The Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Dean Barrow, arrived on the scene after 5:00 p.m. and spoke with police high command, which, we are told, have given him a commitment that Faber would be released from custody tonight.

At about 9:30 p.m., Faber was released from police custody on $900 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned in the Belmopan Magistrate?s Court Friday morning.

Faber told us that he is accused of assaulting Officers Wade and Orio. However, he maintains that he did not assault the officers and that it was Officer Orio who slapped him, when he approached him to inquire why he was roughing up a young lady.

?They threatened me that they would throw me in the ?piss house? overnight. I believe that was my small role to save this country. It is clear that [P.M.] Musa and the PUP are ruling by force, using the military?keeping people from using their basic rights. How will you stop people from going to a public forum by using the police?? Faber told Amandala after his release tonight.

He said that last week, Barrow had talked about civil disobedience at a press conference. ?This is what we mean,? Faber said. ?If we believe our rights have been wronged, we stand up??

A UB official, who wishes to remain unnamed, confirmed to us that UB had advertised the forum as ?public,? but a student government official moderating it later announced that it would not be open to the public after all, that saying so was probably a ?mistake.?

Faber arrived at the UB campus around the same time as a mass of union members?including teachers, public servants and utility workers?some of whom had attended a protest rally in Benque Viejo del Carmen earlier today.

A pair of uniformed police officers tried to restrain Faber but he peacefully resisted them, insisting that he, a member of the National Assembly, should not be stopped from exercising his right to attend a public forum at the national university.

While Faber was arguing his position with police, a squad of riot police, equipped with shields and clubs, arrived on the scene, and it was they who apprehended Faber when he escaped the hold of the police and ran towards where the forum was being held.

The riot police dragged him on the ground for quite a distance, placed him inside a police vehicle, and then hauled him off to the Belmopan Police Station?Faber still insisting that they were violating his rights to attend a public forum.

Ironically, another Opposition UDP member of the House, Hon. John Saldivar (Cayo South), who spoke at a UB forum held yesterday, told us that police tried to remove him from today?s forum as well, insisting that it was not open to the public.

Michael Novelo, a worker of the Belize Telecommunications Limited (BTL), was also detained, but released without charge.

Riot police also pushed two cameramen with their shields, and when the media personnel asked why the police were doing that, they got no reply.

Amandala spoke with two women this evening, who told us that they too had been assaulted by riot police when they tried to attend the forum, which had been advertised as public.

Cathy Linares, a second class clerk at the Immigration Department, told us that when she arrived at the university, the police told her to stay behind the barrier. She said that the officer pushed her and she asked him not to push her, but he grabbed her on both arms and pushed her away. She said that when she hollered at the officer, he punched her on the right side of her face, which, she complained, was still hurting her even late this evening.

Linares said that she began to cry and started to approach the officer, but a crowd of people who were nearby restrained her.

She said that she was merely trying to get inside the forum, which she had been informed was public.

Abigail Lamb, a teacher at St. Michael?s College, said some of those who had gone to the UB campus from the Benque rally, but who were not dressed in union T-shirts, were allowed to get in, and those who were identified by their union T-shirts were not allowed to enter.

She said that she was already inside the forum when she realized that something was wrong outside, and so she exited the building to see what was happening. She said that she saw a riot police officer push her co-worker with his shield.

?I questioned why they were doing that ? she almost fell down,? said Lamb. ?I ran towards the officer [Antonio Hernandez] and asked him why he was harassing the teacher. He pushed me and I asked him why he was shoving me with his riot shield. He burst my upper lip and I was ready to retaliate.?

At this point, though, those who were gathered nearby swarmed around her and pulled her back.

Lamb said that she later inquired who the riot police was, and Corporal Flores told her his name. She said that she asked the Corporal what was the procedure to press charges against the officer. Eventually, she was informed that she should file a report with ?internal investigation,? which she later did.

The officer in charge of internal affairs, Robert Mariano, said he could not speak at the time when we contacted him tonight, and we were unsuccessful in subsequent attempts to reach him.

The two women, Linares and Lamb, told us that they had gone to the Belmopan Hospital (Western Regional Hospital) to get medical certificates to classify their injuries, and they have both lodged written reports with the police.

Lamb told us that a ?very huge and buff? riot policeman also roughed up Melissa Bradley, a teacher of the Anglican Cathedral College whom she described as 5?1″ tall.

?It seems as though it is an unofficial state of emergency,? said George Frazer, General-Secretary of the National Trade Union Congress of Belize, the umbrella organization that embodies the major trade unions, including the Public Service Union (PSU) and the Belize National Teachers? Union (BNTU), which both declared indefinite strikes against the Government of Belize on Monday.

The majority of workers have not heeded the calls for strike action, some citing intimidation tactics, others citing concerns over wages or the people who depend on their services.

Nonetheless, hundreds of protesters, mostly from the Belize and Cayo districts, participated in a protest rally today.

Frazer told us that the unions had intended to hold a demonstration in Belize City Friday, but when they went to apply for their permit today, they were told that they could not get one, because the authorities are sticking to the strict letter of the law?that they need to apply 36 hours in advance. Frazer said that in times past, they had applied for permits as little as 12 hours before the protest time, and were granted them under ?discretionary powers.?

President of the Public Service Union, Dylan Reneau, concurred with the reports given to us by Frazer and the women. He said that he does not know why they were prevented from attending the forum.

Commissioner Westby told Amandala that it was the faculty of the University that had said that the forum was supposed to be for students only, and nobody else was to be allowed on campus.

He said that the crowd was ?confronting and accosting the police? even though they were told that they could not get in.

Westby said the police used ?reasonable and justifiable force.?

While police faced off with the teachers, public servants and utility workers on the Belmopan campus, inside the gymnasium Prime Minister Musa spoke to a gathering of over 300 students, who, we are told, asked him some very pointed and aggressive questions regarding the national crisis we are now facing, as well as about Musa?s leadership of the country. Some expressed their views about the current state of affairs.

One student asked him: Can you sleep at night? The Prime Minister, we are told, did not answer the question, and the student further commented: If you could sleep at night, you must be cold-hearted.

The Prime Minister made it clear that despite a call from the NTUCB for him to resign and call new elections, that his administration would rule until 2008, the year in which general elections are due. His message was that there would be no early elections.

He also told the students that there are two types of governments: those that are open to dialogue with the people and those that are oppressive and rule by decree.

He said that his Government is the former?that is, open to dialogue?and they should not be asked to step down.