News 5 personnel give account of riot
Stewart Krohn
“Ann-Marie has moved from the anchor’s seat to join the other members of the News 5 team who made yesterday’s coverage possible. They are cameraman Brent Toombs and summer intern Isani Cayetano. Isani, a sixth form graduate, is studying broadcast journalism at Columbia College in Chicago. What we’re going to be doing tonight is a little bit different than our usual News 5 broadcast. What Brent, the cameraman and editor has done, is put together almost all of what he shot yesterday and we’re going to play those tapes. You all will add to that with your impressions of actually what you saw and what you may have heard there. The viewers at home will see exactly what Brent, Isani and Ann-Marie saw yesterday.”
(Bus blocking the road, crowd talking at the same time, surrounding the Commissioner of Transport)
Stewart Krohn: Around what time is this Ann?”
Ann-Marie: Around 12:30. We’d arrived about half hour just prior to this, and we went underneath the little shed where everybody was boarding, literally, the Commissioner of Transport Glen Arthurs as you see him there, looking for some answers, wanting to find out exactly what’s going on with the busses. We want him to sign on because we want to move our busses and take our passengers.
Crowd
“Are we going or are we not going?”
Ann-Marie: See they’re asking, and I was interviewing him at that time. He was trying to escape for want of a better word, into a clearly spot, saying “let’s go outside where we can do the interview” because he was afraid he would have been grabbed and lashed around a little bit.
Protestor
“They want to move the people, I will not accept that. We are the Belizean people, we are doing the thing, blocking the road, not the busses or the owner or the driver, we are blocking the road.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Mr. Arthurs what’s going on here?”
Glen Arthurs, Commissioner of Transport
“We have bus owners who want to run to Belize City, and if they cannot have their way, they are actually blocking the bridge. They are getting a lot of support from village people in doing it.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Who are these bus owners and elaborate for me exactly where they run and when they run?”
Glen Arthurs
“You have Tillett Bus Company, which runs from Orange Walk District, mainly San Felipe and Guinea Grass area. Then you have Castillo runs from Progresso. The protest is because they want more and at the same time would not like the Transport Department to regulate them.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“More what, more routes, different times?”
Glen Arthurs
“More busses to run and to do whatever they think they should be doing. But if we have too many buses running on the highway, it will be to congested and we will have racing and other illegal things, and we’re trying to avoid that. T-Line is Tun Bus Line and they have been running to Ladyville for the last year and a half. As far as I am concerned, no new line has been opened.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“What are you hoping will happen to Tillett and the other bus company?”
Glen Arthurs
“What I am hoping is that the commuters as well as the owners will understand that the Transport Department is trying to solve their concerns, but they can’t do it if they are blocking the public road.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“So what will the Transport Department do, what will you offer them?”
Glen Arthurs
“What we’ll do is look for a amicable solution, ensuring that we do not overcrowd busses running from villages or from towns to city.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Is that increasing their runs, and how many runs do they have right now?”
Glen Arthurs
“Both has two runs each to Belize City.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“And they are asking for how many?”
Glen Arthurs
“I’m not sure. That’s the problem because they refuse to sit down and talk in a more convenient way. There’s a lot of commuters complaining and making noise and you can’t get any where by protesting this way.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“What happen to all these people, some of them have been here since 7:00 this morning to try to get access to go over to Orange Walk, and those who want to come into the city? Are you concerned for them?”
Glenn Arthurs
“Yes I am because as I said, this is an offence. Anybody who blocks a public road is committing an offence and I’m trying to inform all of the people who are doing it that it is illegal. If they want a peaceful solution, this is not the right way to get a peaceful solution.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“It’s twenty minutes to one, if this continues until 4:00, I see you have B.D.F. and police out here, what will happen?”
Glen Arthurs
“I’m not sure. I prefer to think about the best case scenario, not the worst. The best case scenario is that people will understand that they are not to block the bridge and then we will sit and talk and find a solution to their concerns.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Mr. Arthurs, they haven’t understood that from 7:00 this morning. When are you hoping an amicable solution will be reached?”
Glen Arthurs
“I hope as soon as possible.”
Amelio Tillett, Owner, Tillett’s Bus Line
“On the twenty-sixth of July, the permit expires and the transport commissioner never renewed the permit. Everyday I carry workers to Belize. Now, they no give we back the license.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“What are his reasons for not giving back the license?”
Amelio Tillett
“He don’t have no reason, he only say because failing to co-operate, but I don’t see why or when. The bus came from San Felipe this morning, heading for Belize, then the transport department were by the junction there, the Guinea Grass junction, and they just stopped the bus right there and the people start to come out the bus and…I was not driving. The driver stopped the bus and called me and I came to see what was happening.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“When you came, what did you see?”
Amelio Tillett
“I see that they already blocked the road and the people…”
Ann-Marie Williams
“They who blocked the road?”
Amelio Tillett
“The driver from the bus.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Your bus driver blocked the road in order for?”
Amelio Tillett
“Yes, for the commuters. Then the people start to puncture the bus and all kinds of things.”
Stewart Krohn: Ann, victim or perpetrator?
Ann-Marie: I think a little of both.
Ann-Marie Williams
“He’s are saying that you want more runs, and the roads are crowded, that’s a fact everybody can’t be running at the same time. What do you want?”
Amelio Tillett
“Yes, I have been running this run for eight years and I don’t see why they take my permit, and give it to next lines.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Were you asking for more runs?”
Amelio Tillett
“No, I no ask for more runs. I just want them to renew this. The people are the ones asking for more runs.”
Ann-Marie Williams
Nothing is wrong if you’re asking for more runs, I’m just saying are you asking for more runs?”
Amelio Tillett
“The people right now are asking if I could put more runs, they ask me if I can put more busses if they give me the permit and I say yes.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“But you cannot get your original run renewed, how can you get more runs?”
Amelio Tillett
“Yes, I know, but I just want them to renew this one, and he no tell me up to now, nothing.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“You said something about how he wanted to give your run to somebody else.”
Amelio Tillett
“Yes, he already gave another line a run to Belize, but he doesn’t want to give me back my one.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Why?”
Amelio Tillett
“He no got no reason.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“So you all will continue to block the road until?”
Amelio Tillett
“I am not blocking the road, the people are the one blocking the road.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Whose bus is that?”
Amelio Tillett
“That is our bus yes. But the bus is punctured right now. We need air to pump the tire.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“You all will block the road until you get your license?”
Amelio Tillett
“Yes.”
Stewart Krohn: Good philosophical argument Ann. Who is this person?”
Ann-Marie: Andrew Bowman, he’s the spokesman for Castillo’s Bus Lines.
Andrew Bowman
“Castillo renewed his license, it’s a regular run, but the stipulation is that he cannot pick anybody up from Orange Walk until he reach Belize. He runs from Progresso to Belize, with the people he picks up in Progresso. He usually makes stops at villages in Orange Walk and when he get his load he goes straight to Belize.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Now, there’s saying he can’t do that. Why?”
Andrew Bowman
“No reason why. He’s been running this line over eight years.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Why do you think the new changes now?”
Andrew Bowman
“Well, I don’t want to speculate, but I think what they’re trying to do is squeeze Mr. Castillo out of it on his own. They gave him his permit under the stipulation that you cannot pick anybody up in Orange Walk or the road.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“So who do they want to pickup people, because the people have to go to Belize?”
Andrew Bowman
“I guess, my opinion is they want to give all the runs, the majority of the runs to Northern Transport or to T-Line. That’s a new bus service that got runs and I don’t know how it got their runs.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“What are you hoping will happen?”
Andrew Bowman
“Well, we’re trying to get an extension of two weeks from Mister Arthurs, and if he does not want to give us, we will stay right here until we get some kind of solution. I was the organiser for the last demonstration or the last rally, and Mr. Johnny Briceno, the Deputy prime Minister, gave us his assurance that he was going to give us some kind of solution. He came back, while we were waiting and gave us a solution and we dispersed. We’re hoping for the same thing right now.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“What is Mr. Arthurs promising?”
Andrew Bowman
“He wants us to disperse and negotiate, and we’re asking for him to give us two weeks, and let our bus runs, and we will negotiate during that time.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“If you disperse now, what will happen tomorrow?”
Andrew Bowman
“We are fighting a losing battle and we don’t want it tomorrow.”
Stewart Krohn: What is this piece of paper?”
Brent Toombs: This is the permit for Castillo’s Bus Lines. They are just showing us that they had a permit to run up to Ladyville. Is says they are no able to pick up fare-paying passengers on route.”
Ann-Marie: What is happening here, they’re trying to negotiate with Tillett and Castillo to move peacefully and just to clear the way.
Stewart Krohn: Now this is the riot squad or what passes for the riot squad arriving. These are B.D.F. personnel, sixteen, I believe.
Brent Toombs: Sixteen including Captain Borland.
Ann-Marie: We need to stress that they come in after the Senior Superintendent repeatedly warned the public.
Stewart Krohn: This is Superintendent Westby.
Superintendent Westby
“I have announced it to the people. We asked people with kids to leave the area, or you people move your busses in fifteen minutes or we will move them with force.”
(Westby addressing the crowd)
“Let good sense prevail, we are all Belizeans together, this is our country…but the man will negotiate with you all at the end of the day. You have made your points, we have to move the bus, we will not argue anymore. I will give you fifteen minutes…(moves away)…All right, bring the bulldozer up.”
Stewart Krohn: Was there a bulldozer?”
Brent Toombs: I saw one north of the bridge, but it was blocked by the busses and other vehicles, so I don’t now how practical it would have been to brought that in.
Ann-Marie: Mr. Bowman trying to get his people to go to the town hall, just to clear the place and take the protest to another area.
Brent Toombs: At this point I thought we had a solution. It sounded like they were going to move their busses; the crowd was going to move to town hall to protest there.
Ann-Marie: But then again, why it wasn’t over was because a lot of the busses were punctured and the ones that were not punctured, at that time the people decided that we’re not going to the town hall, because he’s not going to sign the paper anyway, so we’ll stay here.
Stewart Krohn: So the crowd had a mind of it’s own, quite separate from its leaders.
Brent Toombs: And I think it became evident right about now. At this point you see the right squad take position on the bridge.
Stewart Krohn: It’s becoming a…a line has kind of been drawn around the drawn around the bridge.
Brent Toombs: You can see a sort of no-mans-land in between the two groups.
Stewart Krohn: Did the Mennonites get involve in this problem.
Ann-Marie: No, they were part of the crowd who couldn’t come over, or go over, so they we walking from their vehicles.
Stewart Krohn: This looks familiar.
Ann-Marie: That’s Charlie Slusher (football player). He’s trying mediate and ask the people to go peacefully.
Stewart Krohn: It seems that there was no shortage of peacemakers or potential peacemakers, but they didn’t prevail.
(Woman yells in Spanish, crowd gets agitated)
Ann-Marie: They spoke in any language to get their message across.
Protestor
“You see what happen with those soldiers right now. Those soldiers come, already prepared with machine guns. I’m not coming for war, I could bet my ass that I Guatemala come an attack Belize, they will fuck around with their…”
Brent Toombs: Here’s the point where the police went in and asked the drivers to move their busses to the side to open up their highway.
Ann-Marie: Westby was actually asking them to take the battery out of some of the busses that could work, because one man went in, tried it and it just didn’t turn over. So he said bring the batteries, we have to move the busses. At that time all the drivers got scarce, nobody knew who was driving at that time.
(Long line of traffic waits)
Brent Toombs: Now you see here Stewart, I took a walk about a quarter mile down to where some of the traffic was blocked up. This is actually very close to the bridge, but as you’ll see in just a moment, this bus was actually about a quarter mile away.
Stewart Krohn: So there wasn’t just one bus blocking the way, this is a quarter mile down.
Brent Toombs: This is a quarter mile north it’s the third bus.
Ann-Marie: And behind this bus too, the traffic went on for miles. People waited there from as early as 6:00 the morning, couldn’t go over. We met a guy selling vegetables wanting to go into the city, he couldn’t move.
(Men walking with rocks)
Brent Toombs: About this time people started arming themselves and getting ready. This young boy is fourteen years old and said he was ready to thrown stones at the police.
Protestor
Bust they’re fucking ass, these fucking soldiers. We’re ready, ready for war.”
(Protestors collecting stones)
Brent Toombs: At this point Mr Bowman had asked us to come with him, to witness Mr. Arthurs giving his word that he’ll sign those papers if they move the busses.
Andrew Bowman
“Mr. Arthurs, are you going to give us the extension for Castillo and Tillett…”
Woman
“Mr. Arthurs will we be given, Mr. Tillett, at least a week extension if he moves the bus?”
Glen Arthurs
“If he moves his busses first.”
Man
“That’s your word.”
Glen Arthurs
“If he moves the busses first.”
Woman
“You’ll be giving it to him.”
Glen Arthurs
“We’ll negotiate, you cannot get any answer.”
Woman
“Mr. Arthurs, he’ll be running when you give him that extension, is that clear? Thank you very much.”
Stewart Krohn: it stills seems that the situation could have been saved, even at this late date, but…What’s happening?”
Ann-Marie: Arthurs refused to affix his signature on the piece of paper, so they didn’t move the bus.
Brent Toombs: I think the crowd bears some responsibility, because originally Mr. Bowman and Mr. Tillett agreed to move their busses and then get the paper later. But the crowd didn’t like that and refused to move.
Stewart Krohn: Here they’re letting some tourists go through.
Ann-Marie: These people were actually parked in the area, so they were trying to make their way out walking.
(Arthurs on cell phone)
Stewart Krohn: Do we know whom Mr. Arthurs is speaking to?
Brent Toombs: Sounds to me like he was speaking to a superior of his.
Arthurs on cell phone
“That would be the final solution.”
(Crowd arguing with each other)
Stewart Krohn: They are still arguing about signing the paper, and who’s going to move the bus first or sign the paper first.
Andrew Bowman
“We are going to move the bus while he signs the papers. We will give him the benefit of the doubt and move the bus. We will put the bus back if he doesn’t sign.”
Stewart Krohn: It seems that Bowman was a leader in the eyes of the media, but in the eyes of the crowd, he wasn’t really in control of events.
Ann-Marie: Well, the crowd had control over themselves.
Andrew Bowman
“We’re not going to move. Sign first, move later, my supporters…”
Ann-Marie Williams
“He’s saying move the bus and he’ll sign you on for two weeks.
Andrew Bowman
“My supporters are asking for two weeks, to sign first and then move the bus, and I’m gonna go for it.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Your supporters are the ones who don’t want to move the bus unless it is signed?”
Andrew Bowman
“They don’t what everything is all about, they know what the government is all about, and I go with the majority of the people. The people put the government in.”
Superintendent Westby
“Listen, if you all don’t move from here in the next five minutes, if you all don’t make a decision and remove the busses, then I will have to read the riot act and then we’ll deal with it.”
Stewart Krohn: Coming up, we’re going to hear something from Mr. Westby that we should listen to closely.
(Riot squad gets ready)
Superintendent Westby, addressing soldiers
“What we want to do is disperse the people and get them off the street, then we want the bulldozer to come. We don’t want any unnecessary shots fired, let us refrain from using shots as much as possible, we want tear gas and then make the crowd move.”
Stewart Krohn: That is?
Ann-Marie: Robert Jones.
Stewart Krohn: Keep him in mind because we’re going to get back to him later.
Ann-Marie: See, at the eleventh hour it seems like they wanted to broker a deal.
Stewart Krohn: It didn’t work.
Ann-Marie: Yeah, because Westby was already frustrated with them.
Brent Toombs: See some of these people move up, they’re ready. In the next shot, you’ll see where Captain Borland goes to address his troops to give the command, but before he gives the command, you’ll hear a pint break.
Protestors
“Let’s them bring their soldier’s if they’re bad. Let them come now. We are ready for them now. The poor is more than the rich, we shall survive.”
Captain Borland addressing troops
“Listen up…”
(Sound of pint breaking. Soldiers then advance on crowd and shoot tear gas. Crowd throws stones.)
Brent Toombs: One thing I want to mention that no one will ever see, because all the cameras are pointed towards the action, but behind us is about a hundred people or more, which is another thing that people have to keep in minds, that these soldier were not only advancing on the rioters and trying to disperse them, but they were trying to protect us too, because I don’t know what would have happen if the rioters have come across the bridge. There are a lot of civilians in danger on that side of the bridge as well.
Stewart Krohn: Tear gas done.
Ann-Marie: Look carefully how the mob will actually take them in now. See the stones are already flying as soon as the tear gas is finished.
Stewart Krohn: That’s gunshots.
Brent Toombs: See there where it’s highlighted, it looks to me like a police constable.
Ann-Marie: The police was trying to disperse some of the crowd, and he shot up a nine-millimetre.
Stewart Krohn: he’s clearly shooting in the air.
Isani Cayetano: Those are warning shots.
Brent Toombs: Now this is an undercover police officer that’s highlighted.
Stewart Krohn: Now this is a police officer in plain clothes. And we believe that is…do we have him identified at this point? Now here’s a uniformed P.C., he has a gun in the air. We do not really see him shoot however.
Brent Toombs: No. Not at this point.
Stewart Krohn: So we got a P.C. with a gun, we’ve got one who is in plain clothes shooting in the air. That’s it so far, two policemen.
(Crowd and police stoning)
Ann-Marie: Some of the police had nothing to protect themselves with. When the mob threw the stones, you can clearly see picked up stones and threw it back at them.
Brent Toombs: Ironically, it was maybe more effective than tear gas.
Stewart Krohn: It wants to look so. At this point we don’t think there’s been any injuries for gunfire. The shots have been in the air, it has seemed.
Stewart Krohn: He’s officer in charge of Corozal or Orange Walk?
Ann-Marie: I think he works somewhere under the northern districts.
(Gunshots)
Stewart Krohn: That we believe is shotgun. As to where he’s shooting…”
Ann-Marie: Firstly Stewart, from the angle where we were standing, he was trying to shoot above the…
Stewart Krohn: We’re in a difficult angle, I’m not sure that we could see. I think we’re going to go to a slow motion.
Brent Toombs: First of all we’ll have the close up in real time, were you can see it looks like the trajectory of his gun is above the crowd should be. There you can see that shot was clearly up in the air. Now we’ll slow it down, and this is where it gets interesting.
Stewart Krohn: Keep an ear out as well. (Shots fired in slow motion) That’s simultaneous; you see the shots and heard he sounds.
Brent Toombs: But just before that there was a second gunshot.
Stewart Krohn: A second gunshot and no muzzle flash. (Shot goes off) Was that the same thing again, a sound, but no…What is fairly clear here is another rifle is shooting; it’s not just Borland who is shooting.
Ann-Marie: At least two guns went off
Brent Toombs: What you’re looking for, it that you’ll see the close-up of Captain Borland’s M-16 and you’ll see a puff of smoke come out of it. A split second alter you’ll hear the sound because it’s been slowed down.
Stewart Krohn: Because light is faster than sound.
Brent Toombs: But after you see that first bullet leave Borland’s gun, and you hear the sound from that shot, you’ll hear another shot, but there’s no puff of smoke. Remember the smoke’s supposed to come before the sound. So what you’re hearing is a gunshot from somewhere else. And acoustically, both sound exactly the same, so I would believe that they are both M-16s.
Stewart Krohn: So what we’re saying is, we’ve already identified two handguns being let off. One it seems to be pretty certain that’s shooting is dressed in plain clothes. The other, we’re not sure, but it looked like a uniformed P.C. shooting a revolver in the air. It may or may not have been the same P.C. we saw holding the gun. But in any case, we’ve identified two shooters as policemen with handguns. Now we can see Captain Borland shooting, there’s no doubt about that. What or whom he’s shooting at or isn’t shooting at, that certainly is up for debate. But I just want to make it clear that what we are saying now is that if listen to the sound and watch the smoke coming out of the muzzle, it is going to be clear that there is another gun being fired and from the sound of it, it sounds identical to the sound of Captain Borland’s M-16.
(Slow motion shot played again)
Stewart Krohn: Sound but no flash. That’s simultaneous. Sound with no flash again. Same thing again, that’s another shooter. That is Borland. That is Borland. And he turns. (Tape is stopped) The camera has obviously shown us evidence that there was another shooter. What the camera does not show us is who that shooter may have been. Three of you were on the scene. Brent you were looking through your viewfinder, I doubt if you saw anything. (Brent shakes head no). Ann and Isani, you wee kind of in a unique position in that you were both there as journalists, as observers, but you didn’t have to worry abut operating a camera. Isani what did you see that can shed some light on this.
Isani Cayetano: As you said earlier, it is clear that they were identified that there were two rifle shooters. I wasn’t too far away from where the soldiers were shooting, and I could have seen Robert Jones, one of soldiers who was in the front line, firing an M-16. At first it was in the direction that Borland was shooting in, across the bridge towards the shed. From there, he moved on and proceeded to shoot towards the direction of the bus. That’s where one of two bullet holes where found on the side of the bus.
Stewart Krohn: First of all, you know Jones?
Isani Cayetano: No, not really.
Stewart Krohn: Ann, you have interviewed Jones in another story. (Ann shakes head yes). SO you confirm that it was Jones, the two of you together confirmed that it was Jones that was there.
Ann-Marie: After he told me about it, I said, “Oh, that’s Jones,” and I went over to speak to him.
Stewart Krohn: What position was Jones in…Jones is a fairly new recruit as just out of training.
Ann-Marie: He just passed out in March.
Stewart Krohn: What position was he in, Isani, when you saw him shooting?”
Isani Cayetano: Towards the bus or towards the shed?”
Stewart Krohn: when he was shooting towards the shed, where was he?
Isani Cayetano: He was almost the same position that Borland was in.
(Jones’s picture on screen)
Stewart Krohn: That’s Robert Jones there. You’re positive on the ID
Ann-Marie: that’s Robert Jones.
Stewart Krohn: He was by the railing?
Isani Cayetano: In the same position that Borland was. Afterwards, he knelt down in the same army position, and he was aiming towards the bus, and that’s where the crowd had assembled afterwards.
Stewart Krohn: Basically he was shooting in line with the bridge. Do you know how many shots he let out?
Isani Cayetano: No, I wasn’t counting, but I saw him fire towards the direction of the bus.
Stewart Krohn. Thank you very much. Let’s go on with the tape then and see what the resulting damage was. There’s a soldier injured by a stone (soldier passes, bleeding from the head). Another one.
Brent Toombs: As well, what I don’t show you here, was a third soldier who had a pretty bad gash to his knee from a broken bottle that was thrown at him.
Stewart Krohn: Deputy Commissioner Cain.
Ann-Marie: And Heusner, trying to assist.
Brent Toombs: That’s Captain Borland debriefing him on what’s taken place.
Man holding up expended shell
“Bullets. See, live rounds. They shoot one man in the hand and one in the leg.”
Ann-Marie: That’s a nine-millimetre shell.
Stewart Krohn: The two people injured from gunshots have been released from the Orange Walk Hospital.
Brent Toombs: A mini skirmish breaks out here as Hugh Cain goes over to talk to the crowd.
Stewart Krohn: That’s a brave man.
Brent Toombs: Very brave.
(Crowd shouting and making noise)
Stewart Krohn: We saw some tires being put across the bridge, so this battled is not over by a long shot. There are the bullet holes. This bus was stretched across the bridge?
Brent Toombs: Yeah.
Stewart Krohn: Were people in those busses when the shots were fired? Do we know?
Ann-Marie: Well they were in there in the morning or in the afternoon, but who knew.
Isani Cayetano: After all this had happen, they were in there.
Stewart Krohn: Those were not shots from anyone firing into the air obviously. Those bullet holes are certainly in line with the level of the crowd. That is a gasoline bottle, there?
Brent Toombs: That is petrol bottled, yes.
Stewart Krohn: So someone is looking to raise the stakes with a Molatov cocktail.
Brent Toombs: They never did light that, they used some of the fuel from it to light the tires, but thank God they came to their senses and didn’t light that thing. They could have lit that thing and taken out twenty people.
Stewart Krohn: and the tires have finally succeeded in getting lit. That pretty much sums it up. After you left the scene to file your story, they go things worked out?
Ann-Marie: Just before we left, Hugh Cain told us that Arthurs decided at that time to sign the paper and give them a two-week temporary permit. They would have had a meeting today to work out the finer details.
