Commandant of the British Army Training Unit in Belize Lt. Col. Peter Germain dropped a bombshell last night when he admitted that 24 grenades were stolen in 2004. Even more disturbing is that the British Army believes the grenade which detonated two weeks ago came from the stolen batch. It was news to us and apparently news to the Ministry of National Security. Reacting to the news, Prime Minister Dean Barrow didn’t point fingers at the British Army. He says more than anything he is concerned about the non-disclosure.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“I am a little concern that we didn’t know before now that in fact there had been that kind of development but I think we will try to make sure that in the future if anything like this were to happen there will at least be communication between BATSUB and local authorities. The security forces are very much concerned about ensuring that if that quantity of grenades is actually in the hands of criminal elements in this country that we try to develop the kind of intelligence that will enable us to do some tracing and some recovery but that clearly is something that will take a lot of doing and I repeat that there is no certainty that those grenades are in this country.”
Keith Swift,
Do you in anyway blame the British Military here in Belize for what happened?
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“They have sent people out to do an investigation and I think we certainly have to await the results of that investigation but I am concerned that there was no communication as I said. Yesterday was the first it was confirmed to us that in fact this batch of grenade had gone missing. That’s not how it ought to have happened.”
Prime Minister Dean Barrow says he was briefed at a meeting of the National Security Council yesterday and that there is still no definitive link between the missing grenades and the ones that are supposedly on the streets.
