|
Politician arrested in crisis-hit Belize
29 Apr 2005 01:16:31 GMT
Source: Reuters
|
By Melvin Flores BELMOPAN, Belize, April 28 (Reuters) - Police in tiny Belize arrested an opposition politician on Thursday as the normally laid-back Central American country grapples with its worst political crisis since independence in 1981. The government has been fending off calls for it to step down ever since a rash of strikes and riots last week plunged Belize -- best known for its coral reefs, Caribbean islands and Mayan ruins -- into mayhem. At the heart of the crisis lies nearly $1 billion of public debt, which has forced spending cutbacks and tax increases, and persistent allegations of government corruption. Patrick Farber, a member of parliament for the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), was arrested along with a trade unionist after they pushed past riot police blocking the entrance to a university where Prime Minister Said Musa was answering student questions about corruption, witnesses said. Dean Barrow, leader of the UDP, condemned the arrest, saying: "This is a member of the national assembly. For the police to deny him entrance to a public forum and then to arrest him is clearly politically motivated." He told Reuters that police planned to charge Farber with two counts of aggravated assault. The trade unionist, a member of the union for Belize's main telecoms company, Belize Telecommunications Limited, or BTL, was later released without charge. Two weeks ago BTL workers went on strike and sabotaged phone lines, cutting the country off from the rest of the world, in protest at a bungled attempt by the government to sell a chunk of BTL to a U.S. company. The BTL union wants a share in the company for itself at a lower price than the government is prepared to sell it. BTL is already the center of a tug-of-war battle for control between the government and U.S. and British investors. Musa took office in 1998 and won a second five-year term in 2003 on the back of strong economic growth, helped by a tourism boom. Since then his government has been battered by a series of corruption and investment scandals. Standard and Poor's recently cut Belize's foreign currency debt to CCC, citing the country's increasing debt load and lack of access to financing. Musa admits the country is in crisis but says he will survive demands for his resignation. He was booed by students at the forum on Thursday when he described his government as truthful and transparent. Ever since Belize won independence from Britain following riots in 1981, power has shifted between Musa's People's United Party and the opposition UDP. Both parties have been accused of corruption and runaway budget spending.
|
|
|
Reset