For some bizarre reason, since 1996, SVG’s Permanent Delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has been a Mr Wafic Said.

Born in Syria in 1939, billionaire Wafic Said (not Vincentian) has made his money, by among other things, arms deal brokering, i.e. trading weapons. Secret payments of millions of pounds from Britain's biggest arms company, BAE Systems, have been found in Swiss accounts linked to Wafic Said, an arms broker for the Saudi Royal family. SVG Green Party would like to know if some of that money is here in SVG?

Mr Said has been under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office in Britain for these missing millions, allegedly used as illegal commissions. BAE Systems peddle missiles, war planes and numerous other deadly products. SVG Green Party strongly condemns Mr Wafic Said being our ambassador to UNESCO. We ask the ULP regime why Said is still in this post and ask for his post to be terminated soonest.

Is blood money helping to fund the Underwater airport? In return for this ambassadorial role what is the ULP regime getting? It would be immoral to accept one dollar from Mr Said. We wonder how many innocent men, women and children are losing their life for money to the ULP regime.

It is dispiriting for our young people to know that education plays no role in getting some high profile jobs in SVG, and that greasing the immoral palm of an immoral regime with blood-spattered money has a better effect.

It is strange that when unemployment is almost 50%, jobs are not offered to Vincentians. Why does the ULP regime employ a foreign national to represent Vincentians at UNESCO? This salary should be paid to a Vincentian.

According to Unicef, between 1986 and 1996 two million children were killed in armed conflict and six million were seriously injured or permanently disabled.

An estimated 600 million small arms and light weapons exist—one for every 10 people on earth - some of which are causing death on the streets of SVG. The indirect effects of armed conflicts cause most fatalities in mothers and children and:

• Food deprivation
• Spread of disease, in part due to disruption of public health systems
• Psychological and emotional damage (two thirds of Angolan children had witnessed murder)
• Disability
• Separation of families (in 1995, 20% of Angolan children were separated from their families)
• Loss of education
• Sexual abuse of children, including deliberate rape to drive out ethnic minorities
• Child abduction, torture, and slavery
• Child soldiers (in 1998, for example, at least 300000 children aged under 18 were soldiers).

The ULP regime has devastated the SVG economy and it beggars belief just how low a regime may stoop to raise funds. The only emotion this behaviour arouses is that of disgust. Is the ULP regime that desperate to build an underwater airport just to provide tourists with yet another holiday destination? Vincentians, we must wake up to the underhand events that are happening around us!

Like all decent people in SVG, we say ‘no to blood money investments in our beloved St. Vincent & the Grenadines’.