7 News Belize

Conch Shell Cries Out Against GSU
posted (May 8, 2017)
There was a shooting on Belize City's Southside just ten minutes before the news, and there was another city shooting this weekend. So, it seems that rivalries may be heating up in the streets again - and the mediators say the GSU is partly to blame for that. Today the controversial unit was in the Conch Shell Bay area where they had a group of men locked up in a house for an hour while they searched. The young men in this 'hood say the GSU are provoking them and so does mediator Dianne Finnegan:...

Dianne Finnegan - Mediator
"I'm not surprised that this is happening right now, because I went on the media this morning to talk about what is going on by the systems trying to smear what we are trying to put in place, not for ourselves, but for Belize, for the safety of all Belizeans. So when I got a call that the guys are being held in a house and nobody can't get in, I wasn't sure what to expect so I came out to see what was going on. I had the opportunity to speak to 2 of the GSU officers to get a feel of what was going on. They are conducting a search, but a search for what and how often do you go and do the same search over and over and coming up with the same results. So as I said them, don't you feel a bit calmer knowing that they are in their home just hanging out instead of out there on the street side or driving along in foreign territory and exposing themselves to be shot or to get hurt."

Oliver Sutherland - Conch Shell Bay
"We were relaxing here and then they ran in our house. When we were looking to cook some food for my friends and they came and looked like every day they wanted to come. The day before they boxing up the boys and threw my dog from my mother's yard to the other and hit him in the head and hit the other one lying down and tied right here. I'm tired of this."

Frederick Sutherland - Conch Shell Bay
"Over that fence he grabbed us by our pants threw us over the fence on his face. What kind of treatment is that? Then you are saying peace treaty meeting, that doesn't make any sense. They want peace but want to come and hurt us. We are not afraid for bad men, although I'm on the street, I'm afraid of the police because the bad men I can run from, the police you can't run from because they will beat you legal."

Reporter
"So tell us about how many times you have witness them coming here to do their searches?"

Frederick Sutherland - Conch Shell Bay
"Every day, they left yesterday, everyday back to back."

Dianne Finnegan - Mediator
"They looking for drugs or ammunition. I don't know where else they would look and as I said to them, do you think that these guys knowing that you all pull up on them any minute of the day would have those things right there at a glance for you to be able to take them into custody. Is your purpose really trying to find something so that you can say, see they are trying to build peace, but look at what they are doing."

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"Do you all feel that the GSU is intentionally trying to antagonize you all?"

Oliver Sutherland - Conch Shell Bay
"Well I will say that that they are provoking us."

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"Why do you all feel this provocation?"

Oliver Sutherland - Conch Shell Bay
"It looks like to see a little peace is on. They are provoking people."

Frederick Sutherland - Conch Shell Bay
"When you are home they come, it's not like you are on the street. We are home at our house, we are resting our heads and that's when they come to beat you. So why would you come and beat us for, to have us go to have problems somewhere else. That doesn't make any sense. We are staying home to avoid the same peace treaty thing because if men meet you out there they will want to hurt you so we stay home because of that and when we do stay at home they would want to hurt you. So what are we supposed to do? Go crazy? I don't know what else to do, I just have to take it."

Dianne Finnegan - Mediator
"I honestly think that there should come a time and this is the time that they should pull the GSU off the streets and let the police do their work. I think that let the system work, let the initiative work and then if you have to go back to the drawing board then you will go with that force, but for right now we are really working hard with these guys and they are cooperating with us to continue at this peace level and to have this entity come in to smear that. I think that is cruel, that is malicious and for me, it's intentional. You can't take the upper hand and send people in to destroy what we are trying to build."

Oliver Sutherland - Conch Shell Bay
"It's not every time they come here it will be the same. I'm telling them."

Dianne Finnegan - Mediator
"I am one of those individuals who believe in the golden rule, the tables turn and when it turns sometimes it does not affect you, but it affects someone you love the most."

Frederick Sutherland - Conch Shell Bay
"I don't know what else to say, all I'm looking forward now is death. I have to say it like that because they are beating up, the only thing that is left is for them to kill you."

Oliver Sutherland - Conch Shell Bay
"I am asking the government to deal with us like human, because we are not animals, because if they don't stop this then he will have to go against the police too."

Nothing was found in the search and no one was charged.

But, as we said at the top of the news - violence seems to be flaring up again, and we can confirm that there has been a murder in the city this evening - more on that later.

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