The living baby boy is like the super-profitable Belize Telecommunications Limited (BTL), which today is being claimed by Jeffrey Prosser of the Innovative Telecommunications Limited and Sir Michael Ashcroft of Carlisle Holdings. The dead boy is like Intelco, for which ICC claimed it had settled a US$27 million debt to purchase its assets, which, it says, it has still not received. So ICC and Carlisle are not fighting over who will bury the body of the dead baby – Intelco, but who will claim the body of the living one – BTL.

As we write today, Ashcroft?s Carlisle Holdings and its affiliates control just over 8% of BTL, while the Belize National Teachers? Union and the Public Service Union together hold roughly 1.5% percent.

On the other hand there is Prosser, who?based on Government testimony that ICC has paid US$28.5 million last April?owns 28%.

In the other corner is the Government of Belize, which, since Wednesday, is claiming controlling interest over the BTL, in the region of 55%.

Today, we received information that the Government of Belize has appointed six people to BTL?s board. Financial Secretary, Dr. Carla Barnett is chair, and the other board members are: GOB?s legal advisor, Gian Ghandi; financial advisor, Joseph Waight; Central Bank Governor, Sydney Campbell; the Prime Minister?s brother, Edward ?Billy? Musa, who was also elected to the former board; and another GOB advisor, Louis Lue. Wilman Black, whom Prosser had appointed company secretary to replace attorney Lois Young, remains company secretary. Gaspar Aguilar, BTL?s head of finance and human development, was appointed CEO.

Meanwhile, both Prosser and Ashcroft remain formidable forces in the fight for this living baby.

Amandala today spoke with ICC?s spokesperson, Rene Henry, who told us that the United States Embassy in Belize has been trying to get the Prime Minister, Hon. Said Musa, to meet with ICC?s people in Belize by early next week.

ICC had blamed the Government for its failure to secure a loan from the Royal Merchant Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (RBTT), to make good on a promissory note to GOB. Henry told us that on February 2, 2005, RBTT had written GOB indicating that it was prepared to lend ICC US$85 million, out of which it would have paid for the BTL shares, but Ashcroft was getting in the way, he claimed. When we asked to see a copy of the letter, Henry told us that since the letter was from RBTT to the P.M., he could not provide us with a copy.

According to Henry, he was in Belize on Wednesday on a routine visit when he heard the news via the local media that the Government had taken back BTL from ICC. He claimed that ICC had no warning that GOB was going to remove them from the board.

In its February 9, 2005, statement to the press, the Government said that Prosser had not come up with the US$57 million to pay the shares that Ashcroft formerly held.

While a number of Belizeans have been encouraging GOB to offer the shares to Belizeans (not including Lord Ashcroft, who also has Belizean nationality) so that BTL could return to being a locally-owned company, Ashcroft?s side is saying that under a buy-back agreement, he, Ashcroft, has first rights to buy back the shares if Prosser cannot pay for them.

When we spoke with Ghandi on Monday, however, he told us that that buy-back agreement expired when the deal between ICC and GOB was closed on March 31, 2004, and Ashcroft handed over the shares to Prosser.

Where did the shares go next? The Prime Minister said in a statement in the House of Representatives on December 10, 2004, that the shares had been deposited with the International Bank of Miami as security for the US$57 million loan. But when we spoke with Ghandi on Monday, he said that Government was holding the shares, but we have not been able to ascertain whether the shares have truly been transferred from Belize Telecom?s name to GOB?s name.

Nonetheless, GOB said that it took over BTL?s board on Wednesday, February 9, removing Prosser as chairman and replacing him with Dr. Barnett.

?Consequently, the Government of Belize is considering various options regarding the shares not paid for by ICC and a final decision will be taken as soon as possible. It is Government?s intention that Belizeans will be given every opportunity to participate in the purchase of these shares,? said the GOB press release.

Whether those shares will go back to Ashcroft, Prosser, or to Belizean investors, is still uncertain, as GOB did not elaborate on this pledge.

Some of our newspaper?s contacts have said that the move that the Government made to take back BTL was done illegally, since the appointment of any new board should follow a resolution of the board, which they claim was not done.

Henry said that ICC has spent close to US$60 million, because it has settled Intelco?s debt with RBTT, and paid the US$28.5 million for the BTL shares. He also said that ICC has not received the Intelco assets, some of which we understand are also being claimed by an international company.

If GOB has indeed secured the Carlisle shares in its name, it means that effectively, ICC is holding the dead baby.

Standing on the sidelines are also a group of Belizeans who feel good about the apparent opportunity to bring this baby back home to its true mother, who gave birth to it and has nursed and nurtured it over the years?and they don?t want to pay for the dead baby?s funeral, because they have labeled it as a ?shell-eye baby.?