And while the Prime Minister was slightly cagey on the bar vetting who sits on the bench, he was clueless about a communiqué from the UNESCO World Heritage Committee which expresses serious concerns about oil concessions granted by the government of Belize within marine World Heritage Areas.
The decision quote, notes - among other things - "that any decision to go forward with oil exploration would be incompatible with world heritage status and urges the (government) to enact legislation to prohibit oil exploration within the Belize Barrier Reef system because it is a World Heritage Site." We saw the communiqué this evening - and we knew of it around noon when we asked the PM in very general terms about it.
Jules Vasquez
"You apprised of this or are you concerned about it?"
PM Dean Barrow
"No I am not if what you say is true of course I would be concerned, I know that there has been some back and forth between UNESCO and the team put together by the Ministry of Natural Resources, I know that there was a feeling on the part of that team that UNESCO did not have the whole picture and that UNESCO is being most unfair but this latest development that you are telling me about, I had no knowledge of, I will inquire."
Belize has until first February, 2011 to commit to implementation from the World Heritage Center. The bottom line on the UNESCO communiqué is that the World Heritage Deciders have decided to quote: "retain the Belize Barrier Reef system on the list of World Heritage in Danger…
And there's one more bit of news from post-house meeting interview -as the Prime Minister defended outgoing Immigration Director Gareth Murrillo. As we have reported, he has been transferred and Ruth Meighan has been installed as the new head of the embattled Immigration Department.
And while there are numerous allegation of irregularities in the department - the Prime Minister said that Murillo was not moved under any suggestion of misconduct - it was a matter of finding the best fit.
PM Dean Barrow
"It was a matter of moving pieces around to try and get a better general fit, you can read into that what you will, it was certainly not a discipline measure, I can make that absolutely clear, there was no question of saying 'oh there is a feeling that Mr. Murillo has done something wrong and therefore must be transferred' not at all. But we are always looking for the best fit and it was in that context that the pieces were moved about."
Jose Sanchez, Reporter
"PM I have actually seen evidence where people can walk into the immigration department with several passports, get the visa stamped and DHL it out of the country. I have seen evidence of US customs intercepting one such package with 3 Nigerian passports from Belize. The people have never stepped into the country but they had visas from Belmopan."
PM Dean Barrow
"Well you have an advantage over me, I've seen no such evidence. If there is evidence of that and it means that there is a system that is faulty, I would certainly like to have that evidence and I would undertake that, I would insist that the minister deal with that."
Jose Sanchez, Reporter
"I did attempt to share evidence with the minister in question but he said that he does not want to speak to me even though in his press release he said he was waiting for an interview."
PM Dean Barrow
"I will speak with you but you can understand why the government has difficulty with Channel 5. Your news editor, your manager actually manipulates the news, does not give the government anything like a fair shot at being represented. You will understand where there is a problem but nevertheless something like that, if you have that kind of information that is so much in the public interest for me to know that and for something to be done about that - if it is true - that notwithstanding the sort of informal embargo that there is against anyone of us talking to Channel 5 - except in a context like this where the media are all together - I will be happy to meet with you to try to put right whatever may be wrong... because channel 5 is very free with accusations that I have no faith in. But, Jose, you have material it is my duty to look together with you at that material."
