and thing,
so we have to engage to bring back Belize to a firm footing and with the
people in charge."

Patrick Jones, for News Five.

The telecommunications news that was supposed to dominate the headlines
today--that is the long awaited B.T.L. board meeting scheduled for this
morning by tele-conference--could not be held due to the lack of phone
service.

*******************

Musa defends his government's actions

After trying all day to get an official reaction from government we
received a call from the Press Office around five-thirty that the Prime
Minister, after a long day of meetings, was in a position to talk. News 5's
Stewart Krohn is just back in the studio with that tape...here's what Said
Musa had to say.

Prime Minister Said Musa
"If I may begin by saying that I have maintained government's consistent
commitment to ensure participation by employees of B.T.L. and other
Belizeans in having the opportunity to own a substantial interest in B.T.L.
That commitment remains, that commitment was reaffirmed when I met
yesterday with union representatives. The difficulty has been that the
union representatives have adopted a position that they wanted these
shares, the thirty-seven percent that the government now holds, free or for
one dollar, and as a responsible government there is no way I could have to
agree to that. So we were not able to reach any agreement about the sale of
shares to employees. But I indicated to them that that commitment remains
and that we should work towards finding a mechanism of how financing can be
obtained for them to participate in the ownership and control of B.T.L.
What happened on Friday morning was that some technicians of B.T.L. decided
to and indeed brought down the entire system, the telecommunications system
of our country, of B.T.L. This has resulted in causing great harm and
damage to our country. Great security interests have been damaged. Our
national security has been jeopardized. The life and the safety of our
people have been put in jeopardy, endangered. Our economic interests and
commercial interest as a country, as a people, have been harmed by this.
And so it is incumbent on government to ensure that we get back up this
system as soon as possible, and we have been working towards that
objective. The P.U.C. has intervened because the B.T.L. technicians who
have been given opportunities on many occasions earlier for them to
reactivate the system and for one reason or another they did not and have
so far up to this point been unable to or have refused to. I gather that I
must say very clearly that this does not apply to all B.T.L. technicians.
Some have been cooperating with the P.U.C. technicians that have been
brought in, as well as a gentleman from Nortel, which is the company that
set up the system in the first place, so I would imagine be very familiar
with the codes and with the whole computerized system in place. That is now
going on and we are hopeful, and indeed we are insisting and doing
everything possible to bring up the system as soon as possible."

Stewart Krohn, Editor, News 5
"Prime Minister, what is so special about the B.T.L. employees that
government would go to such great lengths to facilitate their purchase of
B.T.L.?"

Prime Minister Said Musa
"Well these employees, many of them have worked for many years to build up
B.T.L.. They have invested their talent, their time, their lives in some
cases I would say, dedicated to this company, and they feel, and I believe
with some justification, that they have put a great stake in the building
up of this company and that others have come in and taken advantage of the
product that they have developed--this is how they perceive it--and as I
said, I believe that there is something to be said for that. So we feel an
obligation to find a way to assist them to own shares in B.T.L. Of course
any Belizean can purchase shares in B.T.L."

Stewart Krohn
"Purchase shares from whom?"

Prime Minister Said Musa
"The government will be making the shares available."

Stewart Krohn
"So what you're saying is at the same time you're going to make shares
available to B.T.L. employees, you will simultaneously make shares
available to the public. It's not the full thirty-seven percent that you
intend to sell to the employees of B.T.L.?"

Prime Minister Said Musa
"Well, if the employees of B.T.L., working with management, as we earlier
understood it, could have put it off to find money to purchase the whole
thirty-seven percent, we would have made it available to them, but clearly
that has not come to pass. I must tell you that all along we were under the
impression that this Sunrise group was representing executive employees as
well as other employees of B.T.L., in some trust arrangement. It has
transpired, based on the meeting that I heard yesterday, that there is some
conflict going on in between management and union, that there is some
mistrust going on among them, so it seems that that vehicle may not be
viable anymore. But this is strictly a matter between them. But were saying
that you all could have utilised this vehicle of Sunrise to raise the
money, whether from the bank as they have been talking to a particular
bank, or from wherever, that was not a matter of concern to the government,
that they be made available to the company on the understanding that
employees would have had a share in this to the extent that they wanted to."

Stewart Krohn
But then Prime Minister, where is Sunrise now, I'm not quite getting you.
What offers you are making and to whom are you making them?"

Prime Minister Said Musa
"I think you'll have to ask Sunrise where they are. What I'm saying, we
will make the shares available to the employees and other Belizeans. Now,
how do we envisage this working out? I believe we will have to give some
period, maybe a matter of weeks when the shares become available to the
employees as a matter of priority. It may end up that they cannot
financially purchase the whole thirty-seven percent and then other
Belizeans will be invited after that limited period to come in, if they so
wish to purchase shares."

Rene Mendez, Love Fm
"Sir, would you be able to say if anything has been communicated to you,
how long will we be in the situation with the phone system. Has anything
been communicated as to when the deadline will be to get the system back
up, hundred percent running?"

Prime Minister Said Musa
The latest communication I have is that at the present, several if not all
B.T.L. technicians are now working along with the Nortel gentleman, the
engineer in fact, to bring up the system, the international phone system,
the internet, everything else, the cell system as soon as possible. But
this is a highly technical matter totally beyond me, I should quickly add,
and I can't give you a deadline how soon they will bring it up. What I do
believe is that initially, based on past experience, before the system was
tampered with, and before sabotage took place, because it's not just the
coding system has been interfered with now or changed, but also there has
been some sabotage of fibre optic cables as well. I mean serious damage has
been done to this company and therefore I cannot say at this stage how long
it will take for the entire system to be brought up, but I do know they are
doing everything possible to."

Rene Mendez
"Will anybody be charged with sabotage?"

Prime Minister Said Musa
"I believe if the police have clear evidence of this act of vandalism,
sabotage, or indeed some would even call it an act of terrorism, that
person would have to be charged, yes."

Stewart Krohn
"Prime Minister, a few months ago on a radio talk show, a caller was giving
you some trouble and you kind of laughed and you said, "What do you want me
to do, resign?" It was a big laugh for everyone. Today the NTUCB has put on
paper what many people in that movement have been thinking for a long time.
They have called for your resignation. Are you still laughing?"

Prime Minister Said Musa
"I have to treat it with a bit of humour, yes, because it is very clear to
me that this whole thing is a political well-timed orchestrated conspiracy
that has been going on. And I think the union--and I'm not accusing all
union officials now, and certainly I'm not accusing the members of the
union--but certainly in the leadership and in certain factions of the
leadership of the NTUCB, they have been carrying out a clear political
agenda for a long time, and they have made it clear not yesterday or today
that they want my removal from government, from office. So it hasn't come
as any surprise that they would put it on paper. What I will say is that
they speak that they represent fifteen thousand members; well I have a
mandate coming from over fifty thousand Belizeans and I will have to speak
to the Belizean people before I would even consider any such requests
coming from the unions. So the whole thing is political; it's very clear
too that what has transpired with the B.T.L. issue is highly politically
charged, it is a clear conspiracy going on here involving politics, the
objective, the agenda being to try and illegally and unconstitutionally
remove the government."

Rene Mendez
"Being that the board meeting that was set for this morning did not take
place, what now does this mean for the ruling that has taken place in Miami?"

Prime Minister Said Musa
"Well we have been very conscious of that and the dangers involved in that
and we have taken steps to inform our attorneys first and they in turn will
inform the court that this is now an of "force majeure" that it is beyond
the competence of the government to have held the meeting, certainly in
Belize, because we can't communicate and the meeting would have taken place
telephonically, not with all the board members coming to Belize. We were
just not able to do so. I gather now that steps are now being taken to
reschedule the meeting for later in the week."

Stewart Krohn
"Prime Minister, just prior to the answer you just gave to Mr. Mendez's
question, you characterized the present crisis as something that is
politically motivated. But Prime Minister, are you willing to admit that
there is a large number of people who count themselves as your friends and
supporters and even voted for you happily in the last election who are
incredibly angry at the mess your government has brought this country to,
not just with B.T.L., but with D.F.C., with S.S.B., with the whole, we
needn't go over that again. What is your message to those people who would
want to support you, but are just unbelievably angry?"

Prime Minister Said Musa
"You are telling me this Stewart and I am prepared to admit and concede
that we have been facing certain difficulties which would genuinely and
justifiably cause many of our supporters to be concerned, alarmed and
angry. I believe the situation is that we have not done sufficient work to
explain how we got into many of these difficulties, how these things came
about, to pinpoint exactly what brought these things about. Obviously the
opposition has played a very successful role in selling it to many people
as government's, what they call corruption or incompetence, or both. The
issue to me is very clear. I am totally satisfied in my own mind that I
have no evidence--I am certain though that there is no corrupt act hat has
taken place on my part--and I have no evidence of any of my ministers being
involved in any act of corruption. The potential corruption, if we may call
it that, and wrongdoing as such...clearly we can look to certain people who
might have been involved in the process, whether it be through D.F.C.,
through the SSB issue, or even the B.T.L. issue and say this is where the
wrong took place. But what I am committed to doing to try and gain back the
confidence and respect of all my friends and supporters of this great party
is to do everything in my power to restore stability, economic stability
and security to our country, to straighten out these things, to get things
right and then to move ahead."

Stewart Krohn
"Prime Minister could you characterize your relationship with Glenn Godfrey?"

Prime Minister Said Musa
"One of deep rage and disappointment."

Stewart Krohn
"Do you think Glenn Godfrey should face the Senate Select Committee
examining Social Security and if he chooses not to testify, what would you
do?"

Prime Minister Said Musa
"I believe yes, that Mr. Godfrey should be called upon to explain his
actions as far as the Intelco issue is concerned. If he refuses to, I would
then have to take legal advice on what further can be done, but that's a
difficult issue Stewart."

Stewart Krohn
"Prime Minister you characterize the acts of sabotage as...I forget the
word you just used."

Prime Minister Said Musa
"Irresponsible."

Stewart Krohn
"Highly irresponsible acts. Would you like to look back at certain thing
your government has done which have been similarly characterized as highly
irresponsible acts and tell the Belizean people, or explain to the Belizean
people as you offered to do a few minutes ago, why and how you got into
those situations?"

Prime Minister Said Musa
"I don't know if you want to go down that road in any detail, but I can
begin by saying that-let us take the B.T.L. issue. You will recall that
when Carlisle took control of B.T.L., majority control, we were facing
tremendous difficulties with them in terms of unilateral increasing rates
on the people, testing, or putting everything in the judicial system,
taking us to court for every little thing, right up to the Privy Council.
In other words, it was not a healthy relationship for the company and its
relation with the government. And telecommunications is of vital importance
to any country, certainly to the economy of a country. So we sat down with
Lord Ashcroft and got him to agree in the end to sell the majority control,
the fifty-two percent, in B.T.L.. Now obviously he did not want to dispose
of his shares, and so he made it difficult, and as a businessman I can't
blame him. But we were faced with a very tough negotiation with him in
order to achieve the objective of finding another shareholder or
shareholders who would work in what I then perceived to be the better
interest of Belize. Now you may call that an error of judgment to think
that that could be possible, but I think you need to take into account the
difficulties that I was seeing. In other words, I don't have anything
person against Lord Ashcroft; he's a major player in our economy in Belize.
But I did perceive that in his ownership of B.T.L. We were not making
progress, we were not making progress with the internet for schools
programme, we were not making progress with expanding the service to rural
communities, we were not making progress in bringing down rates as we had
promised the Belizean people."

Stewart Krohn
"Prime Minister, let me interrupt at this point because when faced with
similar situations all over the Caribbean, what governments did was
something different than what you did. They took a very above board, they
established an above board process under which companies that were eager to
come into the Caribbean, like Digicel of Ireland, like AT and T, like
Cingular, like many different companies were put in a bidding situation
that ultimately has worked just fine. What worked everywhere else didn't
seem to be a realistic alternative with you...instead you created what I
can only call an unholy alliance with Glenn Godfrey. Granted you did that,
you can't look back on that now and think, Boy, what were we thinking when
we did that?"

Prime Minister Said Musa
"It's easy with 20/20 hindsight to take that attitude Stewart. Yes, it has
not worked out. If it had worked out, people would be smiling today, we
would have three way competition with Intelco, Speednet and B.T.L.. That
one did not work out. But I was coming on to the point that in order to get
Carlisle to sell the shares, they insisted on an option deed and of course
all this thing, it's difficult to explain to people, "Why would you agree
to an option deed to sell back the shares if you couldn't dispose of them,
or properly dispose of them to a new buyer?" We did it because we were
confident. And yes, I put my trust in this new company, I.C.C., when I say
I, I mean my government. We did it because we looked at Mr. Prosser's
system that he had in place. You speak of these other companies but he had
at least at that time, what was perceived as a very viable system in the US
Virgin Islands, operating their system very successfully. It, all the
litigation that came against them cause subsequently to all that. And
that's how he got into problems with being unable to pay for the B.T.L.
shares. But all those things happened, if you like, when it rained, it
poured. And yes, I had to face these difficulties. But I'm showing you how
difficulties like that come about through no corrupt act, through no
incompetence, but just things can go astray at times when you are dealing
with hundreds of things in government, some of them will not work out...it
happens to any government."

Stewart Krohn
"The turning back, or the turning over control in B.T.L. to Mr. Ashcroft in
the first place, incompetence? "

Prime Minister Said Musa
"No, no. Well you might...we could go back and back and back but I
mean...we saw the..."

Stewart Krohn
"But that seems to be at the root of where you begin to as you say, go
astray or that was maybe the first of many of what you would call mistakes.
What's the justification for that? You had control of B.T.L., you turned it
over to Michael Ashcroft. Yet at virtually the same time you did a deal
with Glenn Godfrey."

Prime Minister Said Musa
"At that time the government was carrying out a very robust program in the
country, investing in the people in many other areas and so were pursuing
full privatization. Now you may or may not agree with that, but if you go
down the route of full privatization, you have to sell. Government has to
get out of it. And that is still our objective, incidentally. We don't want
the government to own any shares in B.T.L.. That is why we sold the
majority of shares to Carlisle at the time and subsequently to the I.C.C.
group, to get the government out of B.T.L. in order to have if you like,
the funds to invest in housing for the people, expanding education,
expanding healthcare, and we've done a tremendous amount of that. I think
that is the area where we tend to forget, well what caused the government
to sell the shares. Is it because the government wanted to make a deal, a
corrupt deal with Mr. Ashcroft or Mr. Prosser? No."

Stewart Krohn
"It wasn't a corrupt deal, it was deal that can be characterized as not the
brightest deal."

Prime Minister Said Musa
"Alright not the brightest, but as I tell you it was a way expanding our
investment base to benefit the poor Belizean people, many of whom did
benefit in terms of getting an improved quality of life situation."

Stewart Krohn
"If you ever get back the golden share in B.T.L. would you give it up again?"

Prime Minister Said Musa
"No."

Prime Minster Said Musa


*******************************************************

Sunday Night Chaos at BTL
Tonight, after an almost uninterrupted 72 hour shutdown, phone service
across Belize is partially restored. While that is the news on one front,
on another, the National Trade Union Congress of Belize has, for the first
time, flatly asked the Prime Minister and his entire government to resign.
And the other major development tonight is that the Government of Belize
continues to be in contempt of a Florida Judge at the cost of US$50,000 a
day because no board meeting was held today. We'll have all those stories
in tonight's newscast but we begin with the question everyone's asking:
"what's up with the phone system?" Right now, fixed phones across the
country are working but they can only make local calls. There are no
national long distance, and no international calls available. Digicell
service has been partially restored and is presently working, according to
best reports, beyond Hattieville and in all major towns and Belmopan...most
areas with the single, major exception of Belize City.

The main hurdle as we understand it from government accounts is that the
fiber optic cable to Belmopan has been cut. We are informed, again by
government, that an expert has been brought in to work on it and this could
be repaired by midnight. The work to bring the switch back up was done by a
pair of Nortel engineers flown in, as we understand it, from Mexico to
bring back up the system. Government claims that he was able to almost
fully restore it at 1:30 am but, government claims, due to an act of
sabotage, it went down again.

The Nortel engineers were secreted into BTL last night. They came into the
compound against the wishes of an angry and determined group of protesters
who wanted the system to remain down. That resistance caused for major
confrontation and some unprecedented actions on Princess Margaret Drive.
What happened there is at the heart of our next story as our 7NEWS Team
followed the action every step of the way. Our story starts yesterday
afternoon at the Central Bank Building when the Prime Minister met with
BTL's Communication Workers Union.

Jules Vasquez Reporting,
At 4:00 pm the Prime Minister and the Attorney General were already waiting
and next to arrive were CEO Gaspar Aguilar and BTL Attorney Michael Young.
Next to arrive was a clearly defiant Human Resource Manager Dale Trujeque.
And then came the union representatives chauffeured by their Attorney Dean
Barrow, Mark Usher, Dwight Gentle, Christine and Paul Perriot to be joined
by Barrow. By 6:15 pm their meeting had concluded and the communication
workers were outside consulting with PSU leader Jackie Willoughby.
Government's Information Director Vaughan Gill was next to leave and then
the Prime Minister and the Attorney General rolled out with an obligatory
wave to the camera. There would be no wave from the dead serious union
leaders who were last to leave They went to meet at the PSU headquarters on
Kut Avenue.

Jules Vasquez,
What was the result of the meeting with the Prime Minister?

Paul Perriot, BCWU President
"Well nothing as usual. We got agreement on the four last points but the
first one we noh got no agreement pon so basically the 37% we di ask them
fi assist we with the loan or procuring the loan and they point blank say
that they cannot."

Jules Vasquez,
And so without that first point which is the 37%, you all are not moving?

Paul Perriot,
"Basically no. There is no discussion but we told them for them to drop
whatever security at BTL and let the workers go back in and we will try our
best to get the system back up."

Jules Vasquez,
Should you all lose the national shutdown of telecom services, you all lose
the leverage we can just fire you.

Paul Perriot,
"Okay Jules I think it's going even further than that. I don't know if you
got the letter that we sent from the Prime Minister. The unions
collectively decided that we're calling on the resignation of the Prime
Minister so that letter is strong and we have commitment from all the
unions that we will go in that direction."

Jules Vasquez,
So was this told to him in the meeting that you all want him to resign?

Paul Perriot,
"No I just received the letter and I handed it to him."

Jules Vasquez,
Realistically do you expect that the Prime Minister of Belize will resign
because you ask him to?

Paul Perriot,
"Belizeans will tell him to do that."

And while that's what they told the union membership, chaos erupted when
Vaughan Gill showed up in the area. Our camera was there for the end of it
as Rufus X had just saved Gill from a mob and was trying to get him in his
vehicle as Gill had his hand on his personal firearm in his waist. Though
the audio never picked it up a very emotional Gill railed against the mob
even as projectiles were hurled at his vehicle.

Jules Vasquez,
Rufus when I came here I saw you were restraining Vaughn Gill. Explain to
me what happened.

Rufus X,
"Well I was restraining him because I was right next to him and he seemed
to be going for a gun so I just grabbed him and held his hand tight against
his body along with his gun to avoid an incident here because the only
thing I could do being that close is either kill a man that is going to
take out a gun or prevent him by some means and that's typically what you
were seeing there. It wasn't any hassle at all, I was just trying to
protect him because other than that the crowd out here would have eaten him
alive as you have seen."

Jules Vasquez,
So explain to me how you saw the situation unfold Vaughn came here and I
understand he was by one of the media vehicles.

Rufus X,
"Well somebody spared him from an attack there by leading him to the KREM
broadcasting van. So I went over there and inquired why is he being brought
to the van and the crowd tried to attack him again and there he went for
his gun and I just held his hand and his body together because I didn't
want him to pull out a gun in a crowded area like this."

Jules Vasquez,
If he had gone for that gun what do you think would have happened?

Rufus X,
"Well he would have maybe hurt a couple of people but definitely they would
have eaten him alive. This is not the place for Vaughn to have come to
tamper with an angry crowd. We are talking about national interests here,
national interests involved, and Vaughn is a man that is being taken to the
defense of his Prime Minister very seriously, I don't know for what reason,
but that's the way I see it and to avoid him getting hurt out here we just
had to restrain him."

After that very serious confrontation, the workers went back to their
meeting with Communication Workers Union for the plan.

Paul Perriot,
"Everybody go to Saint Thomas and if they move we fah deh then dah City
Center after dat."

That St. Thomas plan would set the stage for this workers, pedestrians,
civilians coming out to BTL at 8:00 in the evening. The plan was to block
foreign technicians secured by the PUC from entering and reactivating the
switch. That meant physically blocking the gates, which led to close
quarters with police and strong words.

[People trying to get into gate]

And from the St. Thomas Street gate to the gate on Princess Margaret Drive
where the mob had overheard on the police radio that the foreign expert was
coming in a.

[Man Shouting: 'White Polo Shirt and Jeans Pants']

The uproar continued as Broaster and his team reasserted control of the
fence, but not to Christine Perriot who stood defiant at her company's
gates Broaster and his team did advance to push the mob back. All this in
view of a growing crowd with very vocal sentiments but Jeffries held the
front until it was time to move, then in a bizarre play by play introduced
us to the officer who had just taken a pounding.

[Jeffries showing PC Teck to camera]

An ID card in a flurry of chaos, Teck was obviously being used as a decoy
to distract the mob as the police tried to get in the imported switch
specialists through another entrance. About half an hour later, this now
about 10:00 pm, police had another showdown and their guns were on the
ready. Jeffries collected pints and rocks that were accumulating on the
median and those were carted away. But on the civilian side, when the
bullhorn got involved, that's when the crowd mobilized on a protest with
the chant:

[Chanting: 'Musa and Ralph Haftu Go]

That continued throughout King's Park all this occurring 11:00 at night.
That continued unto F Street then unto Princess Margaret Drive where
projectiles about 8 of them were thrown at the Prime Minister's House. But
the police pulled up and Chester Williams put an end to it

ASP Chester Williams,
"Yo! Yo! Stop you fool! Stop it!"

Now the crowd swarmed across the street with a chorus of horns and a small
but boisterous and vocal mob holding their ground across the street from
the Prime Minister's residence.

[Protestor: 'Enough is enough. We noh wah sleep tonight, you noh wah sleep
tonight.']

But despite the rage and broken glass on the street ASP Williams secured
the area and the crowd went back to the Princess Margaret Drive entrance
where after Jeffries decided to move the crowd from the fence area which is
when Lascelle Arnold planned a sit-in.

The 60 or so remained locked together and slid in front of the gate.

Crispin Jeffries, Assistant Commissioner of Police
[Speaking to protestor] "Young man I want you to move away from there."

After that there would be no more warnings with M-16's on the ready
Jeffries moved the sitting protesters out. And after Jeffries shoved me out
of the way the stones and projectiles kept coming in with the police having
to huddle behind the vehicle for cover.

That did clear the area and Jeffries, rifle in hand made sure everyone got
on the move. The sweep continued on to Saint Thomas Street while the stones
kept coming in. Jeffries cleared the area block by block and while the
crowd continued to protest the sweep was effective and the wily Lascelle
Arnold was part of the hard to move crowd.

Jules Vasquez,
Lascelle you neva get arrested?

Lascelle Arnold,
"Boy they arrest me two times but they say it cause problems if they hold
me so they let me go."

But the stones kept coming in. But Jeffries continued even with the tough
cases the confrontations would continue and while Jeffries continued to
talk with an angry crowd, they had their own differences to settle.

[Unruly protestor approaching and appealing to armed officer.]

As the scowl showed, this officer was serious and moments later it would be
gunshots at near midnight in a residential neighborhood. Later there would
be arrests and police detaining two women in the very same crowd. But at
that time our camera was at the Princess Margaret Drive gate where blackout
had engulfed the roadway and Home Affairs Minister Ralph Fonseca pulled in
with the Chairman of the PUC as his passenger. He drove right past a guard
hut which had turned into a detention cell for three of the sitters.

Detainee,
"Jules the man got me fi nothing. I noh do nothing. Mr. Jeffries bring me
yah and tell me dah yah I fi stay. I ready fi go home big man. Serious. I
really ready fi go home now."

They would only be released after a request by Union Lawyer Dean Barrow who
was pulled out at 1:00 in the morning to ask officer in charge of the gate
Melicio Uck to let them out. David Lealcock was released as was Allan
Sharpe. It would be another four hours for this young man a BTL employee
who this morning told us how it upset him to be locked up in his own
company's guard hut.

Detainee,
"Mr. Jeffries just accosted me, choke me up fi nothing, had me under house
arrest inna mi own work place. He had me incarcerated for like 4,5 hours."

Jules Vasquez,
How did that feel being locked up in the guardhouse for your own company
where you work?

Detainee,
"That dah one ah di ugliest feelings in a DI world fi know that fi 11 years
I DI work dah this place and the man have MI locked up like a prisoner inna
MI own workplace. Dah wah very ugly feeling and I hate fi see dis dah whe
Belize come to now."

In fact Barrow and the BTL crew couldn't wait to get him out, they then had
to go to the Queen Street Station where another staffer had been detained.
When we left at 2:00 am they were still there waiting.

Those workers two of them were released at 5:00 am without being charged.
Presently BTL's Chief of Security, Selbert Butler is also being held
pending unspecified charges that may have to do with industrial sabotage.
He collapsed today while in custody and is now recovering from a blood
pressure spike at a private hospital. The police are also reporting a
number of injuries from the events of the evening.

*******************************************

BTL Workers Locked Out of Compound
This morning, BTL employees showed up to work as usual and found that they
were locked out just as they had been on Friday night when police took over
the compound. Today, the workers demanded that the occupation end before
they go into work. Who won that battle? Well, no one really. Here's the story.

Jules Vasquez Reporting,
Police continued to guard the compound this morning as BTL workers,
managers included stood outside, not quite sure what they do - basically
watching the police watch them. That lasted for about an hour. The standoff
ended when the managers were called to go inside separately. When that was
proposed, the staff led by union activist Dwight Gentle blocked the gate.

That brought CEO Gaspar Aguilar and PUC Chair Dr. Gilbert Canton to the
gate. The back and forth continued with the CEO getting involved. And while
Canton and retired technician Harry Noble waited, the back and forth
continued at the gate for almost an hour with the final demand being that
the police had to pull back.

Dwight Gentle, BTL Employee
"They have to reduce their forces whe deh have as well because whe happen
is we done got security on the compound. So that dah DI consensus right? We
wah deh go first."

That brought out Aguilar trying to again work out a compromise, which would
leave the police inside.

Bernard Pitts, BTL Employee
"Honestly Mr. G ih wah be uncomfortable fi deh staff up there and those deh
right there over."

Dwight Gentle,
"We want them removed from the building."

Gaspar Aguilar, BTL's CEO
"Dwight you need to work with me Dwight."

Dwight Gentle,
"I am trying to work with you Mr. G for a compromise right now."

Bernard Pitts,
"If they want to be here then have them be outside. They know absolutely
nothing about BTL apart from using a phone and paying their bills. What can
they do to stop us from doing anything?"

Gaspar Aguilar,
"I beg you, you have to make it appear that I am still in control. If not
then brutal force will come down."

That plea went nowhere and neither did a one on one with the PUC's boss.
Instead the workers broke out into a spirited rendition of the national
anthem.

By this time workers had blocked the road and the whole dynamic of the
negotiation changed when Manager Mark Usher arrived.

Mark Usher,
"Control go back to fi we security people deh and the other officers they
maintain a presence outside of the buildings, on the compound, so we can go
in, relax wi self, and see whe we could do. Hold up I noh di agree to
nothing. I di tell unu whe deh tell me. Mek a give unu di feedback if some
ah unu neva deh yeh yesterday when we come out of the meeting, the 37%
which dah the primary objective, which dah wi job security and we future ah
we life, that get thrown out ah di door."

The conversation continued until it became clear that there was no
agreement forcing a showdown and a departure.

Mark Usher,
"Mek wi try get away from this location and we form tight group, we going
so right now 5 minutes and come back. Mr. G. the only whe could happen to
me is unu kill me. Yo dun fire me already."

Gaspar Aguilar,
"Who said so?"

Mark Usher,
"The only thing you could do to me next dah kill me."

Gaspar Aguilar,
"Who fired you? You watch me in my face and tell me I fired you. Look at me
and tell me I fired you."

Mark Usher,
"All BTL people and look 'round yah we noh wah no media."

Gaspar Aguilar,
"I want to put a question to you right now. Who dah the CEO? Mark or me?"

Mark Usher,
"You dah di CEO."

Gaspar Aguilar,
"Well I di ask you to listen to me 'cause the minute I talk nobody listens
and when Mark talks everybody listens."

Mark Usher,
"Because I di tell them deh no get 37% and you di tell them they get a
promise, nobody no wah hear that. We tired ah promise. We tired a promise
Mr. G. If you di tell these people they going in on a promise, yes I know I
am going on like an idiot and the officers can tell me anytime, but you
need to understand that we done lose and we di try get back. We done lose."

But the workers remained divided and half held their meeting while half
remained milling around the entrance. After another 45 minutes, at 11:00 am
the decision was finally made to just open the gates and let everyone in.

Dwight Gentle,
"Mek we come een."

Bernard Pitts,
"They asked that we bring up back the system as normal."

That decision to go into the workplace was short lived though. The police
never fully withdrew form the compound. When Union President Paul Perriot
showed up after having to deal with a personal emergency he called the
workers outside again, and insisted that they would not go inside until the
police were removed because of the persistent fear for their privacy and
well being.

Paul Perriot, BCWU President
"They have to investigate what di happen inside the building, basically
find out maybe if the police put any bugs or anything like that in place. I
believe strongly that that di way how this government di operate so far,
they di try find key people to try pinpoint whatever and things like that.
So what we are trying to do is telling all the staff going into their
workplaces find out if there's anything inside, bugs or anything like that,
before they actually..."

Angel Novelo, REPORTER Newspaper
"But you want the police out at the same time?"

Paul Perriot,
"We want the police out so initially that is what we are going to ask. Even
if they stand down, so far it seems that some of the staff kinda
comfortable with them being in secluded area but right now we di ask they
tek out all a them before we even go inna dah real work environment back
again. We agreed that the employees need to get back into work. We don't
want them to force any kind of lockout on us but we agreed that we want all
the police forces and everybody agreed unanimously, the staff, that we need
to get the police force out before we actually go back in to the work place."

This evening when we visited BTL workers remained on the compound, but out
of the office.

********************************

Unions Call for PM Musa's Resignation
And while we have shown you extensive coverage of the labour and civil
dispute on the ground it remains a still unresolved power struggle between
a government grappling for control of a national crisis, and a union
determined not to give in until it gets what it wants. Well, as of
yesterday, that union has company and major backative. Yesterday evening at
6:00 pm the Prime Minister received a letter signed by the President and
General Secretary of the National Trade Union Congress of Belize on behalf
of the 15,000 workers represented by the NTUCB's 8 unions. The letter opens
by saying, "the NTUCB...wishes to join the thousands of other Belizeans in
registering our loss of confidence in your leadership as Prime Minister of
Belize." It continues, "the NTUCB therefore calls for your immediate
resignation as Prime Minister...as well as the resignation of the entire
government of Belize." The letter then goes on to deal with 7 points that
the unions believe justify the call for resignation. These include, "the
almost absolute disregard for veracity in...your public statements, and
excessive foreign loans." It also goes on to talk about the mismanagement
of public finances, Social Security, and DFC. In a long and testy history
of differences and dispute, it is the first time that the NTUCB has flatly
called for the Prime Minister's resignation. Of course, that doesn't mean
he'll do it in fact, past history indicates that the Prime Minister of
Belize greatly resist being dictated to. But, it's clear the Prime Minister
will have to do something to mollify the unions because the Belize National
Teacher's Union Council of Management on Saturday voted to support the BTL
workers in their plight and to ask the Prime Minister to resign. BNTU's
President Anthony Fuentes told us his union's position.

Anthony Fuentes, BNTU President
"The BNTU fully supports the activities of the Belize Communication
Worker's Union in fighting to get the 37% of BTL's shares and for the
employees to own this 37% so we are in full support and solidarity with our
affiliate union the Communication Worker's Union. The BNTU is part of the
NTUCB and as you are aware a letter was sent to the Prime Minister by the
NTUCB, but our union has its plan of action as to what we are going to do
to assist the BCWU in its effort to acquire the 37% in BTL. The letter was
sent to him and we didn't mince any words and its clear as to what the
Belizean workers want."

Alfonso Noble,
What if he doesn't resign Mr. Fuentes? What if there's no resignation?
You've called for this before and you've called for no new taxes and you've
called for various other things but they have not been implemented. What if
they don't heed to your calls?

Anthony Fuentes,
"Well if the Prime Minister doesn't heed then I believe the other actions
we have in store will begin to unfold."

Today the General Secretary of the BNTU and the NTUCB, George Frazer
amplified those remarks by the BNTU President. Speaking with the media,
Amandala's Adele Ramos asked Frazer why resign and not remove?

Adele Ramos, AMANDALA Newspaper
"Are they joining you in this call for the Prime Minister's resignation and
how far are you willing to go get it?"

George Frazer, NTUCB's General Secretary
"Well we had preliminary meetings with them last week Thursday and we are
to engage with them again. I think in principle they do agree that we have
reached the end of our patience."

Adele Ramos,
"The unions have said okay, reform, resign, or be removed. We even reached
the point where we said be removed now you're falling back to resign. Can
you explain that to us?"

George Frazer,
"Well its a process. It's a process in terms of the reform measures, some
have been taken to the House, but at the time when those statements were
made some of these recent things were not known to us. For example some of
this recent thing with write-off the millions for Ashcroft; some of these
things had not developed and the whole situation has been deteriorating and
we have to stop this fool now. People were elected to serve to us and the
best interest of Belize, not themselves."

Adele Ramos,
"And if the Prime Minister refuses to resign then what will you do?"

George Frazer,
"We will not speculate, the people will decide."

So with the teachers clearly on board with the communication workers:
what's next? Well as Fuentes said, they have their plans. But we do note
that the government has been working to find common ground with the
communication workers after yesterday meeting with the Prime Minister
failed to produce a resolution. As mentioned earlier, government's position
is that it will not meet the unions first of five demands: which is that it
should give the workers 37% of BTL's shares. Government believes that it
cannot commit to give away shares that cost US$35 million. The union's
position is that it did the same thing when it accepted a promissory note
from Jeffrey Prosser. It's a fairly intractable position but government
negotiators have been trying failingly to find common ground. We say
failingly because the unions walked out of a ministerial level meeting that
was to have been held at 4:00 this afternoon at the Central Bank. The union
showed up expecting to meet the Prime Minister but were greeted instead by
his negotiating team of Ministers Godfrey Smith, Francis Fonseca and Jose
Coye. With that, Union President Paul Perriot and his Attorney Dean Barrow
informed that group that they would not be participating meeting. The Prime
Minister was also unable to have a meeting with the Trade Union Congress.
Apparently, the Trade Union Congress could not round up all 8 leaders and
that meeting had to be deferred, possibly until tomorrow.

With those meetings still not held there is no reconciliation in sight.
But, we stress it is a very fluid situation and things can change quickly.
What we do know is that if the government succeeds in restoring most of the
national phone service, the communication workers will steadily lost
leverage.

While that's the local battle, internationally, government continues to
lose leverage in its battle with a Florida Court. By all indication, the
board meeting which would have "purged" the government of its contempt was
not held today. Not held because long distance calls were not possible and
the meeting depends on teleconferencing with directors in other countries.
Without that meeting, unless the judge is understanding of the domestic
crisis, the contempt meter continues to run at a cost of US$50,000 a day.
Today it reached the million dollar mark and that is U.S. dollars.

WOW!!

Not sure what the deal is now but rumors from Belize City that Electric &
Water Utility Companies joining BTL on this strike & sabotage deal.

power just went out (6:30 Belize time)

The following is only speculation on my part,

if this is prime "high" season for tourism could it be that the unions want to make their case when it will have the greatest dollar impact-hoping for a quick resolution or compromise?

As opposed to an off season stike which nets aggravation but has less dollar significance.

power just went back on - 7:25

twas only out 55 minutes but I received news from Belize City that the
power may be interrupted most of tomorrow.


========\
U.D.P. plans civil disobedience to force elections
With the phones disconnected at B.T.L., a contempt of court ruling hanging over its head in Miami, investigations probing misconduct at S.S.B. and D.F.C., a dangerously low credit rating, and the I.M.F. coming to town, it's pretty clear that the government of the ruling People's United Party is learning new definitions for the word "pressure". But in politics--as in most things--timing is everything, and after several months of riding the coattails of public protest, the opposition United Democratic Party has apparently decided that the time is ripe to make its serious bid for an early return to power. This morning the U.D.P. outlined its plans.

Dean Barrow, Leader of the Opposition, U.D.P.
”As the long nightfall of the P.U.P. departs, it is the U.D.P. that cometh in the morn.”

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
As the country enters its fifth day of global isolation and severely limited local telecommunications, this morning the opposition United Democratic Party held a press conference in Belize City to declare its position on the workers’ demand for shares in B.T.L., and its own political intentions in the midst of the national crisis. According to leader Dean Barrow, a new U.D.P. government would not hesitate to help B.T.L. employees acquire a stake in the company.

Dean Barrow
”The United Democratic Party would do two things: it would provide a sovereign guarantee for a loan to be raised by the B.T.L. workers to purchase the thirty-seven percent shares in B.T.L. currently held by government. With respect to offering a sovereign guarantee, my God, the current administration has offered sovereign guarantees to every conceivable crony you can imagine. I am positive that the Belizean people will applaud the offering of a U.D.P. government’s sovereign guarantee for what is clearly an excellent cause in the national interest.”

“And [secondly] it would dispatch its financial secretary and others to accompany the workers’ representatives to shop for the financing package that would make that purchase possible.”

“We all want the shares to be re-Belizeanized. If he now wishes to offer a sovereign guarantee and to send the financial engineer to stitch up one of his deals with the banks abroad, so that the financing might become available for the union, we would actually applaud that. We know how good they say they are at putting together these complex financial transactions. Well for once, let them put together such a complex financial transaction that will result in the financing becoming available to the B.T.L. employees for the purchase of those shares.”

And as employees take to the streets, Barrow says he and his party will join the ranks.

Dean Barrow
”The United Democratic Party calls for and will urgently seek a formal alliance with the National Trade Union Congress of Belize, the Association of Concerned Belizeans, and all other interest groups that are determined to realize the objective.”

“In any case, the U.D.P. will, for its part, begin now a sustained campaign of civil disobedience. I have chosen that word deliberately in contrast to any other that might conjure up the spectre of violence. We are convinced that the objective can be achieved without any resort to violence.”

But with tensions already running high and memories of the violent clash on January twenty-first still haunting Belmopan, the U.D.P. admits that in order to peacefully execute “civil disobedience”, the Police Department’s role is crucial.

Dean Barrow
”We are not going to encourage violence and we’re going to do everything in our power to discourage violence. There are times of course when a peaceful gathering turns ugly and I’m not going to seek to lay any blame on the security forces, but as we go forward there must be a mutual determination. Not only on the part of the United Democratic Party and others who will engage in public protest, but on the part of the security forces as well to prevent situations from becoming too confrontational.”

Audience Member
”Jeffreys.”

Dean Barrow
“I’m not going to call any names, but we have seen on television the--and again I want to chose my words carefully and be as kind and perhaps as euphemistic as possible, the provocative behaviour of certain extremely senior officials of the security forces. That needs to stop. The government is required, I think, to put senior officers in charge of the security situation on the streets who possess a level of maturity, experience, and wisdom in dealing with the process that is ongoing and that is clearly not going to stop.”

And even though the United Democratic Party has persistently called on the Prime Minister to resign, tonight Barrow is hinting that more utility strikes are imminent, which will cause the business community to turn against the Musa administration.

Dean Barrow
”Things are not only not going to return to normal any time soon, but that in fact there are going to escalate. And I’m not talking necessarily about the confrontation of people in the streets with the security forces. I’m talking about the sorts of things that would be akin to what is happening with the disruption in telecommunications services. Without wishing to speculate too much, without wanting to place the other utility unions in any compromising position, I believe the wise bet would be on similar actions, such as we have seen in telecommunications, occurring. That sort of thing even more than any sort of street action is what will force this government to resign. I was talking to one of the B.T.L. personalities last night and he made a point to me. The P.U.P. is particularly afraid of losing the support of the moneyed people in this society--the business classes, the entrepreneurs. And when they provoke a situation in which those people’s monies and business interests, the economic, the overarching economic interests of this country are being jeopardized, there will be a reaction from that section of the society which will also tell the Prime Minister, you need to go. If I could bruk it down inna Creole, Prime Minista weh di happen interfere with we cheese, you need to go. So I am convinced that the leverage that will be applied will be not just the protest actions in the streets, as I say, but what is going to be happening with our essential services.”

With the U.D.P. smelling blood in the water, already the party is rallying its supporters, calling its candidates to arms and fine-tuning what it is calling its “economic rescue” programme...all in anticipation of the early general elections the United Democratic Party now seems to be expecting.

====================================
News of April 21 -- --

Looting and protests in Belize City
When we signed off on last night's newscast, it was with the sun setting
and tyres burning amidst a restless crowd on the Belcan Bridge. What
happened next was not pretty as a day of political protest morphed into a
night of indiscriminate looting. News Five's Rick Romero and Stewart Krohn
ventured into Belize City's chaotic downtown area around Albert and Regent
streets and came back with some thought-provoking pictures. Viewers will
recognize the looted stores as Gaylord and Venus on King Street, as well as
Miami Fashion and Hofius on Albert Street. Other downtown businesses,
including the Belize Bank and First Caribbean International Bank, suffered
broken windows, but in the end their defences remained intact. We present
the footage without comment.


Shopkeepers assess damage
When the sun rose on an exhausted and anxious Belize City, it became clear
the downtown area was not the only part of town hit by vandals. News Five's
Patrick Jones made the rounds this morning as business owners began the sad
and sober task of cleaning up their property and assessing the damage.

Patrick Jones, Reporting
Business owners were literally picking up the pieces of their shattered
establishments on Thursday morning following the previous night's looting.

Proprietors of Texaco gas station at the foot of the Bel-China Bridge
worked through the night to clean up the mess left after a vandals threw
rocks through the huge plate glasses at the front of the establishment to
gain entrance.

Once inside, they proceeded to disable the security camera system. A cash
register was busted up, snacks were cleaned out and the beverage cooler did
not escape the invasion.

Over at the Texaco station at the Pound Yard Bridge, also owned by the
Rancharan family, the vandals broke down the glass door and helped
themselves to motor oils and expensive chocolates, which were collected in
the casing of a busted television set to be carried away.

Apparently they thieves could not get away with their loot as the police
showed up and caught a couple of the vandals inside the gas station and
arrested them.

Manager Odovia Rancharan says quick work by the police prevented a bigger
loss to her operation.

Odovia Rancharan, Manager, Texaco
"That is terrible. That is very sad to see, because we working so hard. We
sympathize with these people but I don't think we should have been
targeted. I mean this is out of line. We know what is happening, we approve
all of this, we agree with them, but that should not have been an
opportunity and a reason to go vandalizing stores."

Patrick Jones
"How badly has this affected the stations?"

Odovia Rancharan
"Well my station I cleaned up last night, so I was ready for the public
this morning. My children they had it worse over at Bel-China. They had it
very hard, they had to stay up the whole night and try to be ready for the
public in the morning. So it is a shock, it is very sad I am very, very
disappointed at our people because that's not the way to go. That's not the
way to go."

The looters, apparently operating in an ad hoc group, also hit another
business establishment on the Southside. It too had a security camera.

After the first stone was thrown through the front glass, shattering it,
looters made their way in and helped themselves to whatever they could get
their hands on. Some people were seen jumping behind the counter and trying
to get at a safe that was kept there. Management has estimated that actual
damage, including items stolen, does not amount to a lot of money.

At the foot of the Pound Yard Bridge, the owner of Pacheco and Son's
jewellery shop told News Five that he lost ten thousand dollars worth of
jewellery when his establishment was vandalised.

On West Street, this warehouse belonging to Cosmetic Corner was ravished by
looters. The owner estimates that his loss is in the vicinity of two
hundred thousand dollars.

At sixteen Orange Street, looters broke through a glass window on the West
Street side of the building and helped themselves to everything from
clothing, to shoes, to electronic items.

While armed B.D.F. soldiers kept a watchful eye on Orange Street, affected
merchants started consultation with their insurers and told News Five they
will rebuild.

In addition to the businesses damaged by the violence last night, numerous
shops throughout the city were closed today as a precaution and their
premises secured against possible attack tonight. There was heightened
police and B.D.F. presence all over the city today, particularly in the
downtown area where armed patrols walked the streets.


P.M.: Opposition responsible for violence
In the wake of a long night of looting in the streets of the commercial
capital, approximately one hundred people detained by police for vandalism
and other acts, and the threat of more industrial action from Belize's
educators, this morning Prime Minister Said Musa addressed the nation.
Taking a hard line stance against the events of the last twenty-four hours,
the Prime Minister publicly condemned the leaders of the United Democratic
Party and what he called the Opposition's use of "rank opportunism, wanton,
reckless, and open disregard for law and order, and destabilization to
overthrow the government."

Said Musa, Prime Minister of Belize
"The events of yesterday evening and last night have cast a long dark
shadow over our beloved Belize. The blocking of the Belcan bridge, the
lighting it on fire, and the subsequent acts of looting, vandalism and
rioting that occurred in downtown Belize City are flagrant and unforgivable
acts of criminality and violence that is totally devoid of any just cause.
Nothing was done to provoke such actions; there was no reason for it. The
persons whose properties have been looted and vandalized are innocent
victims in all of this. Last night's acts of criminality and violence were
not accidental, neither were they spontaneous. It was all part of a well
thought-out plan of action that is being acted out on a daily basis. Many
of the perpetrators involved have already been arrested and detained and
will be dealt with swiftly and severely to the full extent of the law. But
the persons who are responsible for planning last night's actions and for
encouraging and inciting people to vandalism, looting, and other acts of
violence will also be brought to justice, no matter who they are. The law
must take its course.

"This government has shown extreme restraint and patience in the face of
strikes, all of which have been illegal. This government has restrained the
security forces even in the face of clear acts of sabotage. We have acted
with calm deliberation even in the face of open threats to the national
security of Belize and the safety of the general citizenry. There has been
no resort to repression even though my family's home has been physically
attacked and family members hounded and harassed. Let the message go forth
today: the patience and restraint of this government have been severely
tested. Enough is enough. We will no longer negotiate with those whose
clear objective is to force out this government and destabilise the
country. We will no longer overlook clear breeches of the law as it relates
to strike action. The laws of this country will be strictly and fully
applied. We will of course, maintain an open door and willingness to
dialogue with genuine union leaders and other social partners.

"People of Belize, let us accept the truth. Responsibility for last night's
callous and dangerous acts of hooliganism and criminality, must lie
squarely at the feet of the Leader of the Opposition and his United
Democratic Party. The evidence is clear. At Monday's press conference, the
Leader of the Opposition called for sustained civil disobedience, for the
workers of the water and the electricity companies to join in shutting down
their companies, the clear implication was that certain people and business
places would be targeted. There are many who have expressed shock and
consternation that a man who aspires to lead our Belize, this tranquil
haven of democracy, could endorse violence and unconstitutionality in such
an open and arrogant manner."

The Prime Minister would go on to praise the efforts of the Police
Department in containing the mob that descended on downtown Belize City and
promised that contingency plans are in place to deal with all emergencies
that may emerge. But as the business owners cleaned up the mess left behind
by the looters, the Prime Minister called for calm, highlighting the
"crippling effects" the national crisis has had on the economy,
particularly tourism.

Prime Minister Said Musa
"The financial loss to B.T.L., B.E.L., businesses all across Belize, and to
the national economy is in the tens of millions of dollars. Those who are
responsible for the acts of sabotage, vandalism, and criminality must and
will be held fully accountable. The country of Belize is at a crossroads.
How we resolve our present situation will determine the future course of
this country, whether we continue to settle our difference according to our
constitution, our democratic system and the rule of law, or whether we
resort to unconstitutional means to change the government. If we are pushed
down the road of unconstitutional action, we must bear in mind that it is a
slippery road which will lead to a state of un-governability and affect the
well-being of all Belizeans, not only now, but for the future. It is an
option that must be carefully weighed by all."

"We appeal to the people of Belize to remain calm and to reject the calls
for civil disobedience. I have instructed the security forces of this
country to take all necessary and lawful measures to safeguard the economic
stability, democracy, and Constitution of Belize. I call on the
constitutional Opposition, which has a stake and a responsibility under the
constitution to maintain the democratic order, to do its part in ensuring
that Belize remains a peaceful and democratic society."

Janelle Chanona
"Prime Minister, just now in your statement you said that all persons that
you have determined have been inciting and conducting violence will be
pursued to the fullest extent of the law. And later you said that you have
already determined that that responsibility lies at the feet of the Leader
of the Opposition, Dean Barrow, do you mean to arrest Mr. Barrow or pursue
any other legal recourse?"

Prime Minister Said Musa
"No that is not what I was saying. First of all I did not say that persons
determined by me to be responsible will be dealt with according to the law,
it will be determined by the legal process. The police and the court system
will determine persons who were responsible. What I was distinguishing that
from a position where I am clearly saying that I believe the Leader of the
Opposition and his party are fully responsible to the extent of
orchestrating this whole situation which led inexorably to the violence and
looting that took place last night."

Stewart Krohn
"Prime Minister, in your statement this morning and on many occasions in
the past, you have spoken out strongly against corruption. We recall the
night you were most recently elected in 2003, the focus of your speech was
corruption. But it seems that your actions have seldom, if ever, lived up
to your words. For example in the passport scandal, a clear case of massive
criminality, literally within the gates of Belmopan, not a single public
officer was administratively punished, nor was a minister disciplined, even
the head of the Immigration Department was retired with full benefits. When
the public hears you say one thing but do quite another, can you blame them
for being extremely sceptical about what you say is a commitment to end
corruption?"

Prime Minister Said Musa
"In the case of the passport issue, let me say that once it became clear to
me as the Prime Minister that this matter bordered on criminal behaviour,
not just official abuse if you like or irregularity, we turned it over to
the responsible authority, which is the Director of Public Prosecutions to
take whatever action he saw fit based on the evidence. Now do you want me
as the Prime Minister to be deciding who is to be charged and who is not be
charged? That is not our system. That is not the responsibility of the
executive. I have done what I believe is my responsibility to turn this
matter to the police and the Director of Public Prosecutions to take
whatever he saw fit. The Public Services Commission took the decision about
retirement as you mention, not the Prime Minister. And I don't believe the
Prime Minister should be held accountable for that, because here again I do
not control the Public Services Commission; that is an independent arm of
government."

As part of his press briefing, the Prime Minister also issued an official
commitment to, "work with B.T.L. workers, union, and their attorneys to
find a way for them to purchase the shares."


Barrow denies any responsibility
But as the Prime Minister pointed the finger of blame at the Opposition,
the Leader of the United Democratic Party, Dean Barrow, was pointing right
back.

Dean Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"I think he really is in denial and I think he came across as being
disrespectful, as unwilling or unable to assume any blame at all for all
that has happened, and as determined to point a finger at good decent
courageous self-sacrificing citizens who have decided to make a stand
because of the shambles that the Prime Minister's administration has created."

Janelle Chanona
"Is it the United Democratic Party's position that no responsibility rests
with the party as far as the political aspirants and known associates of
the party being out there when this was taking place. Do you accept any
responsibility whatsoever?"

Dean Barrow
"Well we accept what is a fact, that we were out there, but we do not think
that there is anything negative about being out there. What happened before
the looting--everybody condemns the looting--what happened before the
looting is in the best tradition of democratic dissent, of democratic
protest. The term civil disobedience is a hallowed one from ancient times,
so that the U.D.P. has no apology to make at all for being involved in any
kind of protest action that is not violent, that does not seek to harm
physically the Prime Minister or any of his ministers, and that does not
engage in sabotage of national resources."

Janelle Chanona
"Following your call for civil disobedience and seeing what transpired last
night, what would you say to the people who knowingly went out into the
streets and vandalized and looted, what would be your message to them?"

Dean Barrow
"That really is tragic, it is most unfortunate, it in fact gives what is
legitimately happening a bad name, it discredits those people who in fact
are protesting in a righteous fashion. But that having been said Janelle, I
don't believe it is fair to shift the focus of concentration now primarily
onto those people. In a sense, while what they did cannot be excused, must
be condemned, it also certainly can be understood. These are people who are
wretchedly poor, these are people who are suffering, and these are people
who will seize any opportunity that we have to get what they can for
themselves. So while it is clear that it is not to be countenanced, on the
other hand, let us not forget that what has caused all this, what has given
those people the opportunity to do what they did last night is the
behavior, is the default of the current administration."


Union leaders concerned over arrests
Members of the Belize National Teachers Union this afternoon had what was
called a solidarity meeting at their headquarters on Coney Drive with the
Belize Communication Workers Union. General Secretary of the National Trade
Union Congress, George Frazer, told News Five what was discussed during the
gathering.

George Frazier, General Secretary, N.T.U.C.B.
"We are engaged together and we discussed the latest information, what is
the current plan of action. We just got a disturbing bit of news that the
President of the U.B. Student Government, Moses Sulph, is under lock down
at Queen Street. So our people are very concerned. Now apparently you
cannot stand up for your rights and so we are going out there to find out
what's happening and show our support because this kind of chaos cannot
continue. We want to put it on record too that we deplore acts of violence
and what happened yesterday; but these are national issues. Some people are
putting it as a B.T.L. issue, this is a national issue. Millions of
dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars, B.T.L., Social Security scandal,
D.F.C., our country is on the brink of collapse. The future of our students
and others out there is uncertain. We have to take back our country. We
want our Prime Minister and others to do the proper thing, come clean with
the people. They say they have a mandate, call new elections and let us
engage for the love of Belize. Not for personal thing or party thing. This
is not a party political thing. They are trying to give a spin that the
U.D.P. this and the U.D.P. that. Whatever U.D.P. does is not a part of our
agenda. Our agenda is the people of Belize, the workers, the students, and
this is where we go."

Following their meetings, the teachers and B.T.L. workers made their way
over to the Queen Street police station to inquire whether it was true that
U.B. Student Body President, Moses Sulph had been detained.

After being satisfied that Sulph was not in police custody, Frazer updated
the crowd on the situation and they started to move towards the Swing Bridge.

At the same time, merchants began to pull down their shutters and the riot
police assembled in front of the P.U.P. Headquarters and proceeded to move
everyone, including the media, out of the area.

Upstairs at the P.U.P. headquarters, several ministers, including Deputy
Prime Minister Johnny Briceño were in a meeting.

While the B.D.F. defender aircraft circled overhead, a crowd started to
gather on the Swing Bridge; reminiscent of what happened on Wednesday
evening on the Bel-Can bridge.

Late this evening, News Five spoke again with Frazer, as our reporter and
camera crew were being pushed back from the Swing Bridge area onto Regent
Street. He was not aware that a number of B.T.L. employees had been taken
into police custody and are facing charges of illegal gathering near the
Prime Minister's home, but he was concerned about the arrest of two teachers.

George Frazer
"This is madness; I don't know how to describe it. I wonder if this is a
police state or what is happening. We just got a report and we are trying
to confirm it that they have arrested two of our teachers from Gwen Liz,
Ms. Kathleen Flowers and Mrs. Coral Lord, so we are trying get in touch
with our attorneys to please check on this. We understand all the people
arrested are being taken to the Queen Street police station. I know for a
fact because I saw it with my own eyes, they arrested Mr. Charles Sawyers,
one of the officers of the Communication Workers Union and we understand
from some of their people that they also arrested Mr. Dwight Gentle. So we
don't know what madness is going on."

(Police moving people off the streets)

George Frazer
"For the record, we are not in favour of violence or this thing is not
political in terms of party politics. You hear all kinds of thing, dah Mr
Barrow unu di follow. As far as the unions are concerned, Teacher's Union
and all that, we are following what we believe to be the best interest of
Belize, not politics and we hope our people get that message. This is now
too much and we will definitely report internationally to Amnesty
International and others too this time for real the British and U.S.
government."


Police make arrests, sustain injuries
The men and women on the front line of this crisis, the members of the
Belize Police Department, are tonight recovering from hits sustained during
the clashes with demonstrators. According to officials, ten officers were
wounded, several with serious injuries including a fractured skull, broken
limbs, cuts, bruises, and blows to the head. This morning Commissioner of
Police Gerald Westby told the press corps that in his appraisal, the cops
on the street did the best they could under the circumstances.

Gerald Westby, Police Commissioner
"We had a plan and we had security force. As you can see we cleared Albert
Street pretty quickly. But you have to understand that we had the forces
and we were able to maintain. The B.D.F. were brought in to Albert Street
quickly and the situation was brought under control quite quickly."

Jules Vasquez, Channel 7
"Looting Hofius Hardware; we have on tape, half an hour the goons ruled the
streets."

Gerald Westby
"Yeah but we responded as quickly as possible, got the security forces in
there, the additional. We had police on Albert Street and we brought in
additional support and that is what we did and we were able to effectively
clear the area. "

Jules Vasquez
"But could you not done that pre-emptively? We knew they were coming, they
were not travelling by jet plane."

Gerald Westby
"But yeah we had the security force, we had police out there, we had other
areas that we were looking at and the security forces were brought in...
Well we responded, the police out there, you have to blame the looters too
who went on Albert Street. We acted and we brought in the police as quick
as possible to the area and effectively addressing, brought the looters
under control quite quickly."

Janelle Chanona
"What is the department's position on Crispin Jeffries in all of this? A
lot of people are calling the car incident on the Belcan Bridge as one of
the catalysts that really started to get things violent."

Gerald Westby
"I think Mr. Jeffries must be commended. He did a tremendously good job. He
acted with great restraint. He went on the media to ask the people to ask
their parents, and he was out there on the ground and we were discussing,
and I supported Mr. Jeffries and gave them directives. We were acting with
great restraint seeing that they were students. But you must understand
that there were hooligans and criminals who were hell bent on exploiting
the situation, and people who incite violence must be held accountable."






K.H.M.H. deals with casualties
The police were not the only ones under pressure on Wednesday night. As
officers worked to maintain law and order on the city's southside, on the
northside the nurses and doctors at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital were
busy tending to the wounded as they started arriving at the Accident and
Emergency Ward.

Dr. Fernando Cuellar, Dir., Medical Services, KHMH
"Unfortunately we received a total of twenty-seven cases, which was a
direct consequence of the unrest. At the same time of course, we would be
receiving other sick people from seizures to asthmatics and so forth. So to
answer your question, again it would be twenty-seven total. Out of that
twenty-seven, we had four gunshot victims. One of them seriously injured, a
gunshot to the head; the others were just basically flesh wounds. The other
types of injuries were cuts and bruises and so forth."

Jacqueline Woods
"Was the hospital prepared to handle so many cases?"

Dr. Fernando Cuellar
"We do have a Mass Casualty Plan, but we must say that since this was a
chaotic situation in the sense that people arrived on their own,
spontaneously being brought by other people, the plan does not really to
the detail addresses everything as compared to for example we would have
one single accident. So we did had to be customizing as we go along,
adjusting as we go along. But we had enough resources, human, materials and
so forth. The only unfortunate thing we don't have at the Karl Heusner,
which we have been fighting for of course is proper imaging. So I hope that
anybody who hears us in terms of authority will be able to assist Karl
Heusner in getting proper imaging in terms of CAT-Scans and so forth."

Jacqueline Woods
"As a result of what occurred last night, will the hospital have additional
staff in place?"

Dr. Fernando Cuellar
"Yes, we have reinforced the emergency room. Physicians, we now have a
third physician on site. Then we have a first pool of four other physicians
that we will be calling in if necessary. And if really necessary then get
the whole staff out, which is about forty physicians. At the same time, the
nurses are doing that readjustments and any other technical person that
needs to be here, supported of course by the administrative people who came
out last night to help out."

The patient who was shot in the back of the head has been identified as
twenty-two year old Jermaine Francisco Hernandez. Hernandez, who remains in
an unconscious state, was found by police around nine last night lying on
the ground near the corner of King and West Street. Authorities say they do
not know who shot Hernandez and are investigating.


******************

School Closure Chaos in the City


The uneasy air in the city today escalated when most public, primary and
secondary schools closed. It all started this morning when president of the
Belize City branch of the Teacher's Union Elena Smith called an emergency
meeting for 9 am. It created a bit of chaos because by the time the
announcement was on the radio most children were at school and their
parents were already at work. That sent some very uncertain parents
scrambling to pick up their kids. We met some of them at Holy Redeemer School.

Question: What happened?
Parent #1: I have to take him home because I understand there's no more
classes until further notice. That's what they told me. They don't know
what's happening until...just keep on the radio until we find out when
we'll have classes again.

Parent #2: They just tell us to come and pick up your kids. That's all.
They didn't say why. They just said come and pick up your kids.

Parent #3: I just heard over the radio that they're calling on teachers,
the Belize Branch of the BNTU, is calling on teachers to attend a meeting
so I'm just safeguarding my kids.

Question: Would you support another teacher's strike?

Parent #3: What I would support is the cause for whatever they feel. They
have that right to do that and if it comes to the point that they are out
there to do that, then my right is to make sure my kids are secure.

Parent #4: I supported them the first time but I don't know if this is
going to be worth it, if they will get the sense or not.

Parent #5: I don't want to comment on that but if its going to make the
situation better then we're just going to have to do what we got to do.

Parent #1: I will support it once they have a plan of action because I
think you saw what happened yesterday when you plan things without any
goals in mind, things get out of hand.

The situation was much the same at Gwen Lizarraga High where teachers did
leave to go to the meeting but the students weren't allowed to leave, at
least not until they were picked up by a parent or approved guardian. It
caused for tense moments at the school as students claimed they were being
held prisoners. The students told us why they were upset.

Student #1: The teachers they had a meeting upstairs and they just let
everybody out. They just called our parents to come for us and they sent us
home.

Student #2: We want to go home but our parents, according to them, have to
be here for us to leave the gate and we see primary school children leaving
without any parent. We don't know what the situation is right now. We don't
know what is happening. It is just crazy.

We have received no reports of school closures in the districts. In the
city though the teachers left their classes and headed to the BNTU office
where they held a strategy meeting. Belize City Branch President Elena
Smith commented on the reason for the meeting. But first here is Prime
Minister Said Musa's comment today on her decision.


Said Musa,
"This morning one union leader in particular from the Belize Branch of the
BNTU has been going from school to school, the President of the Belize City
Branch in fact, intimidating teachers trying to get them to send home their
students. And she is doing this on her own without any mandate from the
BNTU, not that they could give a mandate for that because that is an
illegal process going on, trespassing on these compounds intimidating
students and teachers and that has to stop."

Elena Smith, President BNTU Belize City
"We haven't made any decision yet as just a city branch. But Mr. Fuentes
and Mr. Frazer will give you the overall view of BNTU's position. As
President I won't say anything about BNTU on a whole. Whatever we are doing
right now was mandated by Mr. Fuentes. He gave permission to do what we are
doing today. Despite what was said this morning during a press conference
that I am the one doing this, this is not so. This is coming from Mr.
Fuentes."

Yesterday the National Teacher's Union tried to hold a Council of
Management meeting to decide on a plan of action. That never happened
because with only 5 branches present there wasn't a quorum. National
President Anthony Fuentes was absent from today's meeting.

In related news there were classes today at the University of Belize and
St. John's Junior College. This morning SJC's administration refused to
grant the student government representatives a platform to address fellow
students concerning yesterday's protest and what resulted. Over at UB
outspoken student body President Moses Sulph was not on campus and his
colleagues said he was in "hiding." 7NEWS has confirmed that police are
seeking him. We have also learnt that Moses is not really hiding. Rather he
is in a "safe place" and will turn himself in to police with his attorney
soon. The two student governments issued a joint release this evening
distancing themselves from last night's looting. They said they are being
intimidated from all sides and that yesterday's protest was not politically
motivated.