By Michelle Sutherland, From Belize The Reporter

Prime Minister Dean Barrow called an emergency House Meeting in Belmopan on Friday, to pass an emergency Bill to safeguard Belize’s foreign reserves from the the Ashcroft alliance, which is said to be once more attempting to recover a US $50 million in arbitration award, granted by a US court earlier last week. It was said that Aschroft and his team was moving in to freeze the Central Bank reserves before they could be protected by the new legislation.

The Prime Minister met with Cabinet members to pass the Legislation called: “A Bill for an Act to restate for greater certainty the immunity of the Central Bank of Belize for legal proceeding with other states.” In order for the Bill to be passed, it needed full bi-partisan support.

Barrow expounded on the Bill and what is its purpose. “Last Tuesday, those entities filed a motion in the district court in Washington DC, filed an application to be allowed to enforce those judgments against the government of Belize. Nothing so far in the proceedings that have taken place in the US mentioned the Central Bank of Belize, but because we know that this country’s reserve constitutes a big fat inviting target to that predator who seeks to collapse our economy, we believe that once they obtain the order for enforcement of the judgement, they will seek to attack the assets, the holdings of the Central Bank of Belize. If in these circumstances, those Ashcroft entities want to go to a judge in the U.S and expart basis without knowing to us and seek an attachment order against the Central Bank assets and that judge gave an order, we would of course have a chance to argue against it and set the order aside; but in the meantime the bank’s assets in the states would be frozen, Barrow said.

“In that sort of context, Madam Speaker, this is not a situation which we can afford to take any chances. I don’t see how any red-blooded Belizean will not agree with what we are trying to do here today, which I repeat is to secure the objective of absolutely fire-walling; putting beyond any dispute the sanctity of the reserve and the asset of the Central Bank of Belize. We are saying that anyone who seeks in violation of the Bill if it is turned into an Act, would have to face two things: an appearance on the part of the Central Bank or the attorney general to restrain the person from proceeding with any attachment exercise.”

Barrow went on to explain the scope of the Bill, as it relates to consequences individuals who attempt to bring this type of action against Belize face.

“Such a person will, in doing such an act, come into conflict with the section of the Bill that we wish to pass that criminalize that sort of an effort and will be liable to arrest and prosecution for that violation of the Central Bank Bill if it becomes a law. Now of course it does not stop people from abroad from still attempting to do this. We have no way of getting at them because they are not in this country, but in the current circumstance the particular fear that we have is sourced to persons and entities who are within Belize’s jurisdiction and so we are doing all we can by way of this bill to deter such persons from making that sort of effort that I just describe if it was to ever succeed would put this country completely on the brink.”

Although the members of the Opposition People’s United Party (PUP) were concerned about the time period in which the Bill was supposed to be passed, they all voted in favor of it because of the urgency.

The Bill was passed into law and carries a penalty of two years in prison and up to $250,000 in fine if anyone is found guilty.

For more on this story go to: http://www.reporter.bz/general/28073/

IMAGE: Dean Barrow – Wikipedia