BRITAIN DEFIES UNITED NATIONS
Last week a report appeared in the British media concerning a decision of the United Nations.
The United Nations has a Commission set up to determine the continental shelf of various countries as part of the overall law of the sea. The Commission is made up of 21 distinguished persons and experts. The Commission, after very careful study, reached a determination that the Continental shelf of the nation of Argentina stretched out from 200 odd miles to 350 miles.
This decision has major implications for the country of Argentina apart from increasing its potential for oil and other mineral resources findings. It also means the tiny island of the Malvinas is part of Argentina. The British have been holding on to the island, which they call the Falklands, as part of their colonial legacy. They have started drilling for oil in the surrounding waters. They and Argentina fought a bitter war over Malvinas.
The British Government last week quickly rejected the decision of the United Nations. This decision of the United Nations and the British, have implications for Belize.
Firstly, in South America and the rest of Latin America, the arrogant response of the British is not greeted favourably. The British can expect a loss, or further loss of respect and support from the Latin countries. In the U.S.A. (the most powerful country on earth) which has to tread softly with its Latin neighbours, Latinos are a growing force, demographically and politically.
Secondly, the British decision represents an opportunity for Guatemala in its long standing claim to a part of Belize. The Guats will get stronger support from the Latin countries in its argument that the British wrongfully took a portion of Guatemala and continues to deny returning it to Guatemala, the same as they continue to illegally hold on to the Falklands.
By defying a decision of the United Nations, the British is setting a recent precedent for Guatemala in the event Belize and Guatemala end up at the International Court of Justice and Guatemala become dissatisfied with the Court’s decision.
It should be pointed out that the dispute between Guatemala and the British was thrown on Belize when we became independent in 1981.
The crux of the dispute is that a Treaty signed by Guatemala and the British in 1859 was violated by the British, according to Guatemala. It is for the Guatemala and the British to resolve that dispute, without Belize having to give up part of its land.
Belize, being naïve in 1981, got suckered by the British into accepting that the dispute was between Guatemala and Belize. That is wrong. Belize violated no treaty with Guatemala. Belize land and sea cannot be used to settle a colonial dispute dating back 122 years ago. The British has to be put on the spot as the party which violated the Treaty. It is the British who should be going to the International Court of Justice with Guatemala. If the I.C.J. finds that Guatemala is the victim then the British should be the one to compensate Guatemala. How Belizean territory is to be taken and given away for someone else’s decision is out of the question.
WASTING GOOD TALENT
Merlene Moody is the Senior Magistrate presently in charge of the Orange Walk Court. She is a trained, qualified Attorney-at-Law. A former Prosecutor in the office of the Director of Public Prosecution, a Crown Counsel in the Attorney General’s Ministry, Head of the Family Court and Director of Legal Aid Services. She also worked at the Caricom Secretariat in Guyana as representative of Belize.
Miss Moody comes from one of those large, industrious families with roots in Manatee, Northern Lagoon area. All her many brothers and sisters are successful in their various professions in Belize and Los Angeles.
Miss Moody, we are told, is leaving her job because the Government does not wish to renew her contract. This at a time when there is a shortage of Belizean Magistrates. In the mornings you can see people crowded around the Courts in Belize City where there used to be six Magistrates, now there are only four.
We have never heard that the Magistrate in Orange Walk takes chance of people in that Court or that she misses Court, or is rude to people or her decisions are unfair. We hear this about some other courts. It is disturbing to hear that such an experienced Belizean is allowed to fall along the wayside at a time of urgent need for experienced persons in the public service, in the Magistrate Courts and the Supreme Court. We recall a Minister of government repeating how the great Gian Ghandi was so impressed with Miss Moody’s dedication and competence that he had requested her to work with him.
The present government, which re-employs retirees and cronies way past their retirement age, must really don’t care a damn about the betterment of the country or have some sinister design to be employing foreigners while our blood is treated with such disrespect.
GROSS INJUSTICE
There are presently 1,418 persons in prison. More than 300 are awaiting their day in Court. The prison department cost more than 11 million dollars each year.
The law requires that at the close of each session of the Supreme Court, the Judges are to review the status of persons sitting in jail awaiting trial. Belize has reached the scandalous situation where persons have been left to rot in jail for up to eight years without a trial. In nine known cases the persons have been in jail for ten years without a trial. Ten Years. In the name of God what is our country coming to?
How did the situation get this terrible?
One reason is the jail or bail delivery system is not working. The January session of the Supreme Court which opened with such a bang and a ceremony, ended with a whimper this Monday 4th April. We found only Judge Gonzalez in his Court facing a gallery of some thirty odd prisoners in need of review of their status. There was no bail review in any other Judge’s Court in Belize City. None in Corozal and Orange Walk and none in Cayo and Stann Creek.
This is unacceptable.
Part of the problem is the obvious shortage of Judges, especially on the Criminal side of the Court. But this is exactly where there should no such shortage. Human beings, by the hundreds, are locked away in that dungeon they call prison, without having their situation reviewed, while awaiting trial. Many of these persons are unfairly and unnecessarily denied bail by Magistrates and cannot afford lawyers to get them out of hell. The prison is a hell hole for criminals, much more for innocent citizens caught up in the system.
A female minor, 17 years old, was sent to jail by the Belmopan Magistrate from January, despite the Juvenile Law expressly stating that everything should be done to avoid putting minors in jail. Judge Gonzalez gave her bail. As he did for another female, again from Belmopan, from February, for trespassing. Remember that the accusation is an allegation and the law says expressly they are innocent until proven guilty.
There were several “crazy” persons brought before the Judge. He gave none of them bail. Why are mentally disturbed persons not at a mental hospital?
The bigger question is why only thirty odd persons got a chance out of three hundred to have their jail status reviewed? The system is not working because no one gives a damn.
The situation is even worse when it comes to the system which requires a review for persons who are convicted and spending time in hell. The law requires a Parole Board. But this Board is made up primarily of the same persons who send persons to jail or who are wardens inside the jail. This is incredible but it is true. It is a sick joke.
Canon Leroy Flowers and Maria Zabanneh and such persons with conscience should be on the Parole Board with a youth representative and social workers and teachers.
Now we know why hardly anyone is granted parole. The persons who are appointed are there to keep the poor and unfortunate people in jail.
The Jamaican street poet, Mutabaruka, put it tellingly in his poem, “the system is a fraud”,” the system is like a graveyard”.
Oh NO – IT’S WORSE!
Oh no! Just when we thought it couldn’t get worse, our attention was drawn to an article in the April 3rd issue of the Amandala newspaper. Pages 6 and 7.
In essence the story is a man is in jail for three years on a serious allegation of murder. He wants his trial to take place. He applied to the Supreme Court for bail because three years is a violation of his constitutionally guaranteed right to be tried within a reasonable time. Incredibly, the Judge disagreed.
According to the article, reported by journalist Rowland A. Parks, the Judge is purported to have said that the person’s “constitutional right to be tried within a reasonable time has not been violated.” What!
“I have the unhappy but firm view that in the present circumstances, three years plus three months that the Petitioner has waited to be tried, is not an unreasonable delay when a person is charged, with murder in contemporary Belize.”
Listen to this. Instead of supporting the application, the Prosecutor from the D.P.P. office opposed it and is reported to have submitted to the Judge “that it takes between 5 to 7 years for a murder trial to commence…” What a shameful thing to say in the Court of our country. That it is okay for a human being to languish in jail 5 to 7 years waiting for trial. Especially because the conviction rate for murders is so miserable at less than ten per cent.
Thankfully, the Judge rejected this stupid submission, but the Judge fell down in saying under the present circumstances in Belize 3 years 3 months is not a violation of a person’s right to a trial within a reasonable time. This is a very wrong decision. An unjust decision. The Chief Justice should find occasion to reverse it at the earliest opportunity.
Indeed the Judge had guidance from the Chief Justice, who as recent as January this year put new Criminal Rules in effect. Rowland A. Parks reported “Under the new rules of the Supreme Court, the period leading up to a murder trial from when an accused person first appeared at the Magistrate’s Court should not be longer than two years,” Wow! How did the Judge manage to overlook that?
Judges in the Supreme Court are by law the guardians of our constitutional rights. When a Judge says it is acceptable in Belize for a human being to be forced to rot in jail for three years waiting for a trial, we are in deep trouble. Our human rights mean nothing.
DIS STORY
This story has nothing to do with what is written in this column. This story is not a warning, or a threat or a lesson to be heeded.
Once upon a time in a country called Belize, a foreign Magistrate named Gaznabbi was doing a maintenance hearing in Court. He was humiliating and harassing the person who showed his salary slip that he couldn’t pay more. When he got enough, the person pulled out a gun in Court and fired several shots at the chancy Magistrate. The Magistrate, fattish with a pot belly, turned into a rabbit and was dodging shots. The shooter, one Charles Good, was a trained marksman in the B.D.F. He obviously didn’t intend to kill his tormentor. Back then when Belize was still kind of law abiding.
This story is not a threat, or a warning or a lesson to anyone in any office, Court, Department or Ministry who di chance people.
DID YOU KNOW
Did you know the government squandered, wasted, stole and embezzled over three million dollars of Petro Caribe money?
HAVE YOU HEARD
Have you heard – Guatemala took over thirty miles of our Sarstoon River and Belize government di play simple, while taking the rest of us for fools.
BRUTAL BEATING
Not one, but two students have complained of Police brutality at the Ladyville Police Station. A sixth form student told Magistrate Deborah Rogers of the brutal beating he received from officers attached to the Station. He was seen washed in blood being pulled out of a Police pickup in the station yard. His jaw was swollen. His mouth busted at two places. He had bruises all over his body, arms and face.
The other person, a minor attending college was stomped, kicked and gun -butted. He was scheduled to take surgery next week. None of the students, or their families, was given the Medical Forms from the hospital after a Justice of the Peace intervened when the students were sent from Ladyville to Queen Street Station bleeding and in pain. One “Sutherland” is accused of withholding the medication prescribed by the doctor.
This behaviour is called Community Policing, Ladyville style.
None of the Ladyville officers who behaved like criminals have been investigated, interdicted or fired. They know the whole matter will be covered up, as usual. What they don’t know is what will happen when the law suit comes up.
JESUS IN BUTTONWOOD
The Roman Catholic Church has erected a six feet statue of Jesus in the compound of Divine Mercy Church in Buttonwood Bay.
Impressive.