Demonstrators picket President's office
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Demonstrators picket President's office
--against presumed aspects of Beal dealby Andrew Richards
Stabroek News
March 15, 2000
A small band of peaceful demonstrators protested outside the Office of the President yesterday against some presumed aspects of the Beal Aerospace Technologies deal, expected to be consummated soon.
The protest organised by non-governmental organisation (NGO) Guyana Is First (GIF), included Amerindian touchaus from Regions One, Seven and Eight. Representatives from the Guyana Public Service Union and the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) were also in the picket line.
"The manner in which the Beal deal is being conducted by the government is a matter of serious concern not only to the Amerindian people but to the nation as a whole," Touchau Matheson Williams of Paramakatoi in Region Eight told this newspaper yesterday while taking a break from the picket line.
President Bharrat Jagdeo and his Cabinet were at the time inside deliberating on several issues including the Beal deal.
Contacted last evening, Prime Minister Sam Hinds asserted that the proposed satellite launch deal was good for Guyana and that it would be closed before the end of this month. He said that there were "bits and pieces" of work yet to be done and some of this had been concluded at the Cabinet meeting yesterday.
Asked whether the concerns raised by demonstrators were to be included in the agreement, the Prime Minister said that he could not address the details of the agreement outside the context of the documents which would be laid in Parliament once the deal was closed.
Questioned whether the deal was taking precedence over the laws of Guyana, Hinds said that all issues had been raised and addressed at the public forum. "I want to stress, however, that there has been no compromise of our sovereignty..."
Police barricades were erected at the corner of the two streets bordering the Presidential Complex while the demonstration took place. Picketers bore placards with slogans such as: "83,000 square miles minus Beal is not Guyana", "We will not suffer in silence" and "A secret deal is a bad deal."
Williams said the Amerindian community was not against investment, which would spur the country's development drive, but was angry that the people of the region where the proposed launch site is to be located were not properly consulted.
Executive Secretary of the APA, Sharon Atkinson, who hails from Santa Rosa, Moruca, Region One, told Stabroek News yesterday that a Beal team had visited the area in June last year but the officials failed to address most of their concerns.
According to her, there was no mention at that time about the sale of land to the Texas-based company, but the residents were told that a total of 10,000 acres of land would be leased to Beal.
A government team had visited a week earlier and had referred their queries to the Beal team, she stated.
During the visit to the area, the Beal officials had indicated that they would return for more consultation with the Amerindian people before the deal was signed but are yet to go back to Moruca, Atkinson stated.
"We are astonished to learn that the deal is to be signed shortly and the residents in the area received no information on the deal, except what we read in the newspapers," she said.
She declared that it was ridiculous that government was proceeding with an agreement with Beal and had not yet explored the potential impact the satellite launch site would have on the inhabitants of the area.
Atkinson said that the APA had written to President Jagdeo requesting a meeting with him to discuss the issue but this had failed to materialise.
She disclosed that the Amerindian villages in the Moruca sub-region were on a petition campaign against the deal.
GIF published a statement in the press on Sunday expressing concerns over some aspects relating to the Beal Aerospace project.
The NGO said that although it was committed to foreign investment in the interest of promoting economic development some factors should be considered before drafting the final agreement and policy document.
GIF is asking that there be government representation on the launch site during the construction phase to ensure conformity with the declared plans. There should be military involvement in the negotiations and continued military presence during the life of the project, it stated.
During the negotiations, known expertise in all aspects should be solicited to guarantee an informed and fair agreement in the best interest of Guyana, it added.
GIF is also requesting that there be Guyanese scrutineers prior to and during all launches to validate the integrity of the process. Plans should be implemented by government to deter industrial espionage or sabotage, GIF stated. It said government should publicise its plans for the utilisation of royalties and revenues coming out of any agreement.
"It is the hope that this revenue is used for job creation, vocational training for Guyanese and for the development of appropriate technology," GIF stated.
The NGO recommended that Beal should be made to lodge substantial security in the event of environmental damage. Given the known payloads for similar launches, Guyana should demand royalties in the vicinity of US$1 million to US$1.5 million per launch, it said.
GIF has also joined other concerned groups and individuals in asking that there be a short-term renewable lease instead of the sale of land to the company.
Meanwhile, there is some amount of concern being expressed in the private sector that any unnecessary delay in signing may cause Guyana to lose the deal.
Beal had recently expressed frustration at its inability to secure a launch site for its satellite operations. The company is proposing to construct a space port in the Waini, Region One, area which is expected to secure 500 short-term and 200 long-term jobs for Guyanese.
