Last night we were the first to report that the grenade which exploded 2 weeks ago in Port Loyola came from the British Army. That was the suspicion of the Belize Defense Force’s explosives expert Major James Requena after looking at the serial number on the pull off lever which was recovered. Today the British Army’s top military officer in Belize confirmed it.
Lt. Col. Peter Germain, the Commander of BATSUB, told us that based on the information on the pull off lever, the grenade came from a batch the British Army brought into Belize in December of 2003. And that would have been news enough, but he then dropped a bombshell – revealing for the first time that 24 of the 500 grenades in that batch went missing from BATSUB in May of 2004! Lt. Col. Germain believes that the grenade that exploded 2 weeks ago was of the 24 stolen or missing grenades.
Lt. Col. Peter Germain, BATSUB Commander
“24 grenades went missing in 2004, that is before my time and I don’t know a great deal about that particular incident, but I spoke to the police about it and it has been confirmed that the grenade that went off two weeks ago was of a batch number commensurate with the grenades that were received by BATSUB in December of 2003 and therefore could possibly be part of those missing grenades that were stolen in 2004. but equally there another six British
units who were issued grenades and we used them and even the BDF but my surmise would be that it is part of the missing, stolen batch from four years ago.”
Keith Swift,
How many grenades might be out there that fell through this loophole?
Lt. Col. Peter Germain,
“That is a very good question and one I can’t answer in that we know of a couple that have turned up but I don’t know.”
Keith Swift,
Could it be 5, 10, 20?
Lt. Col. Peter Germain,
“It is speculation Keith. It is pure speculation, I know we’ve issued several hundreds of these grenades and several hundreds have supposedly been exploded and that is what our accountancy will say. If you had dishonest people or a dishonest person out there who has retained some, there is no way I can be able to say how he has retained.”
Keith Swift,
Will you be able to determine to a certainty if these grenades came from that stolen batch?
Lt. Col. Peter Germain,
“Well we won’t be able to. The grenade has obviously exploded and all they’ve got is the lever that is attached to the grenade with an indicating number that tells us that that’s the batch. But that batch consisted of about 500 grenades that were delivered to BATSUB, many of which were issued to British and BDF units and indeed there was the stolen consignments as well. So it is impossible to say with any degree of certainty exactly where it came from other than it was one of those five hundred.”
Keith Swift,
Sir can you understand why some people would say that explanation doesn’t cut?
Lt. Col. Peter Germain,
“I do understand that and all I can say now is that they can be assured that since the September incident where this issue was brought to my attention, we have done all we possibly can to ensure that the risks of these things going missing are minimized.”
Keith Swift,
Does the British Army here in Belize shoulder any of the blame, accept that it maybe was negligent?
Lt. Col. Peter Germain,
“Well it is impossible for me to say about four or five years ago because I just simply wasn’t here, I wasn’t part of the system when they investigated so I don’t know what kind of checks. In terms of now I think for your viewers, I’ve got to say yes, are to blame because we brought, we owned the grenades.”
As Lt. Col. Germain clearly said in his interview, the 24 grenades went missing from the ammunition compound. But a senior official at the Ministry of National Security says that they always understood that the 24 grenades went missing somewhere between England and Belize. The Ministry’s position is that the 24 grenades were stolen prior to the batch arriving in Belize. That is why there was no official police report or public notice. But again as Lt. Col. Germain again pointed out, at least 2 of the 24 grenades have surfaced previously. Where are the other 22? Out there, somewhere, adding more worry and woe to an already stressed out city.
