British MP meets with P.M. Musa, heads for Guatemala
The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Britain’s defense department spent the last two days in Belize and is now heading for Guatemala with meetings with the new President Alfonso Portillo. Minister Peter Kilfoyle held a press conference this afternoon at British Army Training Support Unit Belize, BATSUB at Price Barracks this afternoon. He reviewed his visit which included meetings with the Prime Minister Said Musa and Minister of National Security Jorge Espat as well as a tour of the Hattieville Prison. He told reporters he is pleased the Prime Minister had a warm reception from Portillo at his inauguration this past weekend and that he intends to convey Britain’s support for Belize in the longstanding territorial dispute. He commended the Minister Responsible for Prisons Dickie Bradley for his efforts to improve conditions at the prisons and said the Ministry of National Security and all Belizeans’ efforts to curb crime must focus on the conditions which foster it.
Peter Kilfoyle, Under Secretary of State, Defense
“I certainly welcome the very positive statements and messages that we have received, the United Kingdom government, about the intentions of the new administration in Guatemala which I referred early, the fact that they would very much like to see we understand, what we’d all like to see which is peaceful, speedy, final resolution of the outstanding differences. That is the message that I will take to the government of Guatemala. That is what we’d like to see.
We have a melting pot of circumstances which has led to an explosion in crime, however, I think what is important is how you actually treat that crime and in part you try and take out the conditions which lead to criminal activity. So if you can actually deal with economic environment which may get into a situation which may be described as criminal you do that. If you can deal with those people who are disaffected because they haven’t got jobs and they don’t seem to have a stake in their society you try and deal with that. That’s true of the United Kingdom, it’s true of the States, it’s true of Belize and elsewhere. The people of Belize will decide obviously how they want to react to what they see as criminal activity. But there are other options to imprisoning people. We would argue too that there are other options than state sponsored execution.”
According to the British High Commissioner Tim David, Britain will continue its support for Belizean law enforcement efforts with training for police officers. Consultant services will also be provided to assist with revamping the penal code. News Five will have more on Belize Guatemala relations later in this newscast.
